At 24, Dennis Oehler was weeks away from signing a professional soccer contract, but before he would get his chance to shine on that athletic field, he lost his right leg in a traffic accident.
While the crash took his leg, it didn't take away his competitive spirit, and the Long Island native eventually would get his shot at big-time athletics. Four years after the wreck, Oehler was on the starting block in Seoul for the 1988 Paralympics, that day he ran the 100 meters in 11.73 seconds -- then a world record for a below-knee amputee."In my experience, running was the single most important factor in both my physical and psychological recovery after losing my leg. Building self-esteem through physical fitness is so important for someone with a disability," he said.
Saturday, Oehler and fellow Paralympian Todd Schaffhauser were at Shriners Hospital for Children for the second time in the past two years. They came to teach fellow amputees how to run on their new legs.
The Shriners event, dubbed the First Step clinic, is one of many such programs Oehler and Schaffhauser participate in throughout the year. The pair, who between them own a combined 12 Paralympic medals, travel all over the world preaching their gospel of self-empowerment.
Using running, the master motivators believe they can restore any self-confidence that may have been lost. Oehler cites a survey of 3,000 amputees done by the University of Miami that found running is not only the most desired skill to master after losing a limb, it is also the most difficult.
Some in attendance had always been missing legs, but most had just recently lost their limbs. Everyone had a story to accompany the metal prosthetics that subbed for flesh and bone. From back-country skiing to industrial accidents, causes ran the gamut at the clinic.
Oehler told the crowd that he knew what a trying ordeal amputation could be. After he lost his leg, his high school sweetheart and fiancee dumped him. He lost his independence and had to move back in with his parents, where his mom constantly babied him. That's when he made a decision to get active and get his independence back.
"What we do is change people's lives. It's not really about running . . . . It helps people accept their disability and not be depressed. It gives people their lives back," Oehler said.
Specifically, Oehler and Schaffhauser taught participants on Saturday how to stretch, do advanced exercises and ultimately how to take their first steps toward running.
Nervous amputees lurched forward, awkwardly at first, but soon got the hang of jogging on prosthetic legs.
Others, like "Donald," who lost his leg in the past two weeks to diabetes, made huge strides just by laying down on the mat and stretching. For people with two legs, it is hard to imagine a fear of not being able to get up, but for amputees the fear is real and needs to be addressed, Schaffhauser said.
"Getting on the ground changed Donald's life today," Schaffhauser said. "It's the first step to get him up and running."
But the pair are used to altering lives. At the 1996 Paralympic games in Atlanta, Schaffhauser took his mark for the 100 meters. As he looked down the starting line, he noticed that all of the runners, except one, were former pupils. "And two of them beat me. That's when I knew I should retire from competition," he mused. It was this overriding "just do it" theme that the pair hope participants would leave with. An attitude that might be best summed up with the question "What do you believe?" a slogan inscribed on numerous hats and T-shirts passed out at the door.
The clinic was sponsored by numerous organizations within the prosthetics community. For more information about the amputee community in the Salt Lake area, contact Marsha Ellis of Amputees in Motion at 1-801-277-2080.