MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury Rotary will host Chris Waddell in a free motivational speaking event open to the public at the Town Hall Theater on Friday, June 14, at 3:30 p.m.
Waddell was the first “nearly unassisted” paraplegic to summit Africa’s tallest mountain, the 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, in a handcycle. A 13-time Paralympic medalist, he is also a Hall of Famer for U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the Paralympics.
Born in 1968, Chris Waddell began to ski race at age six and was competing for Middlebury College when his ski popped off in the middle of a turn. The resulting fall left him paralyzed from the waist down. He started to monoski less than a year later and soon became one of the fastest in the world. He won four gold medals in the 1994 Paralympics in Lillehammer and another gold in Nagano in 1998. At the Sydney Paralympic Games in the summer of 2000, Waddell earned a silver on the track in the silver medal in the 200m T53 classification, and in 2004 set a world record in that event.
The Dalai Lama honored him as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion,” Skiing Magazine put him on their list of 25 Greatest Skiers in North America and People magazine named him one of “The 50 Most Beautiful People.”
The public is invited to attend this Rotary event. Pizza will be provided.