UI grad George hopes to medal in six events at Paralympics

By Marcus Jackson

Sunday July 6, 2008

CHAMPAIGN – When Joshua George was a little boy, the nurses at the Virginia hospital where he would spend months at a time would often get mad at him.

"They didn't like that I would try to push my chair as fast as I could around the hallway," George said. "The wing I was in, there was a looped hallway and the rooms were on the loop and their offices were in the center and the hallway looped all the way around.

"I'd just run laps to see how fast I could get around it."

At the time he didn't know it, but that's how George – who at 4 years old fell from a window at his family's 12th-floor apartment and shattered his legs, dislocated his hips and damaged his spinal cord – got his start in wheelchair racing.

Now 24, instead of being chased and yelled at for pushing his chair as fast as he can, the 2007 Illinois graduate is being praised as he leads the United States Paralympics team to the Beijing Games in September.

"I think those nurses would be proud if they could see what I'm doing now," he said.


In the Paralympics world, George is a superstar. He's the top American track and field athlete and is considered one of the top three racers in the world.

He proved that at the 2006 World Championships when he won gold medals in the 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter events.

Not bad for a guy who is considered a baby in the wheelchair racing industry.

"The peak age for an athlete in this industry is around mid-30s," said Quentin Williams, George's New York-based manager. "He's only 24 years old, so he has about another 15 years of racing at this elite level left in him."

If there's any advantage to being paralyzed from the middle of the chest down at the age of 4, George has benefited from it.

While most Paralympic athletes suffer their injuries later in life – setting them back developmentwise – George has been pushing a wheelchair around for close to 20 years.

George has been racing since he was 7 and started getting serious about it during his junior and senior years at Herndon High School in Virginia.

"I started focusing more on training then, but I wasn't really coached until I came to Illinois," he said. "When I started here in the fall of 2002, that was the first time I worked daily with a coach and was on a set training program and I really started making strides."

Illinois wheelchair racing coach Adam Bleakney is headed to Beijing to represent the U.S., too, and has trained with some of the best racers in the world. He feels George is just as good if not better than those he considered to be at the top.

"He's got the same qualities in terms of overall top speed and endurance as those guys I've trained with have," Bleakney said. "Whether it's baseball, basketball, football, golf or whatever, there's a big pack of guys who are really good and then there's that top percentage of guys who are always in that top three, that just seem to be a little bit higher than the rest. He's at that point now.

"There's a ton of guys underneath him who are very good and he's just finally cracked in where he's in that top percent of athletes where he can go into a race and have a shot at winning every time."

When George shows up to a race, it's as if Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson or Tyson Gay entered the arena. Most other athletes look on in awe, and his chiseled shoulders, back, arms and chest – which most NFL safeties would be envious of – are instantly recognizable.

"He's very well-known in the industry because of the records he's broken and the world championships he's attained," Williams said.

But to the average sports fan, he's just now becoming more recognizable.

In May, the New York Times ran a feature about George, and a reporter from CBS News visited Champaign last month to spend time with George and tell his story.

Since then, George said more average people are taking notice.

"I think the story in the New York Times kick-started it," he said. "Then when the CBS thing happened, that reached an even broader audience.

"I have a lot of family in Manhattan and they thought it was just so cool to see me in The Times. And after the CBS thing ran, I had people I hadn't heard from in years call to say they saw me and how exciting it was.
 
"I go through the airport when I'm traveling different places to train and people will stop me and say, 'Did I see you on TV the other day?' That stuff is new to me. It doesn't happen that often, but when it does it feels pretty cool."


Because of the success he's attained in the last couple of years, George has found himself in a position to promote his sport. He's a key figure in the industry in spreading the word about wheelchair racing and his recent media attention has gone a long way in making folks aware of the sport.

With Chicago in the midst of a battle to secure the 2016 Olympic Games, George has been asked to be a spokesman in the campaign.

"His involvement is fairly new, but he's the face of the Olympics and Paralympics for the future," Williams said. "When they had the unveiling of the emblem, Sen. Barack Obama spoke at it and Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the face of the past. Josh represented the face of the future."

His position as an ambassador is one George never envisioned for himself.

"As you become faster and faster you kind of get put in that position because you're representing more people and you're the person that everyone sees out front," he said. "It's fun, it's a responsibility that's fun to have and I get to meet all kinds of cool people doing it. It's not something you think about as it's happening. You just go to these events, talk to people and have a good time with it."

"What he's done for wheelchair athletics has been incredible and now people know that this is an actual sport and they have an appreciation for the talent behind the athletes," Williams said.


To think 20 years ago that George would be alive now, let alone a spokesman for Olympics, was unfathomable.

Days after his fall, George lay in the hospital in a full-body cast with tubes to help him breathe. Doctors proclaimed it a miracle that he survived the 120-foot fall.

"I don't really remember much about that time," George said. "It's hard because I don't know what I actually remember, or what I think I remember. I guess I remember right before I fell, the whole shuffling and leaning backwards. But after that, all that pops into my head is waking up in the hospital with tubes and stuff sticking out of me. I hated that."

What helped him cope with his new reality were his positive attitude and the support of his parents who helped him develop his own independence.

The result, a world-class athlete.

"I just always had a lot of energy and knew I wanted to be an athlete," he said. "I guess I'm living my dream right now."

George, who maintains an apartment and trains on the UI track in Champaign, will compete in six events in Beijing – the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,500 and the marathon. He is considered a favorite in all events, but he's trying to keep his expectations in check.

"When I went to the World Championships two years ago, I swept the individual events that I ran," he said. "Going to Beijing I keep thinking how sweet it would be to be able to do that again. But it's so rare that you're able to have such an amazing meet like that.

"If I could leave there medaling in every event that I run and hopefully pulling one or two gold medals, that would be a successful meet."


Success in Beijing might mean success off the track as well. Already, because of the attention he has received, George, who got his degree in journalism from the UI, has started writing a blog for the New York Times and will blog daily for the newspaper's Web site from Beijing.

He's secured an endorsement deal with Eagle Sport Chairs, and after the Games, more endorsements deals might come available.

His success on the international stage is part of the reason he's in the position to spread the word about wheelchair athletics, but the fun-loving southern charm he carries from his Virginia roots might make him the first wheelchair athlete to land an endorsement deal from a major corporation like Coca-Cola or McDonald's.

"We've got some deals in the works with other companies," George said. "A lot of it depends on how much headway we make in the next year and a half or so."

If things continue to go at this pace, George could have a lucrative and memorable career.

"This is the tip of the iceberg. He's at the foot of the hill right now and it's just going to get bigger and better for him," Williams said. "He's going to get better. Athletically he's going to get better. He's in the infancy of his athletic and professional career."

If those nurses could see how his life and career have developed, they'd certainly be smiling now.