This device is an enabling technology that will allow SCI, double leg amputee, and single-leg AK amputee athletes to participate in the high speed, high adrenaline sports of bobsled and skeleton. Being able to successfully drive a bobsled or skeleton down a twisting chute of ice from the top of a 40-story building in less than a minute while experiencing 4 – 5 G pressures throughout the descent is a life-changing experience! The key to that experience is the speed at the top of the track when the descent begins. This electromechanical launch device will allow the para-athletes to experience start speeds comparable to those of able-bodied athletes.
Question & Answer
QL+ Challenge: Para Bobsled Launcher
How will the QL+ device the students are creating, improve the quality of life of veteran Para athletes? This device is an enabling technology that will allow SCI, double leg amputee, and single-leg AK amputee athletes to participate in the high speed, high adrenaline sports of bobsled and skeleton. Being able to successfully drive a bobsled or skeleton down a twisting chute of ice from the top of a 40-story building in less than a minute while experiencing 4 – 5 G pressures throughout the descent is a life-changing experience! The key to that experience is the speed at the top of the track when the descent begins. This electromechanical launch device will allow the para-athletes to experience start speeds comparable to those of able-bodied athletes.
What has it been like so far, working with QL+ students and participating in the program? The QL+ students at Virginia Tech have been amazing. Interacting with them on a weekly basis has refreshed the memory of this 72-year old curmudgeon as to just how creative, enthusiastic, brilliant and entertaining young college students can be. And the expertise and mentorship of the professors and academic advisors I have witnessed in the course of this program have also brought back awareness of the impact that my own mentors had on my professional and personal life during that stage of my own education so many years ago.
What motivates you? Mentorship motivates me probably more than anything else – the ability to pass forward the learning and experiences of my own life to others so that they can, in turn, continue the process of advancing the lives of others throughout their own time on this planet. This has been true in all aspects of my life.
My motivation for being involved in activities to assist Para veterans can best be captured in one single incident: early in our efforts to figure out how we could adapt the sports of bobsled and skeleton for athletes with disabilities, I was working at the bottom of the track one day to assist the athletes after they crossed the finish line and slid towards the take out area. An Australian double AK leg amputee was sliding on a skeleton sled on his first descent. When the sled came to a stop he hauled himself up onto the track sidewall, looked at me with eyes that approached silver-dollar size, and screamed, “Oh my [expletive] God! I have never felt so alive in my entire life!!"
Do you have any words of wisdom for our QL+ Students? Words of “wisdom” are always tricky. Wisdom can be defined as the ability to consistently make good choices. Acquisition of wisdom can similarly be defined as the learning that results from making bad choices. [When I was 20 I was very much like the students I have encountered in this program, highly successful in my academic career and full of self-confidence. By that time I held a Top Secret clearance and was working at the Rand Corporation before I was old enough to vote. I believed then there was NOTHING I could not accomplish. Life had other ideas.] There is no doubt that these amazingly talented students will enjoy tremendous success in their careers. It will be less obvious to them that they will also experience failure. When that inevitable outcome occurs, as it will, it will be helpful to rename failure into what it really is – a natural part of life’s continuing education program.
If you were writing a book about yourself, what would be the title? What an incredible question!! If I were to write a book about myself it would be titled View from the Sidewall. The title comes from my favorite photograph in all of sport (below). The picture captures an iconic moment in Olympic history – the awarding of the very first gold medal in Women’s bobsled. What the photo cannot capture is the sense of electricity in the air at that instant in time or the incredibly loud roar of the spectators drowning out all conversation. Less than 60 seconds after the photograph was taken Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers accomplished that goal in 2002. The unremarkable and ancillary sport official standing on the sidewall of the track preparing to clear the athletes to begin their descent is me. I am neither an elite athlete nor one of their coaches. I am not a military hero nor a member of the military hierarchy that directs their efforts to defend our nation. What I am is the world’s luckiest close-to-the-action spectator. And it has been from this privileged perch that I have been witness to acts of amazing courage and greatness.
The goal of our Challenger Salute is to honor the service and sacrifice our Challengers made for our country and to recognize other organizations helping our Challengers live their best lives. We are very grateful that they have agreed to participate in our program. Their participation is helping us to “build” better students. They are helping us provide our students with real-world experiences and arming them with the tools they need to succeed once they graduate.
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The goal of our Challenger Salute is to honor the service and sacrifice our Challengers made for our country. We are very grateful that they have agreed to participate in our program. They are providing our students with real-world experience and arming them with the tools they need to succeed once they graduate.
