Rudy Garcia Tolson is an accomplished Paralympic athlete who was born without legs but has not let that limit him. He holds several national swimming records and competes in triathlons. At age 12 he ran a 5k race in under 21 minutes. Despite undergoing 15 surgeries as a child to address a birth defect affecting his legs, Rudy chose to have both legs amputated below the knees. He went on to win gold in the 200m individual medley at the 2004 Athens Paralympics at age 15, breaking the world record. Rudy remains dedicated to his training while also making time for school, friends, and just being a kid. He rejects being called disabled and instead focuses on his accomplishments

1. WCC Presents

2. A LEG UP ON THE
COMPETITION
RUDY GARCIA TOLSON

3. Rudy Garcia Tolson is fast. At 12
years old, Rudy ran a 5-kilometer
race in 20 minutes and 8 seconds
which breaks down into a blazing
6:30 minutes per mile pace. In
2006, Rudy held U.S. national
records in the 400, 800, 1500, and
5,000 meter runs. But Rudy was not
only fast on the track.

4. He is a triathlete, a three sport athlete
who also does biking and swimming.
As a swimmer, Rudy holds a national
breaststroke record. He has competed
in six triathlons and looks forward to
entering an ironman competition
someday, which includes a 2.4 mile
swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2
mile run.

5. There’s one other prettey
amazing thing about Rudy: He
doesn’t have legs.
Rudy was born with pterygium
syndrome. Webs of skin behind his
knees connected his upper and
lower leg, kind of like a tight
version of the skin between your
thumb and first finger.

6. This skin kept his legs bent and made it
impossible for him to walk. By the time
Rudy was five, he had under gone 15
surgeries but still couldn’t stand out of
a wheelchair. “I was born with a birth
defect,” Rudy said. “The doctors gave
me and my family a choice: Cut off
my legs or stay in a wheelchair. I told
the doctors to cut my legs off.”

7. As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy
losing both legs from the knee down.
“When he went back to kindergarten,
he was a little bit down,” Rudy’s mom
recalled.
“The school counselor
recommended putting him in a sport
and his dad suggested swimming.” It
wasn’t long after that Rudy set the goal
of competing in the Paralympic
Summer Games.

8. This competition is held every four
years and features athletes with
disabilities competing in many sports.
But he knew it would take years of
hard work. In elementary school, Rudy
started training in the pool 5 days a
week in two hour sessions. He learned
to run and bike as well. Don’t let his
easy smile and casual charm fool you,
Rudy is a serious athlete!

9. But Rudy’s life wasn’t all about
training. His mom made sure that
he found time to be a good
student. “He knows he can’t go to
swim practice or any of the
speaking engagements he loves
so much if his grades aren’t good,”
his mom said.

10. His family also made sure Rudy
had at least one weekend a
month free just to be a kid. After
all, while Rudy may have been
one of the best para athletes in the
world by the time he was a middle
schooler, he was still just a regular
kid.

11. Rudy hung out with friends, listened
to music, played paintball, and
dyed his hair platinum blond.
But unlike most kids, one corner
of Rudy’s living room in
Bloomington, California, was
completely full of prosthetic legs.

12. There were light springy pairs for
running; pairs with hinged knees
and clips for bike pedals; and
durable, stable pairs, called
stubbies, for walking, playing
paintball, and skateboarding.

13. But despite his legs that ended at
the knee, Rudy hated the term
disabled and rejects
handicapped. How could you call
him handicapped if he was the
one winning paintball every
weekend?

14. It was 5 days after his 15th birthday
when Rudy walked into the
Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece,
for the finals of the 200 meter
individual medley swimming race
at the 2004 Paralympics. More
than 1 million people watched the
games.

15. Rudy Garcia Tolson was the
youngest member of the U.S.
Paralympics team in Athens. To
win the 200 meter individual
medley, swimmers have to be
experts in backstroke,
breaststroke, butterfly, and
freestyle.

16. It was especially difficult for Rudy
because the breaststroke is almost
completely leg powered. But that
didn’t stop him from shattering the
world record by 3.42 seconds in a
qualifying round.

17. When the bell for the 200 meter
individual medley final sounded,
Rudy launched into the pool and
carved through the water with his
powerful arms. He tried to swim his
own race without worrying about
the competition.

18. He knew he was fast, but just how
fast he didn’t know. Rudy reached
out his fingers, touched the wall,
and looked up.
He had won the gold metal! In
his first Paralympics, Rudy had
beaten the best swimmers in the
world!

19. For his performance, ESPN
nominated Rudy as one of the
three most outstanding para
athletes of 2004. In 2008, he
proved it was no fluke and took
home the gold metal at the Beijing
Games.

20. Paul Martin, one of the world’s top
disabled athletes, said “He has
already done wonders for
challenged athletes and he’s just a
kid. I look forward to the day he
kicks my butt in a triathlon. He
already kicks it in the water.”

21. While Rudy has trained his arms
and lungs to be amazingly strong,
he doesn’t credit his success to
that. Instead, Rudy Garcia Tolson
says he has a different secret
weapon: “A brave Heart is a
powerful weapon.”

22.  Adapted from “Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Change,” written by Garth
Sundem