What are the Paralympics? We break down the Games.
The Paralympics are beginning in Paris and are using several of the venues that were used for the Olympic Games.
Griffin Hadley
With the 2024 Paris Olympic Games behind us, the Paralympic Games are now upon us, and one former patient at a Lexington children’s hospital is making his debut with the United States wheelchair rugby team as the youngest player to ever join their ranks.
Zion Redington, 18, was born with only one finger per hand and one toe per foot because of a genetic condition called ectrodactyly, his mother, Heather Redington-Whitlock, explained. The condition led to frequent to breaks in his toes and constant pain.
As a six-year-old, Redington had both his feet amputated at Shriners Children’s in Lexington.
His mother said they took the decision of where to have the procedure done seriously. The family, from Franklin, Tennessee, considered several hospitals but opted for Shriners Children’s after Redington sparked a connection with his future surgeon, Dr. Ryan Muchow. He underwent three surgeries in total at the hospital.
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Following the surgery, Redington-Whitlock made it a point to expose her son to as many adaptive sports as possible. He tried a slew of sports, including adaptive running, cycling, climbing, field events, swimming, surfing, sled hockey and air rifle.
When Redington was 9 years old, he was playing wheelchair basketball when he was scouted as a prime prospect for wheelchair rugby. The sport requires athletes to be quadriplegics, so when trainers noticed his eligibility while he was on the basketball court, they invited him to try out the sport.
He initially joined a team in Nashville made up of athletes that exceeded his age by decades, which dampened his attitude toward the sport, but he was drawn to the sport’s physicality.
“I think he really enjoyed seeing them hit each other,” his mother said.
He later joined a team at Lakeshore Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Birmingham, Alabama, that he found to be a better fit. The facility was a three-hour drive away from the family’s home in Tennessee, prompting them to eventually make the move to Birmingham to make his training schedule more feasible.
Redington’s family has been by his side for every step of his athletics journey. It has come with sacrifices, his mother said, but his poise has paid off.
“It shows the hard work that Zion has owned,” Redington-Whitlock said.
Redington was eventually invited to tryout for the USA wheelchair rugby developmental team in 2021 and went on to earn a spot on the national team in 2023.
Earlier this year, he was one of 12 players named to the Paralympics team, where the squad will begin competing Thursday in a match against Canada.
In a virtual conversation on Wednesday, Redington’s mother phoned in from Paris, telling The Courier Journal that while her son is focused on the games, she is rooting for him and keeping tabs on the team’s social media for updates.
“Zion knows we love him. He knows we’re proud of him,” Redington-Whitlock said. “They really need to be present with each other.”
Just the other day, she saw a Team USA Instagram post that pictured her son in uniform, declaring him the youngest player to ever compete on the team. The feeling, she said, was unforgettable.
“My husband and I looked at each other and just kind of giggled, like, ‘Wow,'” Redington-Whitlock said.
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 22:10:00
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