Tricia Downing

As Founder and Director of Camp Discovery, each year is a delight as I watch, on Thursday evening, a room full of strangers convene with looks of worry, wonder, unease or suspense and emerge on Saturday night as a new group of empowered women. Camp Discovery began when founder Tricia Downing had a vision of creating a place where women with disabilities could come together for adventure, fun and camaraderie, in an non-intimidating environment, allowing them to learn new activities, find inner strength and redefine their lives. After being discharged from rehab Tricia didn’t skip a beat and immediately began pursuing the athletic lifestyle to which she was accustomed, Becoming thoroughly entrenched in wheelchair sports she found a new home in learning to do her old activities in new ways, but found she was still outnumbered by the men. Although males account for 80% of spinal cord injuries according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, Tricia knew there must be women around the country in her situation, who wanted to be active while having the opportunity to learn and participate with other women.

Six days before being named to the U. S. Paralympic team, I received an email from National Shooting Team Coach, Bob Foth, that said I was one of four U.S. athletes who had the necessary selection criteria—two Minimum Qualifying Scores (MQS) shot in international competition—to be named to the 2016 Paralympic team, if: I got the nod that I had in fact been named to Team USA (see the blog here) and in seven days time I would be headed to Rio to compete in the Women’s 10-meter Air Pistol event Steve has worked for the U. S. Paracycling Team consistently for the past two or three years, and off-and-on since about 2003 (he worked at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens) and was already headed to Rio as a cycling team mechanic. Not only would we reunite sooner than the five weeks he was set to be away, and I was going to represent my country and sport in the Paralympic Games, but we’d both be doing what we loved—at the same time, in the same place and both as official members of the Team USA delegation.

Months after that race and after a failed attempt at Kona, I met with a sports psychologist to get ready for my next Ironman attempt at Coeur d’Alene, a race, in hindsight I should never have attempted (not a very wheelie-friendly course…super hard and hilly) but that’s beside the point. Now, this is a little deceiving because it simply means you have the basic requirements to make a team (for example, having competed at last year’s nationals, being part of the national program, etc.). Lots of athletes get that email, but it only ends up meaning something to the few who are fully pursuing a chance for whatever team they are going for (for example there is a long list for other Games, such as the Pan Ams.) And because our nationals were also sanctioned as an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) event (in order to let international athletes compete at our nationals for extra lead up practice to the Games), my score counted as a second MQS.

Adapting to new circumstances often requires discomfort and learning to do things in a new way. When I get stuck, I like to think of a speech I once heard by a gentleman named Roger von Oech who studied creativity and encouraged his audiences to look for the second right answer when the first one didn’t pan out. But as it turns out I’ve found there is always more than one way to reach a goal; we just have to continue searching for solutions when our original ideas, thoughts or plans don’t work out. Let go of old ideas, gently…Allow yourself to mourn over setbacks or ideas that don’t work out, by reminding yourself, “this isn’t how I had hoped this would happen, but many positive things have come of it.