Imagine-you are training three hours a day, six days a week, for the past four years-while your body has no feeling from the chest down. Why are you training so hard? Your goal is to be the first paraplegic person to swim the Catalina Channel-21 miles from Los Angeles Harbor, California, to Catalina Island. This goal was achieved September 4 by Jason Pipoly, 32, of San Antonio, Texas. Courage, perseverance, and unrelenting resolve pushed Pipoly's body past the perceived limitations and allowed him to achieve what was once thought impossible. Paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 1998, Pipoly didn't allow that to stop his dreams. In August 2002 he became the first American paraplegic, and the second paraplegic in the world, to swim the English Channel, a 21-mile course between England and France, in August 2002. In 1982, 16 years before his accident, Pipoly at age 11 became the youngest person to attempt to swim the English Channel. He fell just four miles short after swimming 17 miles in whitecap, rough waters for eight years. This September, although high winds, strong currents, and cold water forced Pipoly to abandon the return trip from Catalina Island back to Los Angeles Harbor, he still accomplished an impressive "first"-which likely will not be his last!
Imagine-you are training three hours a day, six days a week, for the past four years-while your body has no feeling from the chest down. Why are you training so hard? Your goal is to be the first paraplegic person to swim the Catalina Channel-21 miles from Los Angeles Harbor, California, to Catalina Island. This goal was achieved September 4 by Jason Pipoly, 32, of San Antonio, Texas. Courage, perseverance, and unrelenting resolve pushed Pipoly's body past the perceived limitations and allowed him to achieve what was once thought impossible. Paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 1998, Pipoly didn't allow that to stop his dreams. In August 2002 he became the first American paraplegic, and the second paraplegic in the world, to swim the English Channel, a 21-mile course between England and France, in August 2002. In 1982, 16 years before his accident, Pipoly at age 11 became the youngest person to attempt to swim the English Channel. He fell just four miles short after swimming 17 miles in whitecap, rough waters for eight years. This September, although high winds, strong currents, and cold water forced Pipoly to abandon the return trip from Catalina Island back to Los Angeles Harbor, he still accomplished an impressive "first"-which likely will not be his last!