After the Glory

Wheelchair athletes go beyond their athletic careers and accomplishments and become worldwide ambassadors who work to change lives.

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Jen Howitt (left) travels to countries such as Uganda, Zimbabwe, and East Timor. She is developing a model for independent-living skills to be taught to people with disabilities by their peers, especially in areas where there is little or no acess to formal healthcare or rehabilitation services.

Fifteen years ago when Mobility International USA CEO Susan Sygall asked me to teach wheelchair basketball to a group of people with disabilities in El Salvador, I reluctantly agreed. I didn’t speak Spanish and anticipated their wheelchairs would be broken down and their basketball skills poorly developed. I never imagined that coaching a workshop was going to open doors to a new life and career path.

In the gym I quickly realized the universal joy of playing sports transcends language barriers and is a powerful avenue for peace building. My new friends from El Salvador had become disabled from fighting one another in their civil war during the 1980s, but I watched as they became teammates on and off the court.

Many years earlier as a forestry worker, I had fallen 65 feet from a Doug­las fir, crushing my ankles, breaking my back, and sustaining a spinal-cord injury (SCI). After that, playing wheelchair basketball changed my life, giving me purpose and confidence. I won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics and a silver at the 1992 Barcelona Games.  I was at the peak of my sports career, but after my experience in El Salvador I began looking for opportunities to use my sports background for purposes other than elite competition. I wanted to put my leadership skills to a new use and be part of a worldwide effort to improve conditions for people with disabilities.

Check out the complete article in the January 2010 S’NS.

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