When Roni Sasaki was a little girl she wanted to be a gymnast or a figure skater. She loved watching these events on the Olympics and never gave a thought to her “disability.” Roni was born with part of one leg missing but didn’t let that stop her from pursuing her Big Hairy Audacious Dream: to compete in the Olympics.
At the age of two, her parents took her to a Shriners’ Hospital to be fitted with an artificial leg. In those days, this meant something akin to a stilt. She remembers being teased and stared at during most of her young life. During PE, she was always the last one picked for a team but she didn’t want an excuse not to participate in sports or other activities. She wanted to be like the other kids. She couldn’t complete the activities required for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, so she wrote a letter to President Ford asking for special criteria to be established for kids like her. The President’s answer was discouraging; he said that there couldn’t possibly be special standards for her because then there would have to be special standards for every kind of disability. Roni was not deterred.
Things began to turn around when she was a senior in high school and someone offered to teach her to ski. She was thrilled at the prospect because all the “cool” kids had multiple ski lift tickets hanging from their jackets. She was a bit disappointed at not getting a lift ticket during her first lesson because all she learned was how to fall and get back up again. She told her instructor that she already knew how to fall down!
When she went to college she kept at it and eventually won her first ski race. After college she moved to Colorado and joined a ski racing program. Her goal was to become a member of the US Disabled Ski Team (now called the US Adaptive Ski Team). Eventually she would win a Gold Medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, one of the few times the Para-Olympics would immediately follow the Olympics.
Roni still skis, although she does so more “elegantly” than when she beat out the competition to win the Super G. She also runs to stay fit. She says people who see her on the street often stop and ask if she wants a ride. She replies, “Do I look like I need a ride?!” She says she doesn’t feel like she limps although she obviously does (she demonstrated for us). Her body has adapted to the way she moves and has not suffered any ill effects.
She says that “being normal is overrated.” Her advice to everyone is to be distinctive and embrace the things about you that are different. “Learn how to fall, but more importantly, learn how to get back up.”