PARKERSBURG - A former star high school athlete wants to show he still has a lot of competition left three years after an accident put him in a wheelchair as he tries to make it onto the U.S. Paralympic Team.
Josh Gains, 23, a 2006 Parkersburg South High School graduate, is training to qualify to be on the team going to London this summer.
The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Paralympic Games is Aug. 29. The Paralympics will follow the London 2012 Olympic Games which start on July 27.
"I am training to do the shotput, discus and javelin," he said.
Gains, who played football, basketball, ran track and did field events at South, was in a car wreck in June 2009 on his way to work. He was paralyzed from T-7 to T9. He was in the Charleston Area Medical Center for three weeks for surgery and was at Marietta Memorial Hospital for another three weeks to do rehabilitation.
Although he was now in a wheelchair, he did not want that to stop him from doing things.
"Once my injury happened, I found out about all of the sports around locally I could participate in," he said. "We started a wheelchair basketball team and we play out of Charleston.
"I heard about track and field through some of the basketball players so I started trying to do that. I always did shotput and discus (when he was in school)."
While at the CAMC, Gains met the head of rehabilitation, Jeremiah Gagnon, who does track and field events and also told Gains' wife Kayla about the events as well as the Paralympic team. He emailed Gains with the information and Gains went and tried a number of local events building his interest to eventually try for the U.S. Paralympic Team.
"I was throwing pretty well and some of the other competitors told me about the team and I thought it would be something challenging," he said.
Gains has always maintained his love of competing through everything.
"It is something that just came naturally for me," he said. "I have done sports since I was in third grade.
"When I was in high school, I was All State in football and basketball. I just wanted to keep my drive. I also wanted to do something that could inspire other people."
Starting in April, he will travel to Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida (twice) and Arizona for national meets. There were also a few smaller meets in Columbus, Ohio, Fishersville, Va., and Charleston.
"I will try to make standards to be on the Paralympic team," Gains said. "There are different classifications based on your injury level and what kind of injury you have.
"For my classification, I am a 54 for field events so for shotput it is 8.5 meters, discus is 24.5 meters and javelin is 22.8 meters."
For athletes participating in sanctioned competition, if they throw over the standard they are put on the national list.
"The better you do and the farther you throw, the higher you get put on the list," Gains said. "With every classification, they take two to three members depending on how strong that field is compared to other classifications that you are in."
The smaller events in Charleston, Columbus and Fishersville will give Gains more time to practice and more time to throw to get marks as high as he can. Gains will have two meets in April, meets every weekend in May and two meets in June he will be going to.
He uses a special chair specially built for him to be able to throw in an upright position.
"Last year, I broke the state record for shot and discus," he said. "I threw 20 feet in discus and over 8 meters in shotput."
To train, Gains gets up every day at 4:30 a.m. to work out. He uses free weights and resistance bands to help with throwing speed. He tries to throw two to three times a week if the weather permits.
Even though he is in training, he helps get his wife of five years up and moving to get ready for work. He gets their 2-year-old daughter Jordyn ready for his mother-in-law to pick up. Then he gets ready and goes to class at West Virginia University at Parkersburg where he is studying information technologies.
To help with some of the travel expenses, Gains and those close to him will be doing fundraising. An account has been set up at Advantage Bank in Belpre, called the Josh Gains Benefit Fund, where people can donate.
"It would be awesome to represent the U.S.A. and the state of West Virginia at the Paralympic games," Gains said.
His family has been supportive of his wanting to continue to compete.
"My family knew I was athletic," he said. "They knew I was going to do something to stay active rather than sit around the house like other people have, thinking the world has ended.
"I want to show people that you can do anything that you want to no matter what happens in life. There is always something you can do to better yourself and try to inspire other people. Nothing can stop anyone as long as you put your mind to it and put your heart to it."
