Triathlete Magazine - December 2006

Dr iven

to

S ucceed

Rudy Garcia-Tolson plans to tackle Kona ’07

By Matt Fitzgerald

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON HAS AN ENVIABLE LIFE. HIS JOB CONSISTS OF TRAINING FOR AND COMPETING IN TRIATHLONS AND SWIMMING EVENTS, REPRESENTING HIS CORPORATE SPONSORS AND DOING THE OCCASIONAL MOTIVATIONAL-SPEAKING GIG. He makes enough money to have purchased a house in pricey Southern California— when he was 14 years old. Recently, Garcia accepted an invitation to spend the next two years (beginning in February) living at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he will focus on preparing for Beijing 2008. Rudy has appeared in a long-running television advertisement on the Disney Channel and in a major motion picture (Emanuel’s Gift, appearing as himself) and his circle of friends includes the actor Robin Williams.

Speaking carelessly, some of us might say we would give our right leg to live a life like Rudy’s. But Rudy himself gave up both legs for it. Born with multiple congenital birth defects, Rudy had both legs amputated at age 5. He took up swimming shortly thereafter and excelled, even against able-bodied competition. He then branched into running races, competing on high-tech prosthetic legs, and later got into triathlons, which required a separate pair of high-tech legs for the bike segment. (Because he can use his buttocks muscles to move his leg stumps, Rudy chooses to compete on a regular upright bike instead of a recumbent.)

Rudy’s athletic accomplishments to date are stunning. He ran a 2: 24 half-marathon at age 14 and a 20:08 5K the following year, and his personal best time for one mile is a jaw-dropping 5: 57. In the pool he has won multiple national championships and set multiple national records in his disability category. Two years ago, at age 16, he won a gold medal and set a new world record in the 200-meter individual medley (2:42: 20) at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.

Courtesy Lifetime Fitness

As a double above-the-knee amputee, Rudy is the first athlete who has even attempted some of the challenges he has set for himself, especially in triathlon. In the process he has almost single-handedly advanced prosthetics technology by a matter of decades within just the past several years. Rudy’s long-time prosthetist, Michael Davidson of Loma Linda Medical Center, works closely with Rudy to solve the limitations that his cycling and running legs try to impose upon his awesome athletic talent and insatiable competitive will. A whole generation of disabled athletes (and even non-athletes) is benefiting from the results of this ongoing cooperative effort—not to mention the example Rudy sets.