UGA Graduate Inspires Through Wheelchair Racing

posted on Aug 18 by Lauren in the Disability News, Spinal Cord Injury, Wheelchair Accessibility, Wheelchair Sports category

Jeremy Maddox, a graduate from the University of Georgia, is a twenty-nine year old team member of of the Shepherd Center’s wheelchair racing team. He has been to every state in the continental United States to participate in races and marathons.  Maddox’s goal is to generate advocacy and inspiration in the handicapable community.

Maddox fell in love with racing and speed as a child. “Anything I could get on that could go fast or jump or whatever, I always wanted to be on it,” he said. In his teens, he found motocross, a sport that satisfied his love for speed. It was his love for motocross that eventually cost him his ability to walk, however.

Maddox was at a 1998 national motocross qualifier in Dalton, GA when the accident happened. He fell from his bike and landed hard enough to damage his spinal cord causing him to lose the use of his legs. He was hurried to the hospital, but it was clear to the medical professionals that there was nothing they could do for the young 16 year old. Maddox was sent shortly after to the Shepard Center in Atlanta, GA.

“Crap happens,” says Maddox. “It happens to everybody. There’s always another side and you’ve always got to look at the brighter side. You have to decide every day if you’re going to look at every day in a positive or negative way.” It is this very same attitude that led Maddox to look at his new lifestyle in a different light. He saw this as an opportunity to spread awareness, generate advocacy, and to inspire the community around him.

“This is a great tool to encourage, influence and help out other people… That’s what a lot of the racing has been to me,” he said. Maddox enjoys every opportunity he gets to grab everyone’s attention and to speak with people.

“You push a race chair through the airport, people stop you and ask where you’re going, what you’re doing. If it sparks people’s interest or curiosity, that’s really good.”

Source:
gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2011/jul/02/with-a-purpose-uga-grad-uses-wheelchair-racing-as/