Local girl competes in a host of sports, despite her paralysis
By Rebecca Ray
A Los Gatos High School student has her eyes on the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. The Paralympic Games, held every four years, is an international competition for athletes who are paraplegic, or paralyzed from the waist down.
Shirley Reilly, who attends Los Gatos High, hopes to set records in the 13-to-15 age group when she competes at the National Junior Wheelchair Championships this month in Piscataway, N.J. The Junior Nationals feature competitors from Australia and the United States.
Although Reilly is 16, she competes in the 13-to-15 age group based on her birthdate.
At the 2000 Junior Nationals, Reilly raced 800 meters in roughly 2 minutes, 5 seconds. The national record for females 19 and under is 1:56.80. Reilly also won the Best Sportsmanship Award and raced 1,500 meters in roughly 4:07, about 20 seconds off the national record for females 19 and under, 3:46.88.
Reilly, who will be a junior next year, dreams of competing at the 2004 Paralympic Games. She said she thought she had a very good chance of making it if she continued her training regimen. She competes as often as she can, which is about once a month, and trains at the De Anza College track in Cupertino about four times a week.
Reilly has already come close to making the Paralympics. She competed at the 2000 Paralympic Trials in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races, which are her weaker events. According to Reilly, her strengths are the 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meter races.
A couple months ago, Reilly and 60 other athletes competed at Bloomsday in Spokane, Wash. The course included almost eight miles of hills, including the 150-foot-high Bloomsday Hill, nicknamed "Doomsday Hill." Reilly placed third in the women's division with a time of 42:14, rolling down hills as fast as 35 mph. She took one turn so fast that she rode on one wheel. "That was a really hard race," she said. "It was really scary."
In May, Reilly competed against four other top female high school wheelchair racers at the Glen D. Loucks Games in White Plains, N.Y. Among the competitors was 17-year-old Jessica Galli, whom Reilly describes as her "biggest idol." Galli competed at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. At the Glen D. Loucks Games, Galli won all three races, while Reilly placed third in the 100-meter and second in the 800- and 1,600-meter events.
Last year, Reilly raced her first marathon, which is 26.2 miles, in two and a half hours. Although she was pleased with her time, she described the experience as exhausting and doesn't plan on repeating it for a while.
Reilly mostly competes in 10K races, including the annual San Jose Mercury News Press Run, which she won this year with a time of 30:45. She will be featured soon in Sports 'N Spokes magazine, which covers wheelchair athletics.
Reilly has competed in track since she was about 10 years old. She was introduced to track through the San Jose-based Wheels on Fire basketball team, which she joined when she was 6 or 7. The team also exposed her to other sports accessible to wheelchair athletes. She has competed in the shotput, the discus, the javelin, swimming and table tennis. She has even won national competitions in table tennis. Although she still plays defense for the Wheels on Fire basketball team, track has replaced basketball as her main sport.
Reilly developed paraplegic scoliosis shortly after she was born in Anchorage, Alaska. Reilly, who was born a few weeks prematurely, became paralyzed from the waist down when she lost oxygen flow to her lungs and spinal cord, and her spine curved. But her case of paraplegic scoliosis is unusual in that she can move her legs and feel them, which most paraplegics are unable to do.
Reilly's family moved to the Bay Area when she was only a few years old. She joined Wheels on Fire when her father, Kevin--who has played baseball, basketball and football--and mother, Dora, were searching for a sport for her to play.
Reilly's siblings are also athletic. Her sister, Ronnie, 19, used to play basketball, and her brother, Randy, 18, played on the Los Gatos High School football team. Randy's team was undefeated last season until it lost to Milpitas High School at the De Anza Division Championships.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
