"Extremity Games" leads Flint native to athletic heights
PONTIAC -- Limitless optimism and remarkable inner strength had allowed McKayla Hanson to exceed the boundaries of her amputation, but she was still seeking an outlet to channel her boundless energy.
Back in 2007, McKayla's doctor suggested the "Extremity Games," an athletic competition for disabled athletes which was formed just one year prior. The event was originated by the Athletes With Disabilities Netowrk, in nearby Auburn Hills.
"There are a lot of Paralympian-style competitions out there, but there's really nothing for the everyday sports of extreme sports, the lifestyle sports, if you will," said Beth Taylor, Executive Director for the Athletes With Disabilities Network. "So we really felt that there was a need to put something on where an athlete can compete peer-to-peer, limb loss to limb loss, with extreme sports."
The sport McKayla focused on was rock-climbing, and after climbing her very first wall during training, this positive thinker had come to one definitive conclusion.
"There is no way I can do this, no way!" said McKayla. "So I was just like, you know, thinking over it, watching other people go. And then I was like, I'll try another route. So I went back up there again, got back down...three people came up to me and said 'You are phenomenal.'"
And they were hardly the only ones to have those feelings. McKayla, who was adopted around the same time she had her leg amputated, has full support from her family...a family which may have needed weeks to fill out its census form.
"I have in a family of 15 now," McKayla said proudly. "Twelve of us are adopted, the three oldest are my parents' biological, and the support is just great."
"She's never in a bad mood, and she laughs at anything and everything," added McKayla's older sister, Heidi. "Her strength, her courage...there's not anything that I've ever seen her not accomplish. If she wants to do it, she will do it."
A winner's mentality, not to mention a refreshing sense of humor, has propelled McKayla to enormous heights. The 22 year-old Michigan State student has captured a pair of gold medals in the rock climb - in July of 2009 at Planet Rock in Pontiac, and again in February of this year, down in Alexandria, Virginia.
So, what would this inspirational athlete say to a frightened young girl who experienced the same trauma as McKayla did years ago?
"I would just tell that little girl, just don't give up. Believe in yourself, really. It's all about trusting yourself, that will take your far down the road."
In mid-June, McKayla will be heading down to Texas for another Extremity Games event. Though she won't actually be competing, she will serve as ambassador for the Games, encouraging others with disabilities to learn about the event and to one day becoming a competitive athlete as McKayla has. She says that her next competition will be sometime in 2011, as she continues to pursue her degree in kinesiology at Michigan State University.
