Connor and Cayden Long are the 2012 SportsKids of the Year!

We can't think of a more shining example of brotherly love than this. Read all about the 2012 SportsKids of the year in our latest "In the News" story.

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Bonner Paddock Sets World Record; Completes Ironman World Champs With Cerebral Palsy

October 31, 2012By Theresa Manahan

BONNER PADDOCK once again is making the most of an NHL lockout. During the ’04-05 lockout, Paddock, while employed by the Ducks, was urged by Owners HENRY and SUSAN SAMUELI to explore more about his cerebral palsy. Paddock became involved in United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County and decided to become the first person with CP to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. This time around, Paddock wanted to be the first person with CP to complete the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. He finished the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run with a most unusual yet inspiring dance as he crossed the finish line. Paddock, 37, now serves as Senior VP/Marketing & Partnership Activation for Young’s Market Company. Below he discusses his heroic effort, which thus far has raised almost $1M.

Q: First things first, what was your first meal after nearly 17 hours of exercise?
Paddock: The first thing that actually went into my body was two IV bags because I was taken to the medical tent right after I crossed the finish line. I’m not sure where the dancing moves came from when I crossed the finish line because miles before the finish I wasn’t doing well at all. Then, I don’t know, when you get so close you muster it up and go. When I hugged my coach GREG WELCH, I just felt my legs and everything else just start going. They had to unfortunately help me to the medical tent and I was there for almost two hours afterward. So the first thing I got to eat per se was two beautifully-made IV bags for me (laughs). … But my first real meal was a cheeseburger. I was craving a cheeseburger and fries.

Q: The Ironman has a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race and you came in 21 minutes before deadline. Did you have a plan for the race? How did it pan out?
Paddock: It was close. I had done the half Ironman earlier and a bunch of other smaller races, sprints and Olympic distance triathlons so we really had a good gauge on what my paces are no matter what the weather is plus or minus wind. I sent race maps out to everybody that was coming out and I told them roughly what times to be at each of the areas, like 10- or 20-minute gaps. I hit every one of those almost dead on. It was great because I think in order for this crazy endeavor to actually work we had to have a perfect game plan, a perfect race. We knew we were going to be 11:30 to midnight. 11:30 was best-case scenario and midnight or somewhere after was going to be the worst-case scenario. I nailed the bike. I told people eight hours and I did it in eight hours, two seconds. I told them that I’d do the swim between 1:20 and 1:30; I did it just short of 1:25. We trained for almost two years for this thing and my coach is a legend and arguably the greatest male triathlete, one of the best male triathletes to walk this earth. We felt like we had a great game plan, but it had to be.

Q: What was the hardest part of the race for you? Which leg (swim, bike, run)?
Paddock: With my cerebral palsy, since it primarily affects the lower half of my body — it’s spastic diplegia — that means my legs and lower back are very tight. … The bike basically is the worst for me because it’s almost 99% lower body. I’m just stuck on that seat and just pedaling those little legs. The bike for sure is the hardest for me, then the run. The swim is by far the best and I actually really enjoy swimming.

Q: You are sponsored by Oakley. Did you have any pre- or postrace obligations or appearances?
Paddock: Oakley has just been a supporter of my endeavors. They always provide product. They outfitted our expedition team in 2008 when we climbed Kilimanjaro to break that world record for a person with cerebral palsy. It’s a company based in Orange County where I grew up and where I currently live. They’ve been a huge supporter of the foundation. They have always given me everything that I need in terms of eyewear and stuff like that. Greg Welch works for Oakley so my coach works there. My contact went over and talked to him to say, “Hey this guy is interested in doing an Ironman, do you mind chatting with him?” And that’s how the whole thing came together.
Q: Can you describe the moment you crossed the line?
Paddock: It was a whole lot of emotion going on there. Like my dance — I don’t know what that was, really. It was arguably the worst dance I have ever seen in my entire life. I don’t even remember much of it. It was just sheer elation and emotion and happiness. I wish I could say I thought of everything, except that I just kept saying in my head “We did it, we did it, we did it. Hell yeah, we did it!”

Q: What’s the blue cowboy hat worn by your supporters about?
Paddock: I have to give credit to one of the guys that climbed Killi with me, his name is JAYSON DILWORTH. He said he was coming out to Hawaii to support me and asked if we get team shirts. Every team out here has team shirts. So he said, “We got to do something different then. We’re OM Foundation, we’re going after a world record here.” So I told him to shoot me some ideas. And he’s from Texas. One day a link comes over with these huge 20-, 25-gallon hats. Monstrous foam cowboy hats. We just put the Go Bonner on each side of it with the foundation website and logo on the front. Everybody loved those things. People were asking to donate $50 to the foundation if we gave them our hats. Other people said they would make a donation if you cheer for my brother that’s coming by here shortly. They ended up calling it the “Blue Hat Army” ‘cause the NBC camera crews said it was the largest contingent by far. I just bought them out of my own pocket. I just wanted to give a few nice gifts for the people, because I knew we had over a 100 people come out.

Q: How is your body taking it? Any injuries during the race? After?
Paddock: I did have a bunch of little knick-knack injuries along the way. I had the standard issues: I had wet feet. I put so much ice down my shirt and my pants to cool the core because I heat up so fast because my body is already tight and overworking. So we try to keep the body as cool as possible, the core and all of my hip flexors and quads that really heat up, and that’s when they start cramping and spasming with my CP. At every aid station we dumped a ton of ice water on me, so my feet were soaking wet for 17 hours through my shoes. The bottom of my feet look like a cheese grater were taken to them. But they are not pusing and bleeding now, which is good.

Q: NBC Sports will broadcast the 2012 Ironman World Championships this Saturday at 4:00pm ET. Do you have plans for a watch party?
Paddock: The NBC camera crews spent almost 30 minutes with me as I was riding on the bike and then three times when I was out doing the marathon course. You just keep your fingers crossed and hope you don’t end up on the cutting room floor. It would be great exposure for the foundation, that’s what I’m really hopeful for. I do these things to try to help raise the awareness and share the story. The watch party will be calmly at my house. It’s just going to be my closest friends that are in town. My contact from Oakley, he and his wife are going to come.

Q: What’s your next adventure? You said before Mt. Everest wasn’t an option. Is that still the case?
Paddock: I think that the body is pretty banged up and we’ve put the best duct tape job we’ve ever done on a body up basically to get it to the start line. I’m not getting any younger; I’m not a spring chicken. I do feel for at least a good long while – I would never say never, but I pretty much am convinced that it’s going to be never — that I just am good. Someone came up to me and said, “I wonder what the number of people that have climbed Kilimanjaro and done Ironman Kona? It’s probably the smallest number we could even remotely think of is how many people have even done both. And to throw it in just for you to be a show-off — you have cerebral palsy. It’s incredible. I don’t know where you go from there.” And I said, “You know what? I don’t know if I go anywhere from there.” I think I’m content with using my time for the foundation. Not for training for something like that but continuing to get the message out.

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Two brothers, One with Cerebral Palsy, Compete in a Triathlon

October 10,2012
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Two brothers from Atlanta are running, swimming and cycling to fulfill a dream.

On a Sunday morning in Scottsboro, Kyle Pease gets ready for his second long course triathlon. Just one of the 20 races he`s competed in, in the past 2 years.

Kyle competed in his first race in 2011. But his story started 27 years ago, when Kyle was born with cerebral palsy.
Kyle’s father, Richard says, “Nobody told me how to do this, nobody wrote a book. But y’know, where do you go and ask for help? So you sort of figure it out on your own. At least in those days we did.”
As a child Kyle played wheelchair adapted sports. Then, in his mid 20`s he turned to his brother Brent, and asked him to do a triathlon.
Brent says, “There wasn’t any hesitation; I mean, it was absolutely. Let’s figure it out.”

The brothers found a way to adapt every event to their own set of needs. What is usually an individual sport, became a team effort.

“There are highs and there are lows. I think for us the hardest part is the days are typically long. We’re two people out there. I think everybody out here goes through the same ups and downs. Not everything goes the way you want it to,” Brent explains.
Through each event, like each day, Kyle pushes through, with a smile on his face.

Nearly 7 hours in piercing cold isn’t enough to dampen his mood. It is here Kyle Pease has found his place. By his brother`s side.
With each person lucky enough to cross his path, inspired by spirit.
Kyle says, “You know, just keep a positive attitude and you’ll have a gift. And we have to open up that gift and share that gift with others.”

In addition to the races they compete in, the brothers have started the Kyle Pease Foundation.
The organization helps people with disabilities reach their goals through sports.

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Ironman Qualifier Bonner Paddock Pushes the Limits of Cerebral Palsy

October 1, 2012
By Marcia C. Smith
From The Orange County Register

The slight limp is there when he walks, the left toe of his leather shoe scratching the pavement, his right heel dragging. This crooked, unsteady gait is a lifelong reminder of the mild cerebral palsy that Bonner Paddock can’t hide.

He has had 37 years to adapt to the complications of the brain and nervous-system disorder caused at birth when his umbilical cord nearly choked him to death.

His lower legs have always been gimpy, ankles shot and toes cramped and curled. His equilibrium comes and goes like light from a bulb with a short, forcing him to correct his balance continually by sighting his surroundings and knowing up from down, floor from ceiling and base from summit.

He has tripped, stumbled and fallen all his life. He can’t count all the times he skinned his elbows and knees. He broke his arm — twice — as a child, trying to catch himself.

The best part of Paddock’s story is that he always, stubbornly, gets back up — often with greater determination and a bigger chip on his shoulders despite “the hitch in his giddy-up,” he says.

Paddock, who grew up in Mission Viejo and lives in Newport Coast, earned a soccer scholarship to Concordia, using the same quick reflexes he uses to correct his every motion to play goalie.

He ran the OC Marathon in 2007. He climbed Mount Whitney for practice and then Mount Kilimanjaro in 2008, becoming the first person with cerebral palsy to summit the world’s largest free-standing peak at 19,340 feet. Unassisted.

The next impossible — or “crazy,” depending on whom you ask — task on Paddock’s to-do list is the Ironman World Championships, the triathlon billed as the world’s toughest one-day sporting event, on Oct. 13 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

He is entering the race — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, a marathon-length 26.2-mile run — not to win but to finish and to complete it for everyone who has never been able to take a step.

His greater goal is to raise $1 million for his 3-year-old OM (One Man, One Mission) Foundation, which develops early learning centers to help children with disabilities and funds organizations including United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County and Light in Africa.

“With proper training and my belief in myself,” Paddock says, “I believe I can do it. I’m ready, antsy, like a wild horse just wanting to kick through the stable door.”

He will make us all believers.

Drive to Succeed

Paddock, a San Diego State graduate with a degree in business management, has a career. A former senior director of corporate sponsorships for Honda Center and the Ducks, he has been the senior vice president of marketing for Young’s Market Company, a Tustin-based distributor of fine wines and spirits, since 2010.

But that is just work. It pays the bills, affords him a few luxuries. It’s not what has driven him through life or gets him up at first light for the past two years to swim 4,000 yards in the pounding, 65-degree Pacific Ocean or pedal a stationary bike for four hours in his garage to train for the rigorous Ironman.

His motivation runs much deeper, diving back to the early childhood when he was the slow kid who tripped over his own feet at the playground and was mercilessly teased by his classmates and two older brothers because of a clumsiness he couldn’t control.

He was a frustrated child, sometimes so angry after falls that his teachers complained about his tantrums. His brothers, Mike McConnell and Matt Rinn, never cut him slack and let him stay on the sidelines.

Paddock always figured out some way to be valuable to a team. In Little League, he became a switch-hitter; in youth basketball, a savvy 3-point shooter; and in soccer, the goalie because all the other kids wanted to score.

“I’ve got to give Bonner credit,” said McConnell, an All-American swimmer at Arcadia High. “He never gave up no matter what the doctors said.”

Growing up, seven doctors gave Paddock seven different diagnoses, each trying to fix his legs with walking therapies, braces, flat-soled saddleshoes and lower-body casts.

On his 11th birthday, one doctor told his family that he had degenerative syringomyelia, that he’d be in a wheelchair by age 15 and dead by 20. A few months later, UC Irvine neurologist Arnold Starr correctly diagnosed his CP, and “I felt like I got my life back,” Paddock recalled.

Until his 30s, Paddock did everything he could to avoid association with his disability. He hid it when he could. He used his quick, self-effacing humor to get him out of the occasional embarrassing tumble.

But during the 2004-05 NHL lockout, when Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli urged staffers to take up philanthropy, Paddock made a call to the Orange County chapter of United Cerebral Palsy and arranged to visit children at a therapy center.

Some sat in wheelchairs, unable to walk. Some mumbled noises, unable to talk. Even in their condition, they smiled, laughed and reached to touch Paddock’s hand.

They touched his heart.

“Why me?” wondered Paddock, realizing the miracle of his limited motion that he had before then considered his curse.

So he ran the 2006 OC Half Marathon cold to raise money for UCP-OC. Near the finish, he met Steven Robert, a father who picked his 6-year-old son, Jake, out of a wheelchair and carried him across the line.

“Jake had CP, and his father ran because Jake couldn’t,” Paddock said. “That night of the marathon, Jake died.”

With “Jakey Bear” written across the bottoms of his sneakers, Paddock ran the full 2007 OC Marathon and raised $30,000 for UCP-OC.

With a beaded necklace bearing Circle of Life pendant symbolizing all the children who’ve inspired him, Paddock climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and contributed all $260,000 in donations to his OM Foundation charities.

His harrowing and emotional journey was beautifully chronicled in the documentary, “Beyond Limits,” narrated by late actor Michael Clarke Duncan.

Struggling and spent, Paddock found strength in remembering the children who had sent him good-luck letters and drawn him Crayola pictures. For them, he staggered and reached Uhuru Peak.

“It took my body two years to recover from Kili,” Paddock said. “The joke after Kili was ‘What are you going to do next?’ I knew I had one more big thing I wanted to do.”

Another Quest

It was around January 2011 when Paddock began researching the Ironman triathlon and contacted Greg Welch, Oakley’s sports marketing director and the 1994 Ironman World Champion.

“Will you train me?” Paddock asked in an email. “There’s no way I’m doing this without you. I need all your expertise.”

After meeting Paddock and watching “Beyond Limits”, the Australian Welch said, “Absolutely, mate!”

This wasn’t an easy decision for Welch, who understands that the Ironman is not just about the staggering distances.

“It’s about the elements — 90-degree heat, 90 percent humidity and tradewinds from 15 to 45 knots, hills and climbs in the terrain — all on a body with CP,” Welch said. “I know Bonner is mentally strong but this is still going to be very, very tough. This is going to be about survival.”

Welch contacted his sponsors to get Paddock equipment, including TYR “Freak of Nature” swimsuits and Cannondale Synapse road cycles. He designed a progressive, 20-month, five-day-a-week training plan to build Paddock’s confidence and endurance.

Paddock got permission from his employer to train weekday mornings. He met with Young’s Market board chairman Vern Underwood, who was so impressed with Paddock’s commitment that his company donated $250,000 and offered to match every employee’s contribution to OMF (1man1mission.org).

Paddock dedicated himself to daily training: four-hour sessions on a stationary bike in his garage and in silence; 60- and 90-minute swims at heavy and slower paces in the UC Irvine pool and the ocean near Crystal Cove; long hours of uphill walks and downhill jogs; 4-, 6- and 8-hour cycling rides along the Santa Ana River Trail; and weightlifting.

Welch, worried about Paddock’s balance on two wheels had Paddock training on a stationary bike for six months. He had Paddock meet with a swim coach to improve his stroke because CP made his legs like a deadweight rudder in the water.

Swim, bike and run filled Paddock’s calendar to prepare him for the 2.4-mile swim segment that begins and ends at Kailua Pier, the 112-mile bike race loop on the Queen Ka’ahumanu highway along the Kona Coast through scorching lava fields to Kohala Coast and the Hawi village; and the marathon course that travels the bike route through Kailua-Kona and finishes along Ali’i Drive.

Paddock, who will wear Bib No. 1421, is entered in the general competition, not the physically challenged division. For extra stability, he will ride a 10-pound bicycle, which is a little heavier than a triathlon bike, and run in thicker soled, more supportive Asics Gel PS Trainer 17s.

“Bring it on,” Paddock said, not wanting assistance during the transitions or special allowances for his condition.

“I wouldn’t have trained him unless I knew he could do it,” Welch said. “He has prepared himself, doing almost all of it on his own.

McConnell, Paddock’s brother, set the pace during many swimming sessions and accompanied him when Paddock completed the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Half Ironman with overall time of 7 hours, 52 minutes to qualify for the world championships.

“It’s crazy but it’s Bonner,” said McConnell, who attended a send-off rally for Paddock on Wednesday at the UCP-OC headquarters at Irvine.

Paddock’s most loyal fans were there holding up a banner they painted with the message, “Go Bonner! You can do it!!” surrounded by dozens of their handprints.

Red-haired Ashley Arambula, 9, of Laguna Hills, who has cerebral palsy, looked up to Paddock from her wheelchair and asked, “Can I be your partner?”

“You already are,” Paddock, kneeling down, told her.

Ashley clapped. Her Ironman event, she told her mother, Monica, “is to walk one day.”

His eyes glistening with the beginning of tears, Paddock limped to the podium and promised the crowd, “I will do this.”

For everyone.

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Dad Competes In Triathlon With Daughter Who Has Cerebral Palsy

August 14th, 2012
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A Michigan man who participated in a local triathlon over the weekend has been called the ”father of the century” by some because of the devotion he has shown for his child.

Rick van Beek of Byron Center, Mich., took part in the Sanford and Sun sprint triathlon this Saturday with his 13-year-old daughter, Madison, the Midland Daily News reports.

The teenager couldn’t take part in the event alone, so her heroic dad pulled and pushed her along with him, taking every stride and stroke together toward the finish line.

Maddy, as she is affectionately known, has cerebral palsy. The teen can neither walk nor talk, and her dad says he isn’t even sure that she can see.

But what van Beek does know is that Maddy loves the outdoors.

“She functions like a 3-month-old, and one of the very few things that we know she enjoys is being outside, being in the water, feeling the breeze in her hair and in her face,” van Beek, 39, told Midland Daily News.

So, in 2008, van Beek — then terribly out of shape and a heavy smoker – decided he would start training for outdoor races.

In his blog, van Beek admits that getting into shape was initially extremely difficult.

However, he was determined to live a healthier life for Maddy and to share the fruits of that labor with her.

“I run for and with my daughter,” he wrote in 2010.

For the past four years, under the name Team Maddy, van Beek and his daughter have been participating in half-marathons, triathlons and other outdoor races.

In an interview with Fox News in May, van Beek estimated that Team Maddy has participated in more than 70 events throughout the years.

“I think Madison has changed more peoples’ lives than I even know about – without doing anything, just being out there. Not me, her,” van Beek told Fox News. “We make a good team.”

Despite his humility, van Beek has undoubtedly touched many lives himself.

“That was just so inspirational to see,” race coordinator Misty Angle told Allegan County News of van Beek, after seeing him cross the finish line at the 2011 Tri Allegan triathlon. “That was definitely one of the highlights of the event for me and a lot of people.”

Over the weekend in Sanford, Team Maddy came out in full force yet again.

Despite the gloomy weather, Maddy and her father participated together as usual: Van Beek swimming while pulling Maddy in a kayak, then biking with her in a cart behind him, before finally running the last leg while pushing her in a wheelchair.

“[The emotion I feel for Maddy] drives me or inspires me to do the things that I do. Call it inspiration, call it motivation, call it what ever you want, I call it LOVE,” van Beek wrote in his blog last year.

“That will never fade…She is my heart and I am her legs, though someday she might not physically be able to be there with me, she will always be in my heart, quietly cheering me on.”

The story of Maddy and her dad is reminiscent of that of Cayden Long, the six-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who participates in triathlons thanks to his older brother.Like the van Beeks, the Long brothers compete together, with 9-year-old Connor pushing and pulling his younger brother through the race course.

According to Midland Daily News, van Beek is planning on forming a non-profit organization called “Team Maddy” that will “raise funds to build equipment and adaptive devices” for special needs children.

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