Hide Article Text (OCR)
FORNIA BRIEFSIGirl disfigured by Chernobyl now Paralympic swimmerALAMEDA (AP) — Mikhail a Rutherford considers being given away by her parents and spending four years in a Russian orphanage a blessing.Mikhaila, 17, who was bom missing part of her lower right leg, a couple, of fingers and toes because of the Chernobyl disaster, was eventually adopted by American parents and is now a world-champion Paralympic swimmer.“Because of the disability, my parents gave me up for adoption. Otherwise, I never would have made it to the U.S.,” she says. “And I think about how grateful 1 am that I’m here. I’d trade my leg and fingers and toes any day to live here,”Mikhaila was adopted byan Alameda family on her fourth birthday. She’s become a champion swimmer and backstroke specialist despite having a prosthetic leg just below her knee. Among her awards are three gold medals and one silver from the 2004 Paralympics in Athens.Mikhaila’s birth parents lived for years in a village just IB miles from Chernobyl, a place heavily contaminated with radiation. Her parents didn’t leave the village after the 1986 explosion at the plant, the world’s worst nuclear accident.“Nobody ever evacuated their village. And even before I was bom, people there were watching wildlife have birth defects,” Mikhaila said. “My mother only left town when there were pregnancy problems with me, and \#ent to Minsk,” she said.Mikhaila’s father told her. mother he would leave if she kept the child, and Mikhaila went to an orphanage. Sheidoesn’t recall any Russian, • £ and remembers little from her t stay in the orphanage. She still i communicates with her brother periodically through e-mail. 1 Mikhaila started swimming when she was eight years old jand competed with her high ]school team before training 1for the Paralympics. She’s jnow focusing on schoolwork jand will attend Rensselaer 1Polytechnic Institute in New ]York in the fall to study bio- (medical engineering.She says swimming makes i her feel free and she plans to . never stray far from the pool, j “I just take off my leg and i go,” she says. ]Portrait of Clinton painted by Sebastopol artistiSEBASTOPOL (AP) — A new portrait of Sen. Hillary Clinton by a local artist hasIrerBeautyis movi 245 C East PiUkiah, C/May 1,Our phonewill remainHair SalonNail Salon
Newspaper Details
, ,
Mon, Jan 01, 0001
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 10 Dec 2019
Other Publications Near ,
Mendocino Herald
Ukiah Dispatch Democrat
Mendocino Dispatch Democrat
Ukiah News
Ukiah City Press
