<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=475>Downhill skier Tom Mahrker had his left leg removed from below the knee yesterday after five hours of surgery failed to save the limb. The athlete’s leg was smashed and partially torn off in a horrific car accident he was involved in on Monday.
But Mahrker is excited to take his career in another direction.
“I’m not all that upset,” Mahrker said. “I’m not sure that I was good enough to ever make the U.S. Olympic team beyond being an alternate anyway. But now, after some rehab, I’m really going to tear it up on the Special Olympics circuit. The worst day of those people’s lives is going to be when they see me at the top of the slope.”
Mahrker, 24, was an accomplished Junior Olympics skier but never seemed to reach his potential. The highest he rose on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team was sixth in 2001. But now he expects to dominate the disabled skiing circuit.
“You’ve got disabled skiers who are thought to be the best of the best that were only average skiers when they had all of their physical capacities,” Mahrker said. “There are people on two fake legs, you’ve got people basically sliding down the hill on a wheelchair, people with crutches for ski poles, people on sleds, blind people – it’s pathetic.”
Harsh words in the supportive community of the Special Olympics, but maybe the type of attitude needed if disabled athletes are ever going to achieve the fame of their physically superior brethren.
“Call me cocky, but I’ll put my one good leg and my one stump up against any of the cripples and nitwits out there today,” Marhrker said. “Think about it – I’m a world class skier that’s only missing part of my leg. Most everyone else is severely handicapped or mentally retarded. The way I see it, there’s going to be a lot of crying among the other skiers at the next Special Olympics, and they ain’t going to be tears of joy, support and accomplishment.”
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