An Exceptional Athlete

Sarah Billmeier '99 was just five years old when she lost one of her legs to cancer. At age eight she took up a sport challenging for even able-bodied athletes skiing. Today she trains with the U.S. Paralympic Ski Team in Denver, Colorado.

Billmeier shared her story with more than 100 fellow students, alumni, and disabled athletes who gathered last fall for a community dinner in Dartmouth's Collis Center. She acknowledged that while sports are fun, as for any athlete, there is an additional motivation for a disabled athlete. "It's about changing people's perceptions of disability," she said. "If I'm skiing at 70 miles per hour, people don't see me as disabled."

Her speech was given in conjunction with the showing of Vietnam: Long Time Coming, a documentary about a group of disabled Vietnam War veterans who recently completed a 16-day cycling trip across the 1,200-mile length of Vietnam. Dud HendrickT'69 helped organize the ride through an organization called World TEAM (The Exceptional Athlete Matters), which counts Bob Freeman '64 as a board member.

At 70 mph Billmeierisn't seen as disabled.