Photograph courtesy of Violet Seghi
Gary Seghi, raised in Sunnyvale, competed last week at the Paralympics in Atlanta.
By Michelle Ku
Fourteen years ago, Gary Seghi began the struggle of his life, recovering from an accident that nearly claimed his leg from the knee down.
Last Wednesday, Seghi proved he has more than rehabilitated his knee; he has beaten the odds by placing seventh in a 70-kilometer road cycling race at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games. His time of 1:45.15 was just over a minute behind the winner.
"To represent the United States is a very humbling experience in that everything I have done in my life, everything that I stand for is an expression of the United States," Seghi said. "I ask myself, 'Am I worthy of that?' But on another plane, being selected is an honor."
Seghi, raised in Sunnyvale and eduacated at San Jose State University, competed in the games--the second-largest sporting event in the world, next to the Olympic Games--as a member of the three-man disabled road cycling team representing the United States in the "Mixed 55/65 Road Race," which followed a course around Stone Mountain in Atlanta. His teammates were Dory Selinger from Oakland and Steve Cook from Salt Lake City.
Selinger pulled out of the race after a couple laps, but Cook finished the race and placed eighth.
Selinger and Cook then went on to compete in the Omnium, a track cycling event. Selinger placed first and Cook placed fifth.
Fourteen years ago, Seghi, who was once advised by a doctor to have his leg amputated, never imagined he'd ride a bicycle again, let alone compete in the Paralympics.
"This last year was a dream for me, a living dream, I should say," said Seghi, 51, who now lives in Austin, Texas. "It's a dream and I'm living it, and that experience doesn't happen too often."
On the afternoon of July 29, 1982, Seghi, the three-time defending Texas road racing champion in the veteran men's division and an elite amateur cyclist in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was training for a national competition by going on a 50-mile ride. As he was cycling uphill near the East Texas town of Winnsboro, Seghi was hit from behind by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig traveling at an estimated speed of 70 to 80 miles per hour.
He was dragged under the truck for 100 yards, and the force of the impact left an impression of Seghi's body on the grill of the truck.
At the hospital, doctors used 22 pints of blood in the initial operation to save his life, and Seghi spent 10 weeks in intensive care. The accident left Seghi with a fractured left knee, dislocated and fractured hips, a fractured spine and fractured ribs that deflated one of his lungs.
"The doctor told us that the condition he was in racing bikes was what kept him alive," said Seghi's mother Violet, who lives in Sunnyvale.
There was talk of amputating his left leg, but three weeks after the accident, Seghi began moving his toes, and the doctors realized that he hadn't severed the sciatic nerve.
Two years after the accident, Seghi could walk and partially flex his left leg. He could not ride a bike for seven or eight years after the accident. He couldn't even bend his left leg until 1993.
It has been a long journey for Seghi, but today, 14 years after the accident, he has gained full flexibility in his left knee.
Seghi has done so well in his rehabilitation that he is the current national road racing champion and the bronze medalist at the National Track Championships.
Three years ago, Seghi approached Mark Edwards, who had trained seven national champions, and asked him to be his coach. Seghi wanted to return to being a competitive cyclist on a local level, but never imagined he might one day participate in the Paralympics.
"We were working on rehabilitating his knee and getting him back into cycling form to compete in local races. That was the purpose," Edwards said. "His goal was to be a competitive local cyclist, not to be on the national level or the world level."
Last year, at the Masters National Championships, Seghi was competing against able-bodied cyclists when a national coach asked Seghi to participate in the Paralympics.
"I told the coach, 'I don't know if I qualify, I don't consider myself disabled.' He said, 'Yes you are. I want you to race and compete seriously in disabled cycling,'" Seghi said. "I talked it over with my wife and decided to give it a go."
Seghi has been competing as a category II disabled road racer. This category includes people with one leg, below-the-knee amputations or limited range of motion in a leg. Seghi has the latter disability, the only visible signs of which are his severely scarred legs.
Even though the United States categorized Seghi as a disabled athlete, there was a chance that the World Cycling Federation would not. Before he could participate in the Paralympics he had to be tested by an international committee to find out if he was disabled.
"If they had said, 'Gary, you're not disabled,' that's OK for me because it means that I've rehabilitated myself," Seghi said.
To qualify for the national Paralympic road cycling team, Seghi competed in a series of nine races and events. He placed first or second in all of the events and was third in the overall point standings despite not competing in the final race.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 28, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.