American woman paralyzed by ex-boyfriend is selected for Paralympics despite her disability – 8world
An American woman was paralyzed after being attacked by her ex-boyfriend, but she did not give up on herself. Instead, she took the initiative to get involved in archery and was eventually selected for the national team to participate in the Paralympics.
According to the BBC, the 28-year-old woman, Tracy Otto, was surprised to receive the news that she would be participating in the Paralympics while having lunch one day.
‘They gave my boyfriend Ricky Riessle a box with a hat in it saying ‘You’ve qualified’,’ she told BBC Sport.
Otto has been selected to the USA Archery team for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, where she will compete in the Mixed Team and W1 Open Individual qualifying events with her partner Jason Tabansky.
Paralyzed by ex-boyfriend
Reports said Otto was attacked at home by her ex-boyfriend in October 2019, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down, with limited movement of her arms and hands, blindness in her left eye, and unable to sweat or regulate her body temperature normally.
She speaks candidly about what happened that night, and she hopes her story can be a light in the world, a beacon of hope, so that other women who have experienced violence from their partners or ex-boyfriends know that they are not alone.
She said that after she broke up with her ex-boyfriend in September 2019, she kicked him out and changed the locks of her house. After that, she met her current boyfriend Ricky.
On October 24, 2019, when she and Ricky were in the house, their ex-boyfriend broke into the house with a powerful steel ball gun, a knife and a pair of handcuffs, and threatened to kill them.
He punched Otto several times, then shot Ricky twice in the face and stabbed him in the back, causing a collapsed lung.
He then shot Otto once in the left eye, stabbed her in the back of the neck, paralyzed her, and sexually assaulted her.
Although Otto’s ex-boyfriend was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison, Otto has been paralyzed ever since and his body can no longer automatically regulate its temperature.
Contact archery
Although she was paralyzed, Otto did not give up on life. In March 2021, she started archery on a whim, a sport she had never tried before.
She did some research and found out there was an adaptive archery program where, due to his disability, Otto had to shoot using a specially designed harness.
Otto hit the target with his first arrow, and then he became fascinated with the sport. He even had a lofty dream of participating in the Paralympics.
She thought she couldn’t just lie down and wait to die, and eventually she successfully participated in the Paralympics as she wished.
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