Van Dyken-Rouen is a six-time Olympic gold medalist who was paralyzed from the waist down following an ATV accident in 2014. She has undergone intensive rehabilitation and has made progress regaining movement, proving doctors wrong who said she wouldn't recover. Though facing a significant challenge adjusting to life as a paraplegic, she maintains a positive attitude and continues pursuing outdoor activities she loves in Colorado. She aims to walk again and serves as an inspiration for others through her foundation Amy's Army.

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OUT to
LUNCH
with
Amy Van Dyken-Rouen
By BRITTANNY HAVARD
Some things are worth skipping lunch for. One of these
things include a chance to interview Amy Van Dyken-
Rouen, six time Olympic gold medalist and wife of
former Broncos punter Tom Rouen. Even though our interview is
over the phone, the enigmatic personality of Van Dyken-Rouen
shines through. Van Dyken-Rouen used to spend six hours a day
in the pool training for her aqua-Olympic poundings, serving
up the butterfly stroke and a mean relay to anyone audacious
enough to face the 6-foot, 163-pound powerhouse. Now she
spends two hours a day in one, only this time, enduring intense
hours of rehabilitation after a fateful ATV accident in July 2014
that severed her spine, and left her with a new-found status as a
T-11 vertebra paraplegic.
Olympian gold medal winner to paraplegic. It’s a challenging
paradigm to swallow. Both types of people swim in circles seldom
visited by the average person. Few have experienced what it’s like
to be either; Van Dyken-Rouen is both.
Her voice is bright and positive, she has a natural, easy going
way about her, and our conversation flows as though I am talking
to a friend—not conducting a celebrity phone interview.
Only, Van Dyken-Rouen does not consider herself a celebrity.
Born in Aurora and raised in Englewood, Van Dyken-Rouen is a
Colorado girl all the way. She attended the University of Arizona
for two years, before transferring to Colorado State. Recently she
visited her alma mater in Fort Collins, where they renamed a street
on campus in her honor.“Amy Van Dyken Way,” she says with a
chuckle.“I think my name is longer than the street.” She’s proud of
her Colorado roots.“My husband and I are huge mountain people,
we have a place we go just to get away and we’ve always been in
love with this state—well, especially Tom,” said the Colorado native,
her voice brightening as she speaks about her husband.
The couple met during Rouen’s fourth year playing for the
Denver Broncos while dining at the Chop House restaurant in LoDo.
“We found out we lived across the street from each other. Totally
random, but that’s how it works,” said Van Dyken-Rouen.
A true supporter of his wife and her changing self, Rouen has
endured some de-cleating hits on the football field, but weathering
his greatest storm was watching his wife wheeled into surgery the
day an ATV joyride went frightfully wrong. On the way to a casual
dinner with friends, his wife’s ATV hit a ditch, rolled on top of her,
and changed their lives forever. Doctors told Rouen there was a
likely chance she would not survive the emergency surgery, and to
say their goodbyes. Rouen told his wife, it was ok to let go, and even
though she told her husband he was allowed to date, she quickly
revoked her consent.
“I took Tom’s words as a personal challenge. I wasn’t ready to
go have him dating other women—some blonde!,” she says with
an exasperated laugh. Meeting that challenge, Van Dyken-Rouen
AMAZING
Amy,No Limits

2. livsothebysrealty.com page 7 303.893.3200
survived the surgery, but the accident still
left her paralyzed from the waist down.
She was given the hard facts—despite her
uncompromising will, the odds of regaining
any sensation from a T-11 vertebra injury
are slim, but not impossible. Besides, she’d
already made one comeback.
After Van Dyken-Rouen won four gold
medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta, she suffered a debilitating shoulder
injury in competition and doctors told
her she would never compete again. Van
Dyken-Rouen proved her doctors wrong.
She went on to win another two gold
medals at the Sydney games in 2000 in
the 4×100 medley relay and the 4×100
freestyle relay.“The comeback was huge,”
said Van Dyken-Rouen.“I had two shoulder
surgeries. The doctors said it would end my
career, but they stuck out the most. And
I’m going to be honest with you. I wasn’t
a great butterflier, there was someone
else that could have won it, but I won it.”
Van Dyken-Rouen was the first woman to
capture four gold metals, making her the
most decorated athlete, male or female, of
those games.
The challenge facing her now is far
greater than that she faced in 2000,
however her goal is narrower. Now, she has
a simple one—to walk again. And she is
already beating the odds.
“I’m supposed to have a severed spinal
cord.Yet I’m riding a spin bike by myself.
I’m able to crawl forward and backward,
and can move my hip flexors,” said said Van
Dyken-Rouen. Not to mention she drives
a Camero SS—a custom job, she insists
stands for Super Sexy.
Van Dyken-Rouen is finding her voice
out of the pool, and uses her Twitter and
Instagram accounts to share her story.
“When I was first injured and came out of
surgery, Tom was like ‘I have to give her her
phone’. I don’t even remember posting the
pictures I did, but I did. If you do it with a
smile on your face and realize this is your
new life, it can still be a fabulous life,” said
Van Dyken-Rouen.
While Van Dyken-Rouen’s physical
body has changed, some things in her
life remain delightfully the same.“I go
to physical therapy three days a week. I
spend two days at my gym, but after that,
Tom and I will go grab lunch. Go to dinner.
We’re trying to be as normal as possible,”
says the vivacious 42-year-old. And some
things never change.“Tom played for the
Broncos for thirteen seasons. Back then
we had orange crush and pizza every single
Sunday. We still do,” said Van Dyken-Rouen.
An ambassador to the Christopher
Reeve foundation and founder of Amy’s
Army, a 501c3 that helps provide necessary
medical equipment to spinal cord injury
patients who can’t afford it themselves, Van
Dyken-Rouen is trying to make her new
lifestyle about helping others while living
as normally as she can, including enjoying
the Colorado pastimes she’s always loved.
She shares stories of kayaking and sailing
adventures-post injury, from this past
summer and her thoughts on skiing.
“I haven’t skied in a year, but I want to.
I just have to ski differently. I can do
anything I want to do, it’s just a matter of
planning ahead,” said Van Dyken-Rouen.
As our conversation comes to a close,
I ask Van Dyken-Rouen whether she feels
like more people know her as an Olympic
gold medalist, or a T-11 paraplegic?
“Interesting,” said Van Dyken-Rouen.
“This is more recent. More people know
me now, and then they tell me they just
learned I was an Olympian, than before
when people only knew me as an athlete. If
you look at all obstacles you face, you have
two choices.You can back away from them
or you can go over the hurtles, and learn
about yourself. I choose to go over them,
and does that make me an inspiration? I
don’t know. But I smile, and take it one step
at a time. I feel lucky. Now people know me,
as me.”
Demonstrating remarkable fortitude
and serving as an inspiration to countless
people, Van Dyken-Rouen is honest,
funny, and bold—just as she was before
her life-altering accident. As an Olympian,
she was known for her physical strength,
as a paraplegic, she’s even more powerful.
“Thank you,” I say to Van Dyken-Rouen, and
hang up the phone.
Brittanny Havard is Editor of LIV
Magazine and Public Relations Manager
at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty.
Have a local innovator in mind
for ‘Out To Lunch?’ Email
brittanny.havard@sothebysrealty.com.
“IF YOU LOOK AT ALL OBSTACLES YOU FACE, YOU HAVE
TWO CHOICES. YOU CAN BACK AWAY FROM THEM OR
YOU CAN GO OVER THE HURTLES, AND LEARN ABOUT
YOURSELF. I CHOOSE TO GO OVER THEM.”
Amy Van Dyken-Rouen
OUT TO LUNCH