Several times a week, three students can be found training at Bird Arena for their next big match. But rather than ice skates, sleds propel them as they fly across the ice in hopes of going for the Paralympics gold.
“My grandpa took me to a practice when I was 12 at the Dublin Chiller when the guys were on the ice, and I got on and tried it,” said Cierra Giehl, a 19-year-old freshman from Granville, Ohio, studying sport management. “After I got on the ice, I knew that was where I was supposed to be, and it’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”
She has undergone 34 surgeries, the first of which was performed six hours after she was born to remedy neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor that affected her spine.
Giehl is the first and only girl to play sled hockey in Ohio and to be on the national team. The team went to the Paralympics last winter.
Because Giehl had certain parts of her spine removed during surgery, she is paralyzed from the waist down, and her mobility is limited to a wheelchair.
“I’ve been in a chair my entire life. It’s something to get used to, but it’s also part of your daily routine, just like getting up and eating your cereal,” she said. “It’s just like breathing; it’s just what you do.”
Giehl’s positive demeanor, though, cloaks the challenges she faced growing up as the only student from her hometown donning wheels.
“How are you going to explain to an 11-year-old that your best friend is in the hospital?” she said. “Especially during those awkward teenage years, it’s hard for everyone, and the chair thing didn’t help.”
Though Giehl said her friends better understood her situation with time, a sled hockey team for people with disabilities served as a better outlet to find people who could directly relate.
“My teammates are my best friends and my family, and they go through the same things,” she said. “They understand.”
A relatively new sport, sled hockey was created in Sweden during the 1940s and made its debut in the U.S. more than five decades later. The sport later inspired Sweden to host the first Paralympics in the winter of 1976. Sled hockey uses the same rules as ice hockey, but players sit in sleds affixed with long skate blades and use shorter sticks to support and propel themselves.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 followed as the first piece of legislation to serve Americans with disabilities, promoting accessibility, equal opportunity in education and employment, and inclusion.
“Flash back to the 1970s; there were very few students with disabilities in higher education,” said Laura Myers, executive director of institutional equity. “We have moved forward, and there are students now that in the 1970s would not have been educated. That has changed, and we can’t lose sight of it.”
According to a survey conducted by Disabled Sports USA, an organization established in 1967, Giehl is not alone in taking advantage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Disabled Sports USA in order to lead a life not limited by her disability. The survey reported that 20 percent of the 704 adults with disabilities who were questioned are physically active, and 33 percent have graduated college.
“Hockey has helped me get through a lot of things that I have been through,” Giehl said. “It’s something you can always look forward to … When I was sick, I would think, ‘If you can just get better, you can get back on the ice, and everything will be okay.’ ”
In addition, 65 percent of the organization’s chapter members reported to lead a happier and healthier lifestyle, while 83 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied with life in general. In contrast, only 53 percent of inactive adults with disabilities reported to be satisfied.
“It is inspirational and it can be uplifting, but I don’t think people realize that we’re out for blood,” Giehl said. “I mean, we are internationally-ranked, professional athletes.”
Giehl’s teammate, Sam Mumper, a freshman studying pre-law and accounting, has a similar outlook on life after suffering from hip bone deterioration in fourth grade, which landed him in rehabilitation for four years. He is now able to walk but has a substantial limp.
“I remember crying every night, wondering why I couldn’t play soccer,” he said.
“But hockey got me out of that, and I stopped feeling sorry for myself and I did something I enjoyed as much as soccer.”
Carey Busch, OU’s director of disability services and regional campus accessibility, said Mumper and Giehl are among the 900 to 1,000 students at the university dealing with disabilities, although that number is subject to change and only includes students who have registered their disability with the university.
“I think the biggest misconception that we all have is that the person with a disability is somehow limited in what they can do,” she said. “The reality is that most often the limitations experienced by a person with a disability is due to inflexibility of the environment and traditional expectations.”
To match this mentality, OU implemented a new policy over the summer regarding inclusion and accessibility on campus. Myers said the purpose of the policy was to update the 2002 version and fine-tune definitions, execution and responsibilities.
“The greatest challenge was identifying and explaining what we do in a way that is concise and clear,” Myers said. “With accessibility, a lot of people don’t know what the law actually says. They think ramps and parking spaces; they don’t think about employment and education and all the other parts that come into play.”
As a result of the efforts made by OU officials, prospective students — including Giehl’s and Mumper’s teammate, John Mollica, a senior at Athens High School paralyzed as a result of a spinal cord tumor — consider OU to have a campus that’s very accessible for students with disabilities.
“OU has been a factor as I’ve been trying to pick schools,” he said. “I was looking at OSU and other places, but it came down to OU. It really is wheelchair accessible. OU has a pretty versatile campus.”
Darrell Purdy, the assistant director for employee accommodation and campus accessibility, said he recognizes “passion” and “desire” in the efforts for accessibility and inclusion on campus.
“I want everyone with a disability, regardless of functional impact, to have the same opportunities to fulfill their hopes, dreams and wishes as someone without a disability would, and I’ll do what I’ve got to do to make that happen,” he said. “I really believe that all things are possible, and a disability doesn’t have the final word in whether or not you get to matter.”
Overcoming the stigma of disability himself by earning a master’s degree, Purdy said he believes a balance needs to be found between acceptance and the value of a disability.
“We can’t take away the impact value,” he said. “Let’s be honest, there are some disabilities, more than not, that shock, and it ain’t good. None of us in our right mind would say, ‘I want to be born with or have a disability.’ But, I don’t ever want to take away the impact value, and I don’t want to get lost in it either.”
No matter what the obstacle is — sledding across the ice, going to college or climbing up Jeff Hill — Giehl said she believes it’s important to keep looking up.
“Those are the types of situations that get in your head a bit,” she said, referencing the time she was hospitalized with a staph infection in eighth grade. “You may have this thing, and it’s bad, but you have so much in your life that makes up for it. Sometimes your willpower can be stronger than your body.”
lf328610@ohiou.edu
