Judo is a form of Japanese martial arts with an emphasis on grappling and throwing one’s opponent to the ground. Lynn Manning is a decorated fighter, having won medals at judo championships all over the world, from Colorado Springs to the Italian island of Sardinia. The fact that Manning can’t see his opponents is never a deterrent.
Nearly 30 years ago, Manning was shot in the face during a bar fight in Hollywood, Calif., leaving him totally blind. After the sudden loss of his sight, Manning, a former student of Okinawa Ti karate, found himself becoming more sedentary and gaining weight. Nine months later, he started practicing Judo, the contact of which he said makes it a perfect sport for those who are visually impaired.
“If someone attacks you, they have to grab you and you generally know where they are,” he said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “For me, it was a really good outlet for anger and getting out my frustration of living blind in a sighted world.”
After his first tournament, Manning joined the team at Los Angeles City College, sparring with sighted opponents before eventually going to Seoul, South Korea to participate in the 1988 Paralympics. Due to a lack of athletes, Manning’s event was canceled and he competed in the next weight class, sparring with a man 55 pounds heavier. He went back to the United States without a medal, but upped his training and quit smoking out of determination to win.
At the World Victory Games in the Netherlands in 1990, Manning was crowned Blind Judo Champion of the World.
At a glance
Lynn Manning will perform his award-winning autobiographical play “Weights” tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Gerlinger Lounge. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided.
Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in the Many Nations Longhouse, Manning will facilitate a workshop about disability identity and student leadership. This event is also free, open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
“It was exciting. It was redemption because I really kicked myself for not performing to my best in Seoul,” he said. “Even though I was from a different weight class, I feel I should have performed a lot better. (Winning is) something I’m proud of and something I’ll stay proud of for as long as I’m around.”
In the nearly-20 years since, Manning has accumulated a number of achievements: winning a silver medal at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain; co-founding the Watts Village Theater Company in Los Angeles; appearing on “Seinfeld,” among other shows, as an actor; and winning three NAACP awards for “Weights,” his solo autobiographical play he will perform at the University tonight as part of Disability Services’ dis/Ability Awareness Conference.
“It sort of takes the audience on the journey of how I got shot and blinded, and how growing up in South Central Los Angeles prepared me for adjusting to that,” Manning said.
He said “Weights” can offer something for everyone, not just people with disabilities.
“This piece is an emotional roller coaster,” he said. “It’s extremely entertaining and engaging, and there’s quite a lot of humor in it. I don’t stay away from darkness; I think we need to go there to appreciate the light.”
The dis/Ability conference, the name of which is written in a way to focus on people’s abilities rather than their disabilities, is an annual event University senior Eli Ettinger said is about “(creating) more inclusion for students with disabilities and (giving) them a voice on campus.”
Ettinger, who has done community development work at Disability Services since last January, is currently helping start a student union for students with disabilities.
“There’s no social outlet on campus for students with disabilities, so the student union, we’re trying to get that going,” he said, adding that ASUO mandates biweekly meetings for six months. “By May, we’re hoping to be recognized.”
Tomorrow morning, Manning will facilitate a workshop aimed at creating unity and acceptance.
University graduate student Alison Cerezo, a graduate teaching fellow in Disability Services, said “Weights” can be an eye-opener and learning experience for all University students.
“I think (Manning) challenges the way we think about disabilities or the idea of ability. He’s talking about it as a cultural identity and that’s really important,” said Cerezo, adding that a disability can be as much a part of a person as race or gender. “I think it’s important to think about disability as a cultural identity and not always think about it in a medical module or as a deficit. It’s not; it’s just a different way of experiencing the world.”
Manning said he never set out to inspire people, but he is glad to do so.
“It’s not why I do what I do, but if that’s the result of what I do, I welcome it,” he said. “People need to know and understand that there are things we all have the ability to excel at and the potential to excel at, and we should pursue that the best we can.”
Ettinger said Manning is not only inspiring, but impressive.
“Not everybody’s a Judo champion or gets to be on ‘Seinfeld,’” he said.
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