AGAINST THE ODDS...Women of Strength

Tricia Downing
As an elite road and track cyclist, Trish Downing “gave back” to the community by volunteering her cycling skills as a pilot for visually impaired riders. Little did she know that an accident in the Fall of 2000 would put her on the other side of the equation.
Trish was training in Golden, CO when she was hit by a car and suffered a T-4 spinal injury. Her back was broken, but not her spirit. From her hospital bed, Trish wrote out her first grant request to CAF – for a handcycle that would get her back on the road … and back into life. Trish understands that her accident was not an end, but a new beginning. And what a new beginning it has been. Trish was named USA Triathlon’s Physically Challenged Athlete of the Year for 2003. (source: Challenged Athletes Foundation)

Scout Bassett
For the first seven years of her life, she was in a government orphanage in China, doing chores like mopping floors & washing dishes. She has some idea of how she lost her leg; she knows she was abandoned in 1989 at the age of one, badly burned by a chemical fire that claimed her right leg up to the mid thigh.
She was adopted by an American family at the age of 6, but she credits the orphanage for making her tougher. “Without those experiences, I don’t know that I would have the strength I have today.”
The petite, 4-foot, 8-inch 21-year-old spends 12-15 hours each week training for the dozen or so races she competes in each year. She often swims half a mile before class, runs & bikes whenever she can and puts herself through a mini-triathlon almost every weekend: a half-mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3 to 4 mile run. She’s won silver 2 years in a row at the ITU World Triathlon Championships. (source: UCLA Today)

Tracey Moore
At the age of 38, Tracey purposely stepped onto the train tracks at the Wardlow Station in Long Beach in an attempt to end her “pathetic” life, as she refers to it. It was a life ravaged by alcoholism and the human wreckage left in its wake. Tracey’s right leg was amputated below the knee that day. She received a craniotomy the next day to mend a depressed section on the back of her skull. She has a steel plate in her head. Even the failed suicide attempt wasn’t enough to rattle her into sobriety. The day she had the staples removed from the top part of her leg and her head, Moore hobbled to the liquor store on crutches and was off on another binge.
In the fall of 2002, Tracey got booted out of a sober living home. She wound up in a trashy motel. One day she woke up beaten up and bruised. She had no recollection of what happened.
Finally, on Oct. 5, 2002, looking unkempt with dried vomit on her dress, Tracey checked herself into the rehabilitation program at the Salvation Army in Anaheim. She was done killing herself.
At about 90 days of sobriety, the man who designed Moore’s prosthetic leg (who she endearingly refers to as her “leg man”) encouraged his client to train for the 1 1/2 mile swimming segment of the San Diego Triathlon Challenge. She completed the 1 1/2-mile swim.
“After I did it, I got the bug,” she said.
To date, Tracey has participated in 18 triathlons and is often the only amputee competing.
She says her greatest triumph was completing the 2006 Great Escape from Alcatraz, an adventure race starting with 1 1/2-mile swim in frigid water with a swift current, then a two-mile run followed by an 18-mile cycling segment and finally a 6 1/2 mile run over rugged terrain.
Tracey finished dead last, but received a medal for finishing first in the female physically challenged athlete division. She was told she was the only female amputee to have completed the 26-year history of the race.
Tracey is now sober for five years. Comparing her days as a “legless drunk” to her present life as a mother, wife, mentor and athlete, Moore is sometimes mystified. Her source of strength, however, is clear. "I’ve heard of a lot of people who lose limbs who sit around feeling sorry for themselves,” Moore said. “I am doing more with one leg than I ever did with two.” (Source: Lou Ponsi, The Orange County Register)