Jon, thank you so much for sharing this! Your son is truly inspirational! I love his determination, and I love the solidarity as his team seems to be standing with him. (Great vids of them running with him through a course.)
I also love how you're fighting for him. I know that must mean the world to him, my friend.
And his wheelchair! I know I've mentioned it before in another post a while back, but it bears repeating: That thing is darned impressive! And he wields it like a champion! Anyone who may have missed the video in that second link might want to go back and take a peek. Beautiful to watch.
We're all rooting hard for Jonathan to get to compete! Please keep us updated.
Thanks Stephen! It's kind of funny, the vids of him with the team as a group was more of a pre-warm up for the camera. The actual courses are on much more difficult terrain. The vid with the crowd cheering was in a field, just before the last turn and finish. Really bouncy because I took it while running next to him, trying to keep up.
The team, and all the other teams, have been amazingly supportive. These are some awesome kids, as well as being incredible athletes. I'm honored to know them.
The comments by the guy from MPA were purely defensive, and largely untrue. This thing has been in the works for over a year now. They have not been working hard to include him. They've been ignoring, dragging their feet, and hoping it would just go away. When we kept pressing the issue, they tried to squash it by just saying no, and made up unfounded, uninformed excuses, with no specific reasons why.
I hate this whole thing. I never asked for it, and hope their new decision is right. Constant contact with press, coaches, legislators, and lawyers is exhausting. At least it brings some awareness to the problem people with disabilities face every day. Everything is a fight, but we do it, and unfortunately, we get good at it. Why should we have to?
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