Extremity Games 5 Takes Texas by Storm
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| Second-place kayak finisher Jim Wazny strokes to shore. Photographs courtesy of Sean Spangler. |
Extremity Games® 5 (eX5) was welcomed with genuine southern hospitality into New Braunfels, Texas, despite devastating floods in the town just a week before the event. The eX5 Main Event competitions, held June 18–19, included wakeboarding, skateboarding, kayaking, and rock climbing. Sports clinics in the competition events and in mixed martial arts rounded out the weekend.
The day after the opening ceremony and athlete sign-in, wakeboarders hit the water and caught air at the nearby Texas Ski Ranch (TSR). Extremity Games veteran Billy Tonis owned first place with what organizers called "insane air and tricks above the wake." Mike Schultz landed smooth wake-to-wake maneuvers to pull out a second-place finish, and newcomer Brandon Robins held and landed the longest layout to take third.
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| Second-place climber Kelly Allen celebrates her 18th birthday on the walls with her competitors. |
The wakeboarders' sizzle carried over to the street-style skateboarding competition as Stephen Shope grinded every rail on the course with flare to grab first place, and Oscar Loreto aired off a funbox to snag second place. Though he was the youngest athlete at the event, Alex Miller sit-skated his way to third place.
In kayaking, Schultz and Kelly Allen took first place in the men's and women's divisions, respectively, by creating "human-powered wakes that could put some power boats to shame," eX5 organizers said. Jim Wazny and Brooke Artesi propelled themselves into second place, and third place was a hard-fought contest that netted awards for newcomer Jeff Waldmuller and famed snowboarder Amy Purdy.
The final competition for the day was on TSR's rock wall. Climbers Jeff Waldmuller and Brooke Artesi scaled the walls fast enough to cause altitude sickness, taking first place in the men's and women's divisions respectively. Alex Miller and Allen took second place with the grace of seasoned climbers, and Horst Behner snuck up the final route to hold on to the third-place finish in the men's competition.
CAF Distributes Over $1.3M in Grants
It's a testament to the human spirit that in the stingiest U.S. economy since the Great Depression, the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) has set another record for generosity. This year, CAF's Access for Athletes program provided grants of equipment, training, or competition expenses to 812 athletes—more than in any previous year—across 26 nations and 48 sports, for a grand total of $1.31 million in awards. The grantees, who ranged in age from four to 69, included 45 percent of the U.S. Winter Paralympic team.
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| CAF grantee “Mei Mei” White takes off with her first running prosthesis. Photograph courtesy of CAF. |
"The commitment to compete at the highest level despite the obvious challenges is the impetus to the purest and most elegant form of athleticism," CAF said in a press release. One of the elite athletes CAF served this year was Juan Manual Geny of Bragado, Argentina, one of the ten percent of all CAF grantees who live outside of the United States. According to CAF, the once highly athletic Geny thought his life in sports was over after losing a leg following a 1993 accident. Years later, he began training as a triathlete, and using just forearm crutches and no leg prosthesis, he captured a third-place finish at the 2008 BG triathlon World Championships. With the carbon-fiber running foot provided by CAF this year, Geny now plans to take his triathlon training to an even higher level.
Another aspiring champion CAF helped was Toni Ann Saia of Staten Island, New York. Saia was born with cerebral palsy that requires her to use a walker to ambulate. As a wheelchair athlete, though, she has become a force to be reckoned with, competing in archery, track and field, and swimming at the national level in her age group. This year, CAF provided her with a racing chair, giving her more options for training and competition.
The grants program touched hundreds of everyday athletes as well. One of them was Madelyn "Mei Mei" White, a six-year-old who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her adoptive parents. Her proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD) led to her having a transfemoral amputation this year, but thanks to the CAF grant of a child-sized running foot, amputation shouldn't stop her from enjoying an active life.
According to CAF, the grants program was funded throughout the year by a variety of CAF fundraising efforts, including the San Diego Triathlon Challenge (SDTC) and the Heroes, Heart, and Hope Gala in New York, New York.
