Competing
against a different opponent
Tracey Roman/On-line Forty-Niner
Tracey Roman/On-line Forty-Niner
Gilberto
Alavez was one of four disabled athletes
competing in the Springco/Long Beach Invitational
last weekend at Cal State Long Beach. Alavez
ran in the 200 and 400-meter races at the
meet.
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
Nearly
1,000 athletes competed at The Jack Rose
Track last weekend, but four stood apart,
Gilberto Alavez, Ed Cockrell, April Holmes
and C.J. Howard. Not because they ran faster,
jumped higher or threw further, but because
they are each amputees.
They
have each suffered from horrible accidents
or illnesses. The kind that could make anyone
give up hope of leading a normal life.
"The
next day I woke up and I was an amputee,"
Alavez said. "It was very difficult.
I wasn't prepared to be disabled."
Alavez,
who lost his leg while working in Thousand
Oaks in 1992, ran in the 200 and 400-meter
races Saturday. He finished last in both,
but was an inspiration to the other athletes,
many of whom approached Alavez to shake
his hand and congratulate him for finishing
the race and only five seconds off the winning
pace.
The
inspiration for Alavez came from first his
wife and children, his prosthetist and finally
from his sudden weight gain after his accident.
The 44-year-old Alavez, an immigrant from
Oaxaca who now resides in Venice, gained
nearly 25 pounds before his prosthetist
told him, if you want to have a life, you
better do something. What he did, was to
become a runner, lose the weight and set
a personal record in the 400 in only six
years after the accident.
Howard
ran in the 1500-meter, running a respectable
5 minutes 3.83 seconds and Holmes from New
Jersey competed in both the 100 and 200-meter
races. Holmes and Cockrell stayed with Richard
Robert a former coach of the U.S. Paralympic
team who hosted the two athletes as he continues
to support the efforts of the less than
abled.
Cockrell,
aged 44 and living in St. Louis, competed
in the shot put. Cockrell lost his leg at
age 19 in a work-related accident in Illinois
and subsequently spent 60 days in the hospital
recovering from being pinned between two
barges which nearly took his life.
"The
physical trauma, everybody understands,"
Cockrell said. "Laying in the hospital
was tough. But it inspired me to go and
get educated...when I think about what could
have happened, I feel lucky."
Cockrell
started to play and coach softball one and
a half years after his amputation to stay
active. Cockrell continued playing and coaching
until in 1998 his former prosthetist, Frank
Bundy, told him that the U.S. Paralympic
Team needed throwers. After a trip to the
U.S. Olympic training facility in Chula
Vista Cockrell would dedicate himself to
becoming a shot putter.
Cockrell
finished 14th of 23 competitors in the shot
put Saturday and will compete in the Paralympic
Games in Athens this summer. The games are
the second biggest athletic event in the
world and occur immediately after the Olympic
Games.
The
Paralympic Games started in Rome in 1960
but 1988 was the first time the events took
place in conjunction with the Olympic Games,
that year in Seoul, South Korea.
Cockrell
finished seventh in the shot put at the
Sydney Games. He hopes to leave Athens with
a medal after the disappointment of finishing
one centimeter off the distance he needed
to earn a bronze medal in the 2000 Games.
He currently ranks No. 3 in the world heading
toward the competition in September.
Cockrell
has worked very hard to become one of the
best amputee athletes in the world. He will
likely compete in 18 events this year, flying
all over the country. Cockrell said that
his families support has helped him immensely.
"I've
got the best wife of 23 1/2 years you could
ever imagine," Cockrell said.
Nearly
54 million Americans have disabilities and
only recently have they been able to participate
in athletics at this high a level. Advancements
in technology from companies like Iceland's
Ossur, who makes the prosthetics for Alavez.
"Four years ago you wouldn't see disabled
athletes in track events," Cockrell
said.
Many
track meet organizers were unwilling to
allow disabled athletes in their events.
After the officials realize that the athletes
will not be a distraction or hamper the
progress of other athletes, they become
more willing to allow disabled people to
compete, Cockrell said.
Part
of the progression that disabled sports
have made came the day after the event at
CSULB. Sunday Cockrell became the first
amputee athlete to compete at the Mt. SAC
relays, the most prestigious track meet
in college athletics.
The
mantra that has enabled Cockrell to stay
focused and be able to part of such events:
"Things happen for a purpose, you have
got to stay positive," Cockrell said.
"It could always be worse."
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