| Augsburg Now |
 |
| Augsburg College > Augsburg Now |
|
|
|
||||
|
|
Targeting success:
by Don Stoner
The D.H. Lawrence poem is prominently displayed on the case that holds Aaron Cross' archery equipment. You remember the poem as you watch Cross practice the skills that have earned him international honors in archery. You watch Cross concentrate on his coffee can lid-sized target, which looks so small 70 meters away. You watch Cross' eyes, intense and focused on the task at hand. He puts the arrow in place and draws back the bow. At that point, with all the tension in the world seemingly on the tips of his fingers, he pauses, relaxes his breathing. The moment seems like forever. Then he releases the arrow. In a fraction of a second, the arrow arrives at its target. Nearly perfect. And then you remember he's in a wheelchair, able to utilize just a fraction of the physical skills able-bodied individuals can use, and it doesn't seem to matter.
Augsburg has two graduates who have earned international acclaim in disabled sports—Aaron Cross, a 1997 graduate, and James Mastro, who graduated in 1973.
Cross is considered one of the top wheelchair archers in the world and has earned numerous honors and records in his sport. Mastro, an Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame member who lost his vision while in high school, has competed in seven Paralympics, in several sports, since 1976. The first Paralympic athlete ever to medal in four different sports, Mastro has earned 10 medals—five gold, three silver, and two bronze. "These games were specifically developed for athletes with certain challenges to compete at an Olympic level," said Cross, who competed in his second Paralympics last year in Sydney, Australia. "Our scores are comparing well with able-bodied scores. I compete against able-bodied archers all the time and beat them, guys who were on the U.S. Olympic team and beat them. But we don't get recognized as much." In the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, both Cross and Mastro were eliminated earlier than they anticipated. For Mastro, it was an elbow injury in the first match of his judo event that ended his competition. "In the first match, a minute-and-a-half in, a guy from Austria tried a stupid throw, and the first thing to hit the ground was my elbow," Mastro said. "I tried to continue in my next match, but I couldn't raise my arm up above my elbow. I was just ticked." For Cross, it was the luck of the draw, and a quarterfinal meeting with the eventual gold medalist in head-to-head competition that did him in.
But in the "ranking round," where archers' individual scores determine their spots in the final round of 12 athletes, Cross said he didn't shoot well. As a result, he failed to finish in the top four, where he would have earned a first-round bye in the head-to-head competition. In his first head-to-head match, Cross smashed the old world record in 18-arrow competition, but lost to Zdenek Sebek of the Czech Republic, the eventual gold medalist, in the quarterfinals by just six points. "It was just the luck of the draw," Cross said. "It was crushing. I had shot four world records last year, I had gained back all my national titles last year, and I missed a fifth world record by a point." While falling short of their goals was disappointing, the experience of being part of the largest competition for disabled athletes in the world was certainly a thrill. A crowd of more than 100,000 people attended the opening ceremonies, and sellout crowds were the norm for most events; a welcome change considering that in competitions in the last decade, event organizers had to literally give tickets away. "Australia was great," Mastro said. "The people were really friendly. They were as friendly as their reputation is. They knew about the Paralympics, knew what it was for and that it was after the regular Olympics. You walked up and down the street and people knew that you were there for the Paralympics. The publicity there was really great, much better than Atlanta [in 1996]." "Europe and Australia have much more respect for Paralympic events than we do [in the United States]," Cross said. "Every single event in Australia was sold out. ... The people were amazing. Volunteers were everywhere. Every single volunteer I talked to said that they would rather volunteer for the Paralympics than the Olympic Games. The culture matches the people, as beautiful as you'd expect."
Jim Mastro—A Paralympic flag-bearer
He enrolled at Augsburg and became a member of the wrestling team, while studying for his education degree. He earned All-MIAC honors twice and won the conference championship at 177 pounds as a senior. Along the way, he became a solid amateur wrestler, in spite of his vision impairment. He was a member of the U.S. team in the World University Games in 1973, was a three-time bronze medalist at international competitions, and became the first blind athlete to be a member of an Olympic team, when he was an alternate on the U.S. Greco-Roman Wrestling team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. He was named to the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997. "I wasn't able to compete until I came to Augsburg, when I decided to go into wrestling," he said. "It helped me to determine how hard I would have to work to do well. I found that the guys I was working with didn't grant me any quarter because I was blind. They'd throw me into the wall like anyone else. "When I was at Augsburg, I didn't have to worry about being accepted. When I was trying out for the Olympics, I didn't have to worry about being accepted there, either." When the Paralympics began to admit blind athletes in 1976, it was a natural draw for Mastro. He competed in four different sports—judo, wrestling, track and field, and goalball (an on-court team sport designed for blind athletes). In addition to his 10 Paralympic medals, he has earned 17 international medals in the various sports. And in 1996, Mastro was honored for his years of service by being named flag-bearer for the United States team at the Paralympics opening ceremonies in Atlanta, where he earned a bronze medal in his weight class in judo, and also competed in track and field in the shot put and discus. Judo has become his primary sport after wrestling was dropped from the Paralympic program before the 1996 games. "When I was introduced to judo, it was in Long Beach, Calif. The Braille Institute had a program on the sport," he said. "After I graduated from college, I had wrestled primarily Greco-Roman, and that style and judo are very similar. The biggest difference is that you are able to use the collar in judo. The throws were basically the same, though a big difference was in chokes and arm-bars. It's like wrestling with your pajamas on." At age 52, Mastro could be considered one of the "elder statesmen" of the Paralympic movement, though he doesn't enjoy that title. "Our blind judo team, none of them are young. Most of them are in their later 20s or 30s, and they've competed a lot. They know what it's like to compete, it's their goal," Mastro said. "It [judo] must keep you young. It's either going to keep me young or kill me. The injury I had in Sydney was my first injury sincewrestling in 1973. I've been lucky." Mastro has also been a pioneer in his primary profession, teaching. He became the first blind student to earn a Ph.D. in physical education in the United States, and later taught in the physical education department at the University of Minnesota. Now he teaches at Bemidji State University in the health and physical education department, including all the adapted physical education classes. He is unsure whether he will take on the Paralympic challenge again, when the games go to Athens, Greece, in 2004. He will compete in the sport's world championships in 2002. "I'll be 56 [in 2004]," he said. "At the world championships in a couple of years, I will see how my arm is. My arm right now is about 90 percent back. One of the things I really enjoy [about the Paralympics] is the camaraderie, going out and busting your butt with people who understand and enjoy what's going on. I've gone to a lot of places in the world, met a lot of cool people."
Cross becomes a top wheelchair archer For Cross, archery wasn't his first love, growing up in the St. Cloud, Minn., area. By age 16, he was an accomplished biker and cross country skier, and was preparing for a spot on a Junior Olympic team. Competing in a bicycle race in Biwabik, Minn., in May 1991, he crashed into a support van. The accident left him a quadriplegic, with no sensation from the armpits down. While rehabilitating at the Sister Kenny Institute, a therapist, who happened to be a Paralympic archer, recommended the sport as an activity in which he could excel, but he preferred wheelchair track and rugby instead. "She gave me three choices of sports. She told me I could do archery, I could do archery, or I could do archery," Cross joked. While he was in high school, a close friend decided to take up archery, and Cross joined him in trying out the sport. "I got into it and
we went down to a national shootout in Las Vegas. I absolutely fell in love
with it," he said. "That summer, I got a letter to try out for the
world team, went overseas for the first time for the world championships, and
came back with my first gold medal. Needless to say, I'm hooked." Eventually, Cross was winning national competitions and gaining sponsorships, from bow companies, Target stores, and Mike's Archery, a store in St. Cloud where he trains. At that time, he also began to speak publicly about overcoming the obstacles in his life, a hobby that eventually led to his current career as a motivational speaker. He speaks for numerous school groups and other organizations through his business, Motivation on Wheels. Cross graduated from Augsburg in 1997 with a mass communication degree and credits the school, especially the Center for Learning and Adaptive Student Services (CLASS), with much of his success. "The CLASS office and the communication faculty and staff never once backed down for me. They knew what I wanted to do, they knew how I was going to do it, and they always stood behind me," Cross said. "I can't tell you how many times they bailed me out. ... They were always a phone call away. If I needed something, they were there, every single step of the way. "Augsburg never babied me. They put me in my place and they just made sure I was going in the right direction." He was able to keep up his studies in spite of a schedule that had him flying across the country for major archery competitions, along with working on internships and projects with accomplished motivational speakers. "I'd leave on a Thursday, shoot on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, all day long, come back on a red-eye flight at 1:00 on Monday morning. I'd study on the planes and in the hotel rooms, and be back in class by eight on Monday morning," he said. Archery has become a passion for Cross, who is also an accomplished bowhunter. He is currently ranked among the top five archers in the world in the W1 class, and will compete at the world championships later this summer in Prague, Czech Republic. He is currently the governor for his region on the Minnesota State Archery Association, a technical delegate to the USA Archery committee, and on the Paralympic Athlete Advisory board for the United States Olympic Committee. He competed in his first Paralympics in 1996 in Atlanta, and though he set a world record in the ranking round, he finished fourth overall. In 1999, he placed fourth in an individual competition and fifth overall at the world championships, leading up to his experience at the Sydney Paralympics. He said the level of respect that Paralympic athletes receive in the United States has improved, but it's still not at the level of Olympic athletes. Coverage of the Paralympics needs to improve in order for the athletes to gain the respect of the public, Cross said. "If we were to get the respect that the able-bodied team gets, it would be different for me," he said. "Slowly but surely, it's working. Archery is getting advanced in this knowledge. For years, we've been competing against the able-bodied people. They know we're out there. They're working with us."
Aaron Cross at aaron.cross@motivationonwheels.com
Go to Augsburg Athletics Web page Back to Augsburg Now Online home page
|
||||||
| Copyright 2007.
Augsburg College all rights reserved. |
Cross
was considered one of the favorites in the W1 competition, one of three levels
of wheelchair archery based on the range of disability of an athlete. His class
consists of athletes who are quadriplegic, have extremely limited function in
their arms and legs, or have amputation of three limbs.
For
Mastro, competing in athletics has always been a natural thing, even after becoming
blind between his junior and senior years of high school.
In
order to raise money for himself and his family to travel to major competitions
like the Paralympics, he has performed some interesting marathon events, including
doing 3,076 pushups in an hour and bench-pressing an Olympic bar 1,300 times
in 15 minutes.
