For Mike Schlappi, the bottom line is attitude.
The victim of a shooting accident at the age of 14 which paralyzed his lower body, the Orem native has lived his life's philosophy of keeping one's disadvantages in the right perspective and figuring out how to turn them into advantages.He now has a second gold medal to show for it.
Schlappi just returned from the IX Paralympics in Barcelona where he helped the U.S. men's wheelchair basketball team to a successful defense of the gold medal championship they won in 1988 at Seoul.
"It was all new to me back then (in 1988)," Schlappi, who acts as director of the Wheelchair Sports Foundation at the Western Rehabilitation Institute, said. "When we were on the medal stand and the guy put the medal around my neck, in Seoul I didn't know what was going on. This time, I was more relaxed . . . it was pure enjoyment."
As in the Olympic Games, the U.S. was one of twelve teams vying for the gold. One difference is that in Paralypmics basketball, collegiate rules are followed, which are slightly different than the international rules played at the Olympics. After making it through pool play undefeated, the U.S. won a convincing victory over France, ranked No. 1 in the world, in the semifinals, and then defeated the Netherlands for the gold.
"It's hard to explain to people what it's like. I mean, in all other respects, it's just like the Olympics. You're playing in the same venues, in front of big crowds, you stay at the Olympic village . . . but it's very inspirational, in terms of the aspects of the health care involved and the overcoming of obstacles. But all the same it's very intense athletic competition; everyone wants to win."
Schlappi called the Olypmic victory the "greatest achievement of my athletic career."