|
|
|
ROWING PHOTO GALLERY
Free DHTML scripts provided by
|
Point Pleasant’s Kapinowski earns spot on Paralympic team By Melissa Peace The calendars just flipped to 2009, but Point Pleasant resident Jacqui Kapinowski has her sights set on the 2010 Olympic Games, where she hopes to leave her mark as one of the players on the USA Wheelchair Curling Team. Ms. Kapinowski, an accomplished, medal-winning wheelchair racer, said she is excited to be competing, once again, as part of the curling team as she heads to Cape Cod this week for intense training sessions. Ms. Kapinowski, 46, was diagnosed in 2006 with Stiff Person Syndrome, a progressive neurological disorder that makes walking extremely difficult. Ms. Kapinowski, a former marathon runner, has taken her passion for competition and turned it into a successful sports career, having been a part of the curling team last year, as well. The four-person team, including one alternate, brought home the bronze medal during the 2008 World Games, which were held in Switzerland.
The team will
represent the USA during the 2009 World Wheelchair Championship, Feb. 21 to the
28, in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as at the 2010 Paralympic Winter
Games, March 12 to 21, also in Vancouver. This week, Ms. Kapinowski said she was excited to get back on the ice and begin training with her teammates. “The tryouts were so intense, but I am very happy to be back with all of my teammates,” said Ms. Kapinowski. “We are going to be practicing really hard.” This year’s team will be lead by Marc DePerno, USA Curling’s national wheelchair curling outreach and development program director. During the World Games, the curling team from the USA will be pitted against those from all over the world, including Norway, Canada, Italy, Germany, China, Switzerland, Korea and Scotland. The team will then return to Vancouver in 2010 for the Paralympic Games. Although Ms. Kapinowski is on her way to compete with some of the best wheelchair curlers in the world, she is relatively new to the sport.
Although she had heard of the British sport thanks, in part, to her Scottish background, Ms. Kapinowski never actually played the game, which can be described as a sort of bocci ball on ice.
In wheelchair
curling, one player will anchor the other player’s chair on the ice,
front-to-back, so the player pushing the 42-pound stone with the curling pole
does Always looking for new ways to channel her athleticism, Ms. Kapinowski began feverishly practicing the sport and training at the Plainfield Curling Club in Plainfield. Since she only had a short period of time to prepare for last year’s Olympic trials, Ms. Kapinowski went almost every day to the curling club to practice, and further honed her skills by playing in a curling league every Sunday and Tuesday, also in Plainfield. Now a seasoned member of the team, Ms. Kapinowski said she is looking forward to bringing home another medal during both the 2009 and 2010 games. “I’m so excited, but we will be training really hard,” said Ms. Kapinowski. To help get the team back in playing shape, members of Team USA will head to a Cape Cod curling center this weekend where they will practice against able bodied players. “They [members of the curling club] will be putting together a training session for us. We are going to be practicing and playing games,” said Ms. Kapinowski. “They are so welcoming of us.” Along with the practices, the team will compete in several games and curling tournaments, called bonspiels during their time in Cape Cod. The Vancouver games will mark only the second time wheelchair curling has been present during the games. Wheelchair curling had its debut at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. The sport is open to male and female athletes with a physical disability in the lower part of the body. Since 2006, wheelchair curling has been practiced by athletes in over 20 countries. |
