Paralympian’s recovery: Legs regained, dreams lost

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Monique van der Vorst powers down the roads of Beijing on her way to a silver medal during the 2008 Paralympic Games in China. | AP

Updated: December 26, 2010 8:24PM

AMSTELVEEN, Netherlands — Monique van der Vorst’s competitive spirit thrived even after she lost the use of her legs as a teenager. She won two silver medals at the Beijing Paralympics and hoped to win gold in London in 2012.

Those dreams are gone now, because another was fulfilled: She began regaining feeling in her legs over the summer, and now she can walk again.

Van der Vorst savors every step through the snow. Every climb up the stairs. The ability to look somebody in the eye standing up.

The Dutch 26-year-old says she doesn’t need Christmas this year: “Every day was special.”

But her gift also means that more than a decade after reinventing her life, she has to reinvent it again. At the London Paralympic Games, she had hoped to win gold in both handcycling and wheelchair racing. Now that she can walk, she’s ineligible.

Competing “was such a passion,” she said. “It’s difficult because I need to find a new purpose in life.”

Van der Vorst was a 13-year-old field hockey standout but kept on twisting her ankle. She says an operation to correct the problem went wrong and “my leg swelled up, went purple and cold, filled with liquid that stayed there.” She said she couldn’t move her leg, even after the liquid subsided.

She said doctors still aren’t fully sure what caused the leg to go limp. The following year, she lost most movement in her right leg, too.

“With my family we tried everything possible, but my leg was paralyzed,” she said. “So at one point, there is no longer any use” to look for medical explanations. So she never got the exact medical details. She declined the AP’s request to talk to her doctors from the late 1990s, citing privacy concerns.

The handcycle, a three-wheeler powered by the arms, helped her rediscover the joy of competition. Van der Vorst competed in her first handcycle race in 2000, at age 15.

“It gave me self-esteem. I learned how to think in possibilities, not limitations,” she said.

She turned out to be so good, there almost were no limits. “I really missed running, but I was independent. I could drive, I could fly. I had a good life,” she said.

Paralympic and international sporting federations certified her paralysis and allowed her to compete in the HC C class for athletes with complete or partial lower limb function loss.

Van der Vorst can still feel the thrill of the 2008 Paralympic Games, when she missed gold in the 40-kilometer handcycling road race by just 0.13 seconds and won a second silver in the time trial.

Van der Vorst thinks an accident in March played a role in her recovery.

On the Spanish resort island of Mallorca, a cyclist rammed into her as she raced down a road on her handcycle. The impact sent her crashing to the ground. Her legs seized up with spasms.

She resumed training but soon back pains were making her workouts agonizing. She was hospitalized, then went into a long rehab.

In June, she says, she started to feel a tingling sensation in her left foot. Her legs were still thin from years of inaction, but before long she could feel them both.

Dr. Christof Smit, van der Vorst’s rehabilitation coach, said the crash “apparently lifted this blockage and recovery started. I find it medically difficult to explain.”

AP