The summer before her senior year, at age seventeen, Terri Cecil-Ramsey was in an automobile accident that left her paralyzed.  From day one neither she nor the rest of her family treated the accident like a tragedy.  “When you grow up on a farm, everything is a challenge,” she observed, “so my accident was just another challenge.” 

  Giving up her dream to play college basketball was the hardest thing she ever did, but Cecil-Ramsey never gave up her love of sports.  When someone mentioned wheelchair fencing, she went to watch the famous fencing coach in Louisville, Leszek Stawicki, who had added a wheelchair fencing division to his already popular fencing program.  The two eventually became fast friends.  After 18 months of intense training, Cecil-Ramsey entered the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, Georgia.  Although she did not win the gold, she did become a national champion.

  Her message: the only difference between a person using a wheelchair and an able-bodied person IS the wheelchair.

Learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Find out more about the Paralympics from the International Paralympics Committee and the US Paralympics Committee.