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National Symposium speaker offers hope to the challenged
“I was at the UPS store the other day and a woman stopped me. I had shorts on and she saw my prosthetic leg. Her husband had just lost his leg,” Sandy explains. She often finds herself in the impromptu role of encourager, resource provider and advocate to complete strangers who have been touched by disability. It’s a role Sandy says she was made to fulfill. “I just know that there’s a bigger meaning for why I do what I do. I think it’s because there are people with disabilities who are lost and scared.” Before leaving the UPS store, Sandy jotted down some contacts that would help the recently disabled man return to the golf links. She suggested the prosthetics that have worked best in her athletic career. Perhaps more than anything, she was willing to connect with another person on a similar journey to overcome personal challenges. Sandy will share her overcomers’ spirit as a keynote speaker at Wheat Ridge Ministries’ National Symposium on Health and Hope in October, encouraging others to not let obstacles stand in the way of achieving their personal and organizational dreams. “My journey is just a reflection of perseverance and how you reach the highest level even when things look like an obstacle,” she says. Sandy’s journey started very young, as she was born with a congenital limb deficiency. Her leg was amputated at age four and she was fit with a prosthetic leg from the knee. The youngest of four athletically-gifted siblings, Sandy soon learned her disability wasn’t going to win her any sympathy points. “(My sisters and brother) never tried to give me any leeway. They treated me like any other competitor out there. No one ever gave me a reason to make excuses. No one would tolerate if I did. That set up the game of true competition for me. They taught me the true human spirit of what’s possible,” she says. She followed in her siblings’ footsteps, competing against able-bodied athletes in basketball, baseball and the high-jump as a high school student in Canton, Ohio. After earning a college degree in sociology, Sandy joined the Lutheran Volunteer Corps in Chicago. It was there that she was first introduced to competitive sports for people with disabilities through the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Sandy remembers her final run on the Paralympics alpine course. After a conservative start the day before, Sandy needed to make up time if she was going to go home a medal winner. “I turned to my teammate and said, ‘We didn’t come here to sit on the sidelines.’ We decided at that moment that we were going to do it,” Sandy recalls. Do it they did, with her teammate, Allison Jones, earning the gold medal and Sandy earning the bronze. This mental fortitude – constantly pressing ahead toward the goal – is as important as the physical training needed to claim the victory, according to Sandy. “I’m reminded every day I put my leg on. I get to decide who I’m going to be,” she explains. “It’s a reminder how tough things can be but how amazing all the opportunities can be for you if you decide to take the challenge.”
“It was definitely a spiritual journey where I really thought about the obstacles in my life. I heard the people who questioned me and made fun of me. By the time that last night came, I felt like it was a healing process. It was a way to let go,” she says. While the Kilimanjaro expedition fulfilled a personal goal for Sandy, it had a larger, two-fold objective: to raise both funds for and awareness of physically disabled athletes. It’s a purpose Sandy has pursued her whole life. “There is a place in this world for me and it is on the sporting arena,” Sandy says. “Not only do I get to challenge myself, I get to challenge spectators who may not think it’s possible. If I can change the perception of people with disabilities, it really drives me.” Which is why Sandy doesn’t shy away from the attention she draws; why she’s happy to share her story with both large audiences and the lone stranger in the UPS line. And it’s why she continues to remain active – this summer she’ll compete in the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver – so others can keep witnessing her ability instead of her disability. “My challenge is to always live with passion and purpose,” Sandy adds. Mission accomplished. Written by Jennifer Halupnik
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When Sandy Dukat walks into a room, she often gets noticed. It could be for her contagious smile, her athletic physique or her high profile as a multi-medal-winning alpine skier. But often it’s because she walks in on a prosthetic leg. And she’s not shy about showing it off.
Sandy plunged into full-time training in 1996, landing a spot on the U.S. Disabled Swim Team on which she set an American record in the 800-meter freestyle. Always game for a new challenge, Sandy switched gears to the ski slopes, earning a place on the U.S. Disabled Ski Team in 2000. She captured two bronze medals at the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City and a third bronze at the 2006 games in Torino, Italy.
Sandy retired from competition in 2007, but not from a life of challenge and adventure. Just two months later, she teamed with four other women with disabilities to climb 19,340 feet to the “Roof of Africa” atop Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro. The six-day trek was the polar opposite of prior feats. No longer did Sandy have gravity and speed on her side as she raced down a mountainside on a single ski. Now, she inched her way up through treacherous terrain, relying on her own strength and endurance.