diversion / different kind of wonders, again unceasing

do not bet against this athlete
On their best days (and ours) athletes are sources of inspiration, instead of additional reminders that the world is populated by people with moral defects, even people with extraordinary gifts.

Dutch woman Monique van der Vorst had been paralyzed below the waist due to surgical complications at age 13 but was determined enough to become a world-class athlete in a wheel chair, persevering still more after a spinal cord injury in 2008 from being hit by a car while training.

you cannot make this stuff up
Last year she was hit again while training, this time by a bicyclist. During recovery, her feet began to tingle and she recovered some movement. She took her first steps since age 13 in July 2010 and is now training as an able-bodied cyclist, with dreams of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Doctors have no explanation for her amazing recovery. Some believe the trauma of her last accident may have jolted her body back into activity.

Not having been on her feet for 13 years, she has a ways to go before she can compete on a bicycle at the levels she had achieved from a wheel chair. Who would say that she can’t do it?

h/t goes to I-don’t-remember-who (darn)

© Sandy Mattingly 2011