Rajesh Durbal hopes to become the first triple amputee to complete an full-Ironman triathlon. Photograph courtesy of Rajesh Durbal.
“Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life,”™ is the official motto of the Ford Ironman World Championship, but for most athletes, even qualifying would be sufficient for bragging rights. To keep the field diverse, Ironman founder John Collins insisted that a system be set in place to bring “everyday” competitors, plus athletes with disabilities, into the Kona, Hawaii, race. On April 15, the race’s organizers announced the names of five amputee competitors who will enter the October 9, 2010, race. The list of winners includes three men with upper-limb loss, one with lower-limb loss, and in a historic first, a man who is missing both lower legs and his right arm.
Rajesh Durbal, a 32-year-old senior network engineer from Orlando, Florida, hopes to become the first triple amputee to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon. He was a record-breaking sprinter by the age of 16, but when a knee injury sidelined him, he took years off, then switched to triathlons in 2009. Durbal is currently preparing for the Florida 70.3 triathlon on May 13. Durbal will join Sebastian “Sam” Cila, of Riverhead, New York; Andrew Eldridge of East Perth, Western Australia; Rodolfo Fernandez of the Phillipines; and Loyal Pyczynski, also of Orlando, at the race.
