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A gift more preciousthan goldParalympic champion racer scored biggest win with son Kai1 see life as a choice and everything you do in your life is a choice. I could choose to stay at home and feel sorry for myself and watch TV all day if I wanted to... This is the only life I’ve been given. So it’s up to me to make the best out of the opportunities that I have’— Michelle StilwellBy Ashley PrestIT was the toueh of her little boy’s hand, moments after her first gold-medal victory, that brought Michelle Stilwell to tears.Stilwell, born and raised in Winnipeg, won her first of two gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing on Sept. 11 in the T52 200-metres wheelchair race. She went straight over to the grandstands where her family had front-row seats.“I got to go over and give Kai a high-five. I would have loved to give him a hug but he was too high upChinese no longer dis the disabledAfter spending two weeks in Beijing for the 2008 Paralympic Games, wheelchair racer Michelle Stilwell said people with disabilities have become more welcome in China than ever before.Stilwell said she learned that ancient beliefs have been part of the problem of limited access and opportunities for those with disabilities.“in China, all the storefronts have stairs to get in and the reason for that is to keep the‘chi.’Apparently demons can’t climb stairs so it keeps the bad spirits out. So people with disabilities were seen to have bad chi,” she said. “It was really interesting because they’ve got 80 million disabled people in China, that’s a lot of people, and now they’re becoming more accepting of those people and making things more accessible.”from my race chair,” said Stilwell, 34, of her seven-year-old son. “I got right up there and he was yelling, ‘I love you, Mommy! That was so awesome!’I will never forget that moment... It was the best experience of my life so far,”Stilwell, a quadriplegic wheelchair sprinter who now lives in Nanoose, Bay, B.C., also set Paralympic records in the 200m with her time of 36.18 seconds and in the 100m with her time of 19.97 seconds.She was a member of the gold medal women’s wheelchair basketball team at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney and it is believed she is the first Canadian summer Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two sports.Stilwell will be sharing her experience and a slide show at a Canadian Women in Communications event Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Inn at the Forks. Members of the public may attend by registering on-line at www. cwc-afc.com ($25 for members, $35 for non-members.)IllOn June 5,1992, the world changed irreversibly for Michelle Bauknecht. She was 17 years old and just three weeks from graduation from River East Collegiate. It’s where Michelle Stilwell’s story really begins.She was riding piggy-back on her boyfriend’s back and fell backwards.“He was taking me into the basement, I hit my neck on the bottom stair and that’s when I broke my neck,” said Stilwell, who spent six months in hospital and underwent three spinal surgeries the following two years. “My legs were still wrapped around his waist and so I went straight back and my neck hit the bottom stair.”She left the hospital in a wheelchair, a teenager with her whole life before her.But it was during one of her hospital stays that a path opened up for her. She was invited to play wheelchair basketball.“I went out and fell in love with the sport,” said Stilwell, who went on to play on Manitoba’s men’s team (there wasn’t a women’s team) and the national women’s team.She also fell in love with a wheelchair basketball player as she met on a basketball court in Montreal at the 1996 national championship. Mark Stilwell was an able-bodied playerwith Team Saskatchewan when they met and the couple married in 1997.They lived in Calgary from 1997-2001 so she could train with the national women’s basketball team and prepare for the 2000 Paralympics.IllStilwell has no leg function, has function in her biceps and triceps but has limited wrist, hand and fingerfunction. Classified as the lowest level quadriplegic in the C6-C7 category, her life is a testament to pursuing one’s dreams.To Stilwell, her true miracle is her son Kai, a bright and clever boy who believes the sun rises and sets with his mom and is obsessed with soccer.Getting pregnant, carrying a child to term and safely delivering is something precious few quadriplegic women are able to accomplishbecause of the health risks. Her blood pressure was a concern but Stilwell had a healthy pregnancy and a beautiful baby boy.“To be a mom, it was definitely a dream I had. I feel so lucky I’ve had the chance to achieve so many of my dreams.”Stilwell took up wheelchair racing in 2005 when her basketball career was halted by surgery to correct a herniated brain stem.“I don’t know where I’d be without sport in my life,” she said, adding she believes she can be faster than she was in Beijing. She has committed to racing through the January 2011 World Championships in New Zealand but whether she’ll be back for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London remains to be seen.Continued Please see GOLD C2SUBMITTED PHOTOSeven-year-old Kai Stilwell is his mom's biggest fan and gets a huge kick out of examining Michelle’s Beijing golds.
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Sep 30, 2008
Page 21
Full Page
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