Julian Drew
Two years ago at the Atlanta Paralympics I was fortunate enough to stay with a wonderful family who were all involved with the Games in one way or another as volunteers. Alistair, the second of three children, was born with cerebral palsy but like all the athletes who descended on Atlanta for those two weeks he didn’t allow anything to get in the way of his sporting activities.
One day, after I had been pinned to the ground in an impromptu wrestling match, Alistair related how he had been skiing with his family for the first time during the previous winter. I remember thinking that skiing was one sport that South Africa would never be represented in at the Paralympics even though Alpine skier Alex Heath has sometimes seemed hellbent on becoming a Paralympian rather than an Olympian.
Similar sentiments were held by Andy Scott, vice president of the National Paralympic Committee of South Africa (NAPCOSA), until he received a phone call from Bruce Warner shortly after Atlanta. Warner, who is now 26, lost a leg in a car accident when he was 17 and learnt to ski with his cousins while on holiday in Canada in 1993.
Excited by the medal-winning feats of the Amakrokokroko in Atlanta, Warner decided to phone Scott to find out whether South Africa would be sending a team to the Winter Paralympics in Nagano.
“The first thing that struck me about this guy was his unbounded enthusiasm. Just the way he came across and the way he was prepared to do anything to achieve his goal. Nothing was going to get in his way. He was going to the Winter Paralympics,” recalls Scott.
Warner, who works in Cape Town as an electrical engineer for Eskom, met Scott and NAPCOSA president Peter Goldhawk when they were in Cape Town for an Olympic Bid Committe meeting and was told that if he could get himself ranked like any summer Paralympian then his case would be considered. “I made it clear to him that the road would not be easy and he would have to find his own sponsorship but if he got to a level where he qualified and complied with all the requirements then NAPCOSA would take over,” says Scott.
Warner had already progressed far beyond the holiday novice of 1993 after spending four-and-a-half months working at a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California, on an exchange programme after graduating from the University of Cape Town. “The resort used to have fun races for employees and I also had a little bit of race coaching so I learnt the basics,” says Warner.
The following year Warner went to Europe with the intention of testing himself against other disabled skiers. He arranged to have some outriggers – ski sticks with small skis on the end to help him balance – sent to London from Canada. When they failed to arrive he contacted the British Disabled Ski Association and they not only helped him find a pair of outriggers but entered him into some races for the disabled in Italy.
“I finished more or less in the middle of the field which really encouraged me. I was very happy with my performance but looking back now I can see I’ve come a long way since then.”
After speaking to NAPCOSA Warner realised he would have to work hard to qualify for Nagano and he contacted the Winter Park resort in Colorado to see if they could help him. Many people in America and Europe had told Warner about the disabled ski racing programme at Winter Park and its reputation as the best of its kind in the world. He was accepted on to the programme and took four months leave to go and train and race with some of the best disabled skiers in the world.
“There are a whole lot of skiers from all over the world with all kinds of disabilities and it’s a really good programme. We train five days a week for about five hours a day and then go off to races all around the country at weekends.”
The reports Scott received from Winter Park convinced him that South Africa did indeed have a potential winter Paralympian. “When I read how enthusiastic they were about his committment and how well he’d done I knew he was going to make it,” says Scott.
Warner’s first stint at Winter Park cost him R40 000 but when he went back there for three months to prepare for Nagano NAPCOSA were able to pay his airfare and some of his expenses, and the school gave him a $1 000 reduction on his training fees. Many countries sent their Paralympic teams to Winter Park to train for Nagano and Warner recorded several top 15 finishes in races against many of these skiers.
“I think a medal this time is a bit out of my reach. What I’m looking for is experience so that I can do better at the next world championships in two years time and then the Paralympics in 2002,” says Warner about the Winter Paralympics which havebeen taking place in Nagano this week and finish at the weekend with the men’s slalom event.
Although Warner is not expecting to see his name in the record books in Japan he will still be making history just by being there, according to Scott. “To our knowledge he’s the first winter Paralympian from Africa and although I don’t think he is going to be an overnight sensation I also don’t think this is going to be the last we’ll hear of him.
“I just wish some of our other Paralympians could meet this guy and pick up some of his enthusiasm. He always puts a 100% effort into everything he does.”