Our guest today is three-time Paralympian and 2004 Paralympic Bronze Medalist Scott Rodgers.
In this episode of First to 15, we're joined three-time Paralympian and 2004 Paralympic Bronze Medalist Scott Rodgers.
It was 1993 when Scott was first introduced to what was then called wheelchair fencing and is now known in the U.S. as parafencing. He quickly learned he was pretty good at it, and before long he was earning medals at the national and then international level.
Speaking of international fencing, Scott competed at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, earned a bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, and returned to represent Team USA at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
EPISODE 16
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:01] BW: Hello, and welcome to First to 15, the official podcast of USA fencing. I'm your host, Bryan Wendell. And in this show, you're going to hear from some of the most inspiring, interesting and insanely talented people in this sport we all love.
First to 15 is for anyone in the fencing community, and even for those just checking out fencing to see what it's all about. Whether you're an Olympian, or Paralympian, a newcomer, a seasoned veteran, a fencing parent, a fan, or anyone else in this wonderful community, this podcast is for you. With that, let's get to today's episode. Enjoy.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:00:40] BW: Today's guest is two-time Paralympian and 2004 Paralympic bronze medalist, Scott Rodgers. It was actually 1993 when Scott was first introduced to what was then called wheelchair fencing, and is now known at least in the U.S as parafencing. And he quickly learned he was pretty good at it. And before long was earning medals at the national and then the international level.
And then speaking of international fencing, he earned a bronze medal in 2004 at the Paralympics in Athens, Greece. And then returned to represent Team USA again at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. So, welcome to the podcast, Scott Rodgers.
[00:01:14] SR: Thank you. I have to start with an initial correction.
[00:01:17] BW: Yes.
[00:01:18] SR: And I don't know how it got in my bio. But it's actually a three-time Paralympian. My first games were the Sydney games in 2000. And then '04 games in Athens. And then the '08 games in Beijing.
[00:01:30] BW: So, three-time Paralympian. You know, we need to correct that on our website, I think. So that's good that we're having this conversation.
[00:01:35] SR: I know. I keep trying to bug them to get it correct. And somewhere I think around '08, they put a bio out and they missed the 2000 games on there. And I keep trying to get people to correct it.
[00:01:46] BW: No. We will certainly do that. And actually, I want to go back even before that to start our conversation and the first time you kind of got involved in wheelchair fencing. Can you tell us how you learned of the sport and what that, I guess, origin story was for you?
[00:02:02] SR: Actually, for me, I learned of it when I went to go to graduate school. I broke my neck when I was 19. Went and did rehab in Atlanta at the Shepherd Center. After I went back to school, a friend of mine introduced me to the sport of fencing and he was like, "Oh, you should come and try this out." I was like, "I can't do this because I can't really move my feet."
And he eventually convinced me to come down and try it out. And I say come down because it was in the basement in one of these gyms on the campus there. Dark, dingy basement, where a handful of people would get together and practice fencing. He's like, "Yeah, you know, you should come down and you do it and try it." "I can't move my feet." "Well, we'll just teach you to do it without moving your feet."
I finally convinced me to go down and give it a try. And for me, I was like, "Well, okay, I'll do this because it'll be something fun to distract me from real exercise. And this will be great for rebuilding my core strength and things from my injury."
And so, I went down and tried it. And did it for about 18 months. And it was enjoyable. But I started getting frustrated at some point because I couldn't move my feet. And everybody else would just kind of would run in at me and run away from me. No matter how good I got with my hand, it was really hard to deal with them in that context.
So then I was out for about, let's say, 12 to 18 months or something when I went to graduate school at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I went back to go back and volunteer at the Shepherd Center, which was two or three miles from the campus. And they were like, "You know, you should volunteer with our fencing team. We have a wheelchair fencing team." I was like, "Okay, I'll do that."
And so, I went to a couple practices and helped him set up and do some things, and sparred a little a little bit. And after about the second practice they're like, "No, no, no, you're not going to be one of our volunteers. You're going to be on our team." That was fall of '95 moving into '96. That was really where I first got introduced to wheelchair fencing or parafencing.
And a lot of the guys that were on that team were trying to qualify to go to the '96 games there in Atlanta. I started really fencing with them at that point. And my first big national tournament was the Olympic Paralympic trials for the '96 games.
[00:03:58] BW: And what do you remember about what the wheelchair fencing scene was like at those trials, especially compared with what it's like now 30 years later?
[00:04:09] SR: Well, I remember being it's always been a small group. But it was a bigger group than what we currently have. I remember having – I think we would have 15 or 16 people, somewhere on that order, at the events. I remember a lot of the competitiveness. There was a big team from Atlanta. There was a group of different folks from all over the country. There was a good group out of Kentucky from Coach Stawicki's club, Stawicki's.
I kind of remember everybody coming together and trying to really compete and qualify, but also recognizing that we were newbies in the sport, particularly when you look at the international scene. And I just remember kind of that initial piece of that. And in some sense for me was a little bit of awe kind of coming to these big competitions with people trying to qualify to go to the Olympics or the Paralympics. The U.S fencing was not as competitive as we are now internationally.
And really, you could sense the origins of a program that's in competitiveness there. I compare that to today where we're sort of kind of revisiting some of those times as we're trying to rebuild a program and rebuild the team and trying to bring together a new group of athletes to really make a strong push at the 28 games and beyond. And really kind of re-establish – I'll say re-establish. Maybe establish is a stronger parafencing presence on the world stage.
[00:05:29] BW: Yeah, and I want to get to that in a little bit. But before we get off of like the '96 Olympics specifically, I know you didn't compete there, but you played a role in the torch relay, I hear. Can you tell us about that?
[00:05:43] SR: My mother nominated me for being one of the torch bearers. And so, I was one of the torch bearers in the torch relay in my hometown just outside Nashville. Carried the torch for about, I don't know, a half a mile, a quarter mile, whatever it was, something along those lines.
And at that time, they were kind of hometown heroes were all the different nominees. My mom wrote a nice little write-up about me and breaking my neck and kind of some of the things that I had been through and overcome and was chosen to be one of the torch relay – or torch bearers in the torch relay. Somewhere hiding my basement here is the torch that I actually carried.
[00:06:18] BW: Oh, so you get to keep the torch? One of the torches, I guess?
[00:06:22] SR: Well, actually, I kept the one that I carried. And I shouldn't say kept. You are allowed to purchase it.
[00:06:27] BW: Right. Okay.
[00:06:28] SR: This was the first time that they had really made that available. Georgia Tech had done the designs for them. And they designed them to be inexpensive so that people could purchase them for a reasonable price.
[00:06:39] BW: That's awesome.
[00:06:40] SR: And so, yeah, I was able to purchase that. And I said it's down in a nice spot in my basement here on my – I call it the wall of shame. But it's really kind of the wall of all the trophies and memorabilia from my fencing career and various things throughout my career.
[00:06:55] BW: That's so cool. When you were in that torch relay, did you think that four years later you'd be actually in the Paralympics yourself? Or were you kind of just like getting wrapped up in the there and now I guess you could say?
[00:07:09] SR: I was in the moment at that point. I didn't have any context that I would be in the games in the future. And just a number of things, involvement. I kind of look back at the number of involvement in the Olympic, Paralympic movement of things. And at that point, I had no context of how much I would get to see that.
It was interesting being on campus at Georgia Tech because I was in graduate school there during the games and being around the village. I volunteered at the Paralympic games and getting to kind of see all that kinds of things and having no context that four years later I would be one of the athletes in the village going through the same thing. And I kind of remember in 2000 thinking a little bit back on that. But in '96, I had no clue.
[00:07:54] BW: What was that first Paralympics like in Sydney? Like, the qualification? And then actually making your way down under for the competition. What was that like?
[00:08:04] SR: Oh, my. The qualification path was – It was interesting. I mean, that was after '96 getting classified. I was like, "All right, I'm going to try and do this internationally." And started going to international events. It turned out I did quite well. I went to all the – for pretty much – Not as much as '97. But after the world championships in '98. Then I pretty much much hit all the World Cup events. Ended up ranked number one in the world for a little while before going into the Sydney games.
And I just remember going to the competitions. I was in graduate school. So, I was always on a budget. Always trying to figure out how to – I've got $50 or $100, that's my food budget for this tournament type of things. And I remember going – but also, I remember building a camaraderie with the other athletes in the other countries.
I remember after one of my first tournament, one of my first international tournaments, sitting at the party. There's always seems to be like a little party afterwards with the other athletes. And the Italians – I speak no Italian. Their English was not so great. But I remember the Italian coach coming up and giving me a shot of something and motioned me over to kind of join them and going, "You're a fencer. You're a fencer. This is for fencers only." Which was really kind of – for me, it was kind of really special because it was sort of like, "Yeah, we recognize you. You're part of the community here. You're somebody who is truly worthy of fencing." That's part establishing – Because the US, for so many years, would come and we just get obliterated, right? We were kind of [inaudible 00:09:29] for a lot of the Europeans. So, to have them do that was kind of like, "Okay, yeah, you're not going to be [inaudible 00:09:35]. You're somebody who's going to be a competitor with us."
I remember building a lot of those relationships, that kind of camaraderie. Even though you didn't speak the same language, you had a common language in fencing. You were able to sort of communicate with that. And you kind of always saw the same people. And it was always that – it was kind of like camaraderie of athletes. I really remember a lot of those pieces and how much fun that was.
Starting to talk about thinking about going to Sydney. At that point, that was a huge highlight. Still, there's a huge highlight in my life and going. I remember flying, kind of going through all the stuff that you get to do. I say you get to do that you do before you leave. And getting all the apparel and things. And then the 14 or 18-hour plane ride down to Australia. Sit on the plane in my little seat with my big USA hoodie, and pulled over and the headphones on and just tried to sleep as much as you can before you get down there.
Yeah, I look back and I remember some of the times going through the opening ceremonies. My family came down for the event. I remember how special it was to walk into the stadium. I think there was like 110,000 people there and to be on the track kind of walking around and looking up at all those people and hearing them cheer and yell.
And shockingly enough, my sister, who was on the upper deck, was screaming loud enough that I could actually hear her. And so, I found her in the upper deck.
[00:10:57] BW: That's awesome.
[00:10:57] SR: Yeah, it was a pretty special event all around.
[00:11:00] BW: That's so cool.
[00:11:02] SR: Didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped. Yeah, I think I ended up in the – I went up in the top eight somewhere. But it was – Yeah, I had a great. And I can remember the competition. Some of the events. I have some nice pictures of me sitting there in the team event against the French, against some of the folks as we're waiting for our next bout.
And I'll say the other big takeaway I had was being in the athlete's village. And I kind of know what I've been through. But to see all the other athletes from all the other countries from all around the world, and to hear some of their stories, and to see some of the things that they went through just to get there.
I remember seeing some of the athletes from some of the African countries that had various types of disabilities. And they're walking around with crutches made from trees. Kind of homemade crutches from trees. And yet, they were still able to get there and do that. And what a community it was.
I look at my story and I look at some of the other stories and I'm just – yeah, how awed I am and what some of those folks have overcome to be where they are to do what they do, and to get around a lot of hurdles that society places in front of them. And so many parts of the world, people with disabilities are parked in a corner, put in an apartment and are not really seen. But here are the people out there being seen, doing, and fighting, and getting over all the obstacles that are put in front of them to still enjoy life. To see the world. To be successful.
[00:12:26] BW: Yeah, and just to have an opportunity to celebrate them all in a friendly competition that's still ultimately a competition. And so, I want to go to Athens when you got that bronze medal. Like, how did life change for you once you had that medal? Did you see it as some type of validation in any sense? Or was it just the reward for all the hard work that had come to that point?
[00:12:53] SR: I would go more on the reward side versus seeing it as some sort of validation. Maybe it's my arrogance. I always felt like I was one of the top competitors.
[00:13:01] BW: Sure.You got to have some of that in fencing, right? You got to have some of that confidence, right?
[00:13:04] SR: Oh, yeah. I always feel like I could go out, and on any given day, I could beat anybody. Now there are a handful of other people who, on any given day, who could beat me as well. There was that handful of people that were really kind of the top, the top tier of athletes.
And I like to think that I was in that tier. But to me, the medal was – I think it was more of a big deal for – It was always a big deal for me, and that is getting into pinnacle. But I think it was also a big deal for just U.S. fencing, right? We're going into 2004. Fencing had not won a medal in forever. I think even able-bodied fencing, the previous medal I think was the '84 games. And in 2004 was the first time we really broke through on the international stage. The women saber did amazing and brought back multiple medals. I think Mariel won the gold at those games.
And for the Paralympic program to also bring back a medal I think was a really big deal. And I know on the Paralympic side, we've continued the string of results that our able-bodied fencers have put together. But at the time, it was – that we were competitive and to go out and have a medal.
I kind of remember there was a sense of jubilation within our program within the team, within me as well. I actually kind of remember one of the Spanish guys kind of looking at us and we were taking pictures and doing all those things. He was like, "Why are you guys doing all this?" And [inaudible 00:14:29], "That's the first medal we've won in however long." I think since – Yeah, in the Paralympics, I think since 1960. And so, he's like, "Okay." Yeah. And I think there was just this expectation that we would have won more medals at that point.
[00:14:40] BW: Well, how cool too that you see it as not just your medal, but as team USA's medal. And I think that in my observation that's not true in every sport with every Olympic medal. What was it for you that made it seem like this was the team that had brought home a medal?
[00:15:01] SR: For me, it's always been – there's always been a collection of us as a team sport. And while I get to be one of the athletes that was at the top, near the top of the rankings and driving at that, without the guys that I worked with, without my training part owners, without the coaches, without the support of the team when we're there, it never would have happened. And it's a community.
And we're a small community. And it's really about building us all up so that we can all get better. So we all can have an opportunity to perform well. But also, to experience – have the experience to go to the games. To be at the games. To compete. To see other people's stories. And so, I think it was a collection of all those things. And that without all those other things, I wouldn't have been there. I wouldn't had a chance to be the guy on the podium.
And in that mind, I see it as a team thing. And it really goes back to there. And it goes back to the larger community. it goes back to the U.S fencing community. The number of friends and folks that I have – and relationships that I've had with different folks in U.S fencing. The support we've gotten over the years has really helped make those things possible. And we can continue to see that as we continue to try and grow a program and build a better program, and a more competitive program. But it's a community effort. It's not just a one person. We have a handful of people who get to reach the pinnacle and represent. But it's a privilege. And it's really driven by their hard work, but also the hard work of a lot of other people who never ever get to make it to the games.
[00:16:41] BW: That's well said. Where is that bronze medal today? Is it down with the torch from Atlanta?
[00:16:47] SR: It is. It is. Every now and then it makes its way up. I was going to look over here. It's been up in my office here a few times.
[00:16:53] BW: That's great.
[00:16:53] SR: But right now, it's sitting down there.
[00:16:55] BW: Scott, after the 2008 games, did you step away from the sport for a little while? Because I want to ask you about your kind of return to competitive fencing. Because I've seen you out there you know fencing very strongly at some of our knacks. So, what was the gap there? And what were you going through personally at the time?
[00:17:16] SR: After 2008, I took some time off. I'll say I took time off from fencing. Fencing takes a lot of your time. I realized somewhere along the way that I could do two of three things. I could work. I could have a life. Or I could fence. Pick two.
[00:17:31] BW: Pick two, yeah.
[00:17:31] SR: I had to work. Unfortunately, fencing doesn't pay the bills, as much as we all love it to. That really wasn't an option there. And then I spent not only 15 years, 20 years or so fencing. And then in 2008, or shortly thereafter, I changed jobs and moved to a job that made it much more difficult for me to have access to a club. Put me in a position where I had a lot more responsibility and sucked up a lot more in my life. And so, at that point, I kind of stepped away from fencing for a while when I moved to the DC area. And worked on my professional career. And worked on having a little bit of a life outside of fencing. A little bit of a social life.
It was six or eight years there. I met my wife. And then I had another job change and moved out to the Colorado area, which gave me a little bit better work-life balance. I started getting back into fencing. Was introduced to – reconnected with some of my old fencing friends who connected with some clubs here. And the Denver Fencing Center is trying to build a pair of program. And so, I'm working with the club there trying to help build that and kind of be one of the athletes in doing that.
And also, saw an opportunity as we're seeing the para programs starting to build itself to kind of bring some of that experience I've had over the years to the program and help people understand what it really takes to get to the top levels and be one of the top competitors in the world.
[00:19:00] BW: Yeah. And obviously, you would know. And I did want to talk to you about the Denver Fencing Center and what Nathan Anderson's doing there you. Even if you go to the club's website, there's a parafencing tab on the site, which you wouldn't see in most clubs. Let's be honest, right? But I think that really signals to me that they are committed to growing parafencing. For lack of a better question, what's the deal with that club? What's working well when it comes to pair fencing at the Denver Fencing Center? Certainly, it helps to have a Scott Rodgers among the members. But what else has Nathan and team done there?
[00:19:37] SR: Nathan started as well before I got here. And so, I think I just hopefully help enhance what's going on. But I think Nathan's got a commitment to fencing, all aspects of fencing, whether it's able-bodied fencing, or parafencing. And really kind of teaching the sport and bringing people into it and growing that capability.
And so, he's made a commitment to really try and help grow the program to reach out to folks and build a center here in the Denver area. And so, I would give a lot of that credit to Nathan and his vision for the club and bring in people at all different levels. Because realizing fencing is a – as I said before, it's a community. And whether you're doing parafencing and you're sitting in a chair, or you're standing up on the strip, it's a community of folks. And we are a tight-knit community. And so, I see it really as kind of building that presence.
And I think for him, it's also an opportunity to really build athletes that are going to have an opportunity to go to the games, whether it's Paralympics or the Olympic games, and continue to enhance that reputation and the quality of competitiveness at the club.
[00:20:37] BW: I could see a lot of club owners thinking, "Yeah, I'd love to start a para program. But I have no clue where to start. What equipment I need? And how I'd find athletes to sign up for classes?" Even that, right? How I'd find coaches. What does it take to get over that hurdle, which in some sense it's a mental hurdle as well?
[00:20:58] SR: It is. I would say it's primarily a mental hurdle. I think the biggest thing is I hear people make excuses. And to me, that's exactly what parafencing is about. It's about not making excuses. It's about going, "Okay. I can't use my legs. I have cerebral palsy." In my case, I broke my neck. I have partial paralysis. And? Why not? Why can't I go fence? Why not? So what?
That would be my first statement is – Really, it's like stop looking at the problem and start working your way how you solve it. Getting equipment. You don't have to have a frame to start with here. There are relatively inexpensive ways to make the basic pieces to keep the chair fixed to the floor type of thing.
I can remember doing some practice when I was in San Diego trying to figure out how to find the right club or how I could train and doing things where I got stools and just set up stools so that people – just so we could get the distance kind of right. And we kind of use our feet for balance. But they kind of kept us stationary. Not to say the greatest solution. But it kind of gave a means to practice a little bit before getting a solid frame and those type of things.
I would say you reach out to the US Parafencing Program. There are opportunities through grants and various other things to get the right kind of equipment and work your way through that. As far as coaching goes, fencing is fencing. The basic actions, parries, riposte, attacks, counter attacks, all that part of the game is pretty much the same as what you do in the able-bodied game. The biggest difference is instead of doing it with big steps and lunges, you're doing it by changing your distance from your hips and your waist.
And this is where it's like [inaudible 00:22:38] I use my hands. And able-bodied fencing, you got your people moving back and forth. And in a chair, really, it's this leaning kind of thing. And there's so much material out there on YouTube and various other things to be able to watch high-level competitive fencing to watch how people move. And what you'll see very quickly is that there's a lot of movement in the chair. It's all from the waist, leaning back and lunging forward.
But the parries, the ripostes, the basic actions, the attacks, they're all the same. In fact, I would say sometimes it's a little bit faster because you can't run as far – you can't run as far away and take a break that you can in the able-bodied world.
[00:23:19] BW: Yes.
[00:23:19] SR: I will say that my best practice is against really strong able-bodied fencers.
[00:23:24] BW: Mm-hmm. I was going to ask about that.
[00:23:25] SR: Yeah. And what I have found is that the really good ones, the first time, the chair is a little bit awkward. But by the time they've done the third bout in the chair, it's second nature, right? And I look at some of our Olympians and things, and I'd love to put them in the chair, but I know I'd get my butt kick. I had some of those experiences when I was in San Diego. Soren Thompson used to sit down with me periodically and we would fence. And part of my [inaudible 00:23:49] is like, "All right. He's in my world now. I'm going to take him." And then some of the skills and the handwork he had was just phenomenal. And he adapted really quickly. And I like to think I pushed him a little bit. But he did some things and I was like, "Oh, wow! I wish I could do that."
[00:24:07] BW: Well, and that answers the question of if you've got – at a club, if you've got one parafencer there, who are they going to practice against? Well, there's plenty of able-bodied fencers that they can practice against. And side note, this is also going to help that able-bodied fencer work on their game as well, right?
[00:24:23] SR: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what most able-bodied fencers will tell me after they've done. They're like, "Wow! This is really good for my hand." And the number of able-bodied fencers that have fenced with me and have gotten up after a while and go, "Okay, that was harder than I thought." Or is like, "Wow! That would really push my hand." You've got to really be strong in your upper body, and your shoulders, and your arm, and your hand to really do this. And I'm like, "Yeah." And that's where the advantage for them comes in. You get to work on a part of your game that you don't get to work on as much necessarily on the strip where you can take three steps back and relax. You got to have a strong hand and you got to maintain that strong hand. And you got to be clean and crisp with it.
[00:25:04] BW: It's a very focused way to train on that element.
[00:25:07] SR: I'll add one other piece to that, which is that for able-bodied fencers who've had an injury, a knee, or an ankle, or something that would typically keep you off the strip and not really able to practice. This is a perfect place to practice without you having to put any pressure or issues with those kinds of injuries. If you've got something, a sprained ankle, or a knee, or something like that, sit in the chair. You're not going to do anything to your ankle or your knee. But you can still get to work on your game and practice.
[00:25:36] BW: Great idea. Yeah, you're still making progress. Switching gears a little bit, you talked a lot about wanting to grow parafencing. And in January, the US is going to host an IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Cup. That'll be the first one since 2003 in Atlanta. What's the importance of hosting such a major international wheelchair fencing event right here on American soil?
[00:26:01] SR: To me, I'm super excited about it to bring that high-level competition to the US. And I think that's a big piece of it is that exposure to the larger US fencing community of the level of athletes from around the world coming here and competing what they can do, how they play.
Also exposing kind of the rest of the world of how we run tournaments in the U.S and how they fit and kind of the facilities and capabilities we have. I know we get the chance to go to other countries and see their facilities, their capabilities and things. And some places we're jealous because they have better para programs and things than we do. But I think it's also an opportunity for us to showcase what we can do here in the US.
I know for a lot of the international athletes, they love to come to the US because they don't really get an opportunity to come and see some of the things here. And so, I know they're excited to be able to come and see some things in the US and experience some of what we experience on a day-to-day basis here in this country.
As far as building a program, I think the more high-level competitions we have, the more buzz it generates, the more it will bring in people to kind of go, "Yeah, I want to do that."
[00:27:03] BW: Yeah, you're right. And that includes Americans who are maybe just fans of fencing and haven't seen themselves as having an opportunity to participate in the sport.
You know, Scott, one thing that I wanted to mention is that anybody who kind of follows the Paralympics and parafencing might have been a little disappointing to see that there were only three team USA Paralympians in Tokyo, right? Participating in wheelchair fencing specifically I should say. Why was that team so small? And how can we change that for Paris and Los Angeles and grow that aspect of the sport?
[00:27:41] SR: I don't know the real reasons because I was really not part of what was going on at that point. My suspicion is you had several athletes that had been long time parafencers and things. They retired. And that we just didn't have a new pipeline of athletes that were ready to step up and qualify to go to the games in '08. And I think that sort of answers the second half of your question, which is how do we change that? Which is we have to build a stronger pipeline of athletes to come in. So does are – as people go through their careers and reach that point where it's time to step back from the international scene, or retire, or whatever the right – whatever their thing is, that there's another crop of folks that are really nipping at their heels.
And I will say this as well, having a new set of folks always coming along pushing you is what continues to drive us to get better. And so, I think that pipeline becomes a huge part of building a strong program.
The first snack I came back to, I was kind of disappointed to see that there were only six or eight people in the events. And having remembered the events being twice that size or larger, it's just such a small community of folks really driving at this. For me, that's one thing I would love to see, is growing to the point where we have 15, 20 people regularly at or more at our parafencing events where we have. And when I say 15, 20 more, each and in each event. Not as a whole. So that we're having three four pools. And you've got a competitive field there.
Now, not everybody's going to be international Paralympic level athlete. But they're not supposed to be right. And that there are people out there driving, and trying, and enjoying the sports, and kind of rewards it comes with competition and being able to get out and overcome and see.
I'll go back to my life. I've had an opportunity to go all over the world at this point. Had I not gotten into fencing, there's a real good chance I wouldn't have done those things. I wouldn't have been able to see those places. And, yeah, to me it goes back to that piece of not making excuses.
Yeah, it's harder for me. It's different for me. So what? It's really about finding a way to do it. Finding a way to enjoy your life and to do things that make you happy. And for me, I enjoy competing. I enjoy getting out to go see – it's really easy to go, "You know what? It's really hard for me to walk. Or it's really hard – I can't walk. Or I got to drive a chair." To me, that's the difference between somebody who is disabled versus somebody who has a disability. It's really that attitude of do I feel like the world owes me something because I was injured or because I was born with it with some sort of disability? Or is that just another part of who I am?
I'm short. I'm tall. Take your attribute. I have a broken neck. And? Everybody has a story. Some people's stories are just more visible than others. And it really becomes about, "All right, I have a story. It's part of who I am. It's part of what makes me Scott." You have a story. It's part of what makes you who you are. Everybody has that story and the challenges they've overcome. And it's really about putting those aside and still driving forward to do the things that you want to do and to provide impact into the world.
[00:30:59] BW: That's awesome. That's really inspiring. And I we'll leave it at that with those words of inspiration from you, Scott. Thank you so much for being our guest. And we'll definitely be cheering you on this season as you get out there on the strip.
[00:31:12] SR: Excellent. Well, thank you. And hopefully I'll get to come back, and next time will be a four-time Paralympian.
[00:31:16] BW: Yes, exactly. I like it.
[00:31:18] SR: That's sooner.
[00:31:18] BW: Yes, thank you so much.
[00:31:20] SR: All right. Thank you, Bryan. Thanks for listening to First to 15, the official podcast of USA fencing. We'll be back with our next conversation in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, you can stay up to date on all the latest fencing news by following us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And if you like this podcast, please help us grow and reach more people by leaving us a rating or a review.
Until next time, I'm Bryan Wendell. And I hope to see you real soon out on the strip. Bye.
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