This document discusses four individuals with disabilities who achieved success as leaders:
Esther Mary Vergeer, a dominant wheelchair tennis player who went undefeated for 10 years;
Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit Mount Everest;
Chelsea McClammer, a Paralympic athlete who has won medals in wheelchair racing;
Lance Allred, the first deaf NBA player who overcame difficulties growing up to become a star basketball player.
These examples show that disabilities need not be a barrier to becoming a leader through determination, perseverance, and diligence.
3. "Disability is not inability. Disability is there for only limbs and
senses but not for the spirit. As long as one can possess the
strong and healthy will no kind of physical ability can stop them
from achieving great things provided they are courageous,
determined, perservere and silliness diligent. Let us now go
through some examples of leaders that are physically disabled"
4. Esther Mary Vergeer is a Dutch former professional wheelchair
tennis player. She was the world No. 1 in women's wheelchair singles
from 1999 to her retirement in February2013.
Vergeer went undefeated in singles for ten straight years, ending her
career on a winning streak of 470 matches. She has often been named the
most dominant player in professional sports. Over the course of her
career, Vergeer won 695 singles matches and lost 25.
During the 1996 season Vergeer won one singles title in Tilburg. She
reached one other final in Melin, but she was not successful. Vergeer won
two draws at other events; the A draw in Utrecht and the consolation draw
in Nottingham. She also reached the final of the A draw in Antony where
she was not successful. She continued on and during the 2000 Summer
Paralympics in Sydney she did not lose a set to win the gold medal in
singles and also won the doubles title with Maaike Smit as her partner.
Esther Mary Vergeer
5. Erik Weihenmayer is an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist
and motivational speaker. He was the first blind person to reach the
summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001.
He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002, one of only 150
mountaineers at the time to do so, but the only climber who achieved
this while blind. In 2008, he also added the Carstensz Pyramid thus
completing the Eight Summits. Weihenmayer has also made noteworthy
climbs up the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite in 1996.
Weihenmayer was born September 23, 1968, in Princeton, New Jersey. At
15 months old, he was diagnosed with juvenile retinoschisis, with
blindness the expected outcome by age 13. At age 4, Weihenmayer and
his family moved to Coral Gables, Florida, and, in 1975, to Hong Kong,
where Erik attended the Hong Kong International School for grades 2–6.
As he was going blind,At age 16, he started using a guide dog. He tried
rock climbing, and found he was a natural at scrambling up a face using
his hands and feet to find holds. He became a middle-school teacher
at Phoenix Country Day School, where he met his fellow teacher and
future wife.
Erik Weihenmayer
6. Chelsea McClammer is an American Paralympic athlete with Team USA, she
has won two silver medals and one bronze at the 2016 Summer
Paralympics. McClammer played both basketball, tennis and athletics as a
child, but injured her spinal cord in a car accident when she was six years
old and had to start with a wheelchair.
McClammer started competing in wheelchair racing when she was a
tween. She was introduced to wheelchair racing at a sports convention and
hired coach Theresa Skinner to train her for competitive racing. She was
introduced to wheelchair racing at a sports convention and hired coach
Theresa Skinner to train her for competitive racing
As a freshman in high school, McClammer became the youngest member of
Team USA in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing at 14 years old. In
2011, McClammer earned a bronze medal in the 800-meter race at the 2011
Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 2011, McClammer
earned a bronze medal in the 800-meter race at the 2011 Parapan American
Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Chelsea McClammer
7. Lance Collin Allred is a former professional basketball player, who was the
first deaf player to play an NBA game. Allred is legally deaf, with 75%–80%
hearing loss due to Rh complications at birth. He is also an inspirational
speaker and author, with his first book, Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf
Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA, published by
HarperCollins in 2009.
Allred was born in Pinesdale, Montana, a fundamentalist Mormon Polygamist
Commune. Allred's father is a high school history teacher. Allred's family
moved to Salt Lake City when he was seven, and he completely broke away
from the church six years later. He did not play organized basketball until
eighth grade when he joined a team in the local LDS Church league. Allred's
skills developed quickly. His height of nearly seven feet also contributed to
his sporting skill. He was a star basketball player at East High School in Salt
Lake City.Allred was ranked as the "Best in the West" at the center position by
Pac-West Hoops, and was hailed as a Top 100 Recruit by CNN/Sports
Illustrated. He was heavily recruited by many schools but ultimately decided
to attend the University of Utah.
Lance Allred