*Originally posted on usawaterski.org*
The USA Adaptive Water Ski Team won the gold medal at the 14th Barbara Bolding/Jim Grew Fund Disabled Water Ski World Championships, July 25-28, in Skarnes, Norway. Australia earned the silver medal and Great Britain earned the bronze medal. Fourteen athletes represented the 2019 USA Adaptive Water Ski Team at the biennial event. More than 40 athletes from 11 countries participated in the championships. The United States tallied 13,757.91 points, followed by Australia with 8,069.92 points and Great Britain with 7,355.63 points.
Within each event (slalom, tricks and jumping), athletes were grouped into the three categories of seated (paraplegics and quadriplegics), standing (arm and/or leg disabilities with or without prosthesis) and vision impaired (partially or totally blind). Each competitor in the three categories was awarded in each round of each event a certain number of points according to the relationship of his/her score to the minimum score needed to set or equal a world record in the event for the same disability category and gender as it stood on Jan. 1, 2019.
U.S. team members earned a total of 26 individual medals, including eight gold medals, 10 silver medals and eight bronze medals.
Members of the USA Adaptive Water Ski Team were: Marco Bungert (Huntersville, N.C.) – Seated Men; Nicholas Fairall (Andover, N.H.) – Seated Men; Chad Guzman (Gilbert, Ariz.) – Seated Men; Elijah Hager (Alexis, N.C.) – Seated Men; Katie Mawby (Grand Haven, Mich.) – Vision Impaired Ladies; Elisha Nelson (Woodland, Calif.) – Standing Ladies; Robbie Parks (Lexington, N.C.) – Seated Men; Janet Paulsen (Acworth, Ga.) – Seated Ladies; Connor Poggetto (Sacramento, Calif.) – Seated Men; Mike Royal (Magnolia, Texas) – Vision Impaired Men; Gregg Stokes (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – Standing Men; Sarah Switzer (Madison, Ala.) – Seated Ladies; Craig Timm (Center City, Minn.) – Standing Men; and Chuck Wesson (Charlotte, N.C.) – Seated Men.
Mawby won gold medals in Vision Impaired Ladies slalom (5.50/55/18.25) and tricks (670 points); Royal won the gold medal in Vision Impaired Men slalom (5.50/58/12.00) and the bronze medal in tricks (590 points); Timm swept gold medals in Standing Men slalom (1.50/58/18.25), tricks (850 points), jumping (98 feet) and overall (2,194.59 points); Guzman earned the silver medal in Seated Men slalom (1.00/49); Hager earned bronze medals in Seated Men tricks (1,620 points) and overall (2,436.52 points); Nelson earned silver medals in Standing Ladies tricks (400 points), jumping (29 feet) and overall (1,545.49 points), and the bronze medal in slalom (1.50/40); Poggetto won the gold medal in Seated Men overall (3,012.28 points) and earned silver medals in tricks (1,640 points) and jumping (75 feet); Stokes earned silver medals in Standing Men jumping (53 feet) and overall (1,302.80 points), and bronze medals in slalom (4.00/52) and tricks (170.0 points); Switzer earned silver medals in Seated Ladies jumping (38 feet) and overall (2,241.36 points), and the bronze medal in slalom (1.50/37); and Wesson earned the bronze medal in Seated Men jumping (69 feet).
Geneva Brett (Los Banos, Calif.) served as manager; Jessica Van Dyk (Belding, Mich.) was the assistant manager; Matt Oberholtz (Oroville, Calif.) was the coach; Brian Detrick (Elk Grove, Calif.) was the assistant coach; and Dr. Keith Barbour (Monroe, Mich.) served as the team physician.
For complete results, visit http://www.iwwfed-ea.org/disabled/19IWWFD01/.