Harris County – Houston Sports Authority Insider

Gateway to Gold - an event that helps create new Paralympic athletes - is coming to Houston

Gateway to Gold - an event that helps create new Paralympic athletes - is coming to Houston
Karin Korb has both been a participant and coach. Flickr.com

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Now that the Astros have clinched the AL West and the Rockets are about to kick off the preseason,  visions of another World Series and another run at the NBA Finals are the talk of this championship city.

But before you get too deep into dreaming about those championship runs, we want to remind you of two other Houston national champions you may not know about - Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann Junior Hotwheels basketball team and TIRR’s Junior Hotwheels softball team.

Yes, Houston produces national champions in adaptive sports too. You’ve likely seen video clips of the teams wheeling around the court and the diamond. They’re young, they’re fast and, in some cases, good enough to get college scholarships in their respective sports.

But have you wondered how amputees and the disabled found their way into adaptive sports and the Paralympic pipeline?

The first step, for many of them, is Gateway To Gold, a free program that changes lives.

Houston will host Gateway to Gold next Friday and Saturday at Turner Stadium. Launched in 2013, Gateway to Gold is a nationwide athlete identification and development strategy that exposes Americans with Paralympic-eligible impairments to Paralympic sport. And, to those who become elite athletes, the program leads them into the athlete pipeline for the U.S. Paralympic Team.

The annual Houston event is among the best in the country. It’s free to all children and adults with physical disabilities or visual impairments and allows participants to try out sports like wheelchair tennis, track and field and power lifting and learn about them on a beginner or intermediate level. They can also talk to coaches and athletes, test their skills and learn more about adaptive programs such as those at TIRR Memorial Hermann.

“What’s happening at Gateway to Gold is where it all starts,’’ said Peggy Turner, TIRR adapted sports coordinator.

Participants will have the chance to meet and be coached by some of the country’s top Paralympians, including three-time Paralympian Scot Severn, two-time Paralympian Karin Korb and Paralympic coach Wendy Gumbert and her husband Saul Mendoza, a six-time Paralympian from Mexico. In addition, Paralympian John Register,  the USOC’s Paralympics Associate Director, Community and Veterans Programs, will be on hand.

Gumbert, who is not disabled, coached the U.S. Paralympic Rugby team to the first gold medal given in the sport in 2000. She also coaches track and field.

Severn was struck by lightning while serving with the US Army Reserve and was thrown more than 10 feet. The 50-year-old is one of the USA’s top shot put and discus throwers. 

Korb was injured in a vault accident at the age of 17 and was introduced to wheelchair tennis 10 years later. At 50, she’s no longer competing, but does coach and said it was important for attendees to interact with disabled coaches.

“That’s one of the things that makes it so powerful and impactful,’’ Turner said

And, athletes do not have to know anything about the sports or sports they want to test out.

As Korb said, “My job is to elevate and empower whatever that person shows up with.’’

Turner said TIRR’s programs are all about inclusion and independence and Gateway To Gold teaches both of those. And they’ll be able to spread the news about an added incentive – equal pay for Paralympians.

The USOC just announced earlier this week at payouts for U.S. medalists at the Paralympic Games will be equal to those of Olympic medalists.  Paralympic medalists will now earn $37,500 for each gold medal, $22,500 for each silver medal and $15,000 for each bronze. The raise will be retroactive to the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, where US athletes led the medal count with 36.

“Paralympians are an integral part of our athlete community and we need to ensure we’re appropriately rewarding their accomplishments,” USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland said.

“Our financial investment in U.S. Paralympics and the athletes we serve is at an all-time high, but this was one area where a discrepancy existed in our funding model that we felt needed to change.

“I’m thrilled that we’ve brought parity and equality to our Operation Gold program and we're eager to continue to build on Team USA’s success in PyeongChang.”

Turner  expects more than a few lives will change next weekend by just interacting with the coaches and understanding that disabilities don’t mean an end to competition, rather a chance to find an outlet through adaptive sports.

Or at the very least, they’ll open a door to an array of amazing possibilities.

For more information on Gateway to Gold, go to www.houstonsports.org




 

 



 

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Get your popcorn ready! Composite image by Brandon Strange.

Filed the column early this week with Astros’ baseball that counts arriving Thursday! Ideally that arrival occurs with Minute Maid Park’s roof open under sunny skies with temperature in the mid-70s and only moderate humidity (that’s the forecast).

As they ready for their season-opening four game series, the Astros and Yankees enter 2024 with streaks on the line. The Astros take aim at an eighth consecutive American League Championship Series appearance while obviously aiming ultimately higher than that. The Yankees are a good bet to fail to make the World Series for the 15th consecutive season, which would be a new Yankees’ record! At its origin in 1903 the franchise was known as the New York Highlanders. The name became the Yankees in 1913, with the first franchise World Series appearance coming in 1921. So that was 18 years of play without winning a pennant. Maybe that gives the Yanks something to shoot for in 2027.

On the more immediate horizon, the Astros and Yankees both start the season with question marks throughout their starting rotations. It’s just that the Astros do so coming off their seventh straight ALCS appearance while the Yankees are coming off having missed the postseason entirely for the first time in seven years. Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole can spend time Thursday chit-chatting about their days as Astro teammates because they won’t be pitching against one another. Cole’s absence hurts the Yankees more than Verlander’s should the Astros. Cole was the unanimously voted AL Cy Young Award winner last season, and at eight years younger than Verlander the workload he was expected to carry is greater. Cole is gone for at least the first two months of the season, the Astros would be pleased if Verlander misses less than one month.

Whoever does the pitching, the guy on the mound for the Astros has the benefit of a clearly better lineup supporting him. The Yankees could have the best two-man combo in the game with Aaron Judge batting second ahead of offseason acquisition Juan Soto. Two men do not a Murderers’ Row make. Gleyber Torres is the only other guy in the Yankees’ projected regular batting order who was better than mediocre last season, several guys were lousy. The Astros have six guys in their lineup (Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Chas McCormick, and Yainer Diaz) who were better in the batter’s box than was Torres last season. The Yanks have hopes for a healthy and huge bounce back season from the brittle and 34-years-old Giancarlo Stanton. Good luck with that.

Man with a plan

We have to see how things play out over the season of course, but it is exciting to see new manager Joe Espada’s progressive outlook on a number of things. Acknowledging that Astros’ baserunning has too often been deficient, Espada made improving it a spring training priority. The same with Astros’ pitchers doing a better job of holding opposing base runners at first with base stealing having occurred with the highest success rate in MLB history last season. Tweaking the lineup to bat Alvarez second behind Altuve is a strong choice. Having your two best offensive forces come to the plate most frequently is inherently smart.

Opting to bat Tucker third ahead of Bregman rather than the other way around also seems wise business. Let’s offer one specific circumstance. An opposing pitcher manages to retire both Altuve and Alvarez. Tucker walking or singling is much more capable of stealing second base and then scoring on a Bregman single than the inverse. Or scoring from first on a ball hit to the corner or a shallow gap. I suggest in a similar vein that is why the much older and much slower Jose Abreu should bat lower in the lineup than Chas McCormick and Yainer Diaz. Though Espada giving Abreu veteran deference to get off to a better season than Abreu’s largely lousy 2023 is ok. To a point.

Eye on the prize

The ceiling for the 2024 Astros is clear. Winning a third World Series in eight years is viably in play. The floor is high. Barring an utter collapse of the starting rotation and/or a calamitous toll of injuries within the offensive core there is no way this is only a .500-ish ballclub. That does not mean the Astros are a surefire postseason team. The Rangers may again have a better offense. The Mariners definitely begin the season with a better starting rotation. In the end, other than when it impacts team decision-making, prognostication doesn’t matter. But these two words definitely matter: PLAY BALL!

To welcome the new season we’ll do a live YouTube Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast about 30 minutes after the final out is recorded in Thursday’s opener.

Our second season of Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast is underway. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics weekly. On our regular schedule the first post goes up Monday afternoon. You can get the video version (first part released Monday, second part Tuesday, sometimes a third part Wednesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available at initial release Monday via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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