Ming Canaday knows when she enters a room, eyes are automatically drawn to her and her wheelchair. It is a feeling that has followed her ever since she can remember.
Canaday, a University sophomore, was born in China and left on the streets at the age of three. She lived in an orphanage for eight years before she was adopted.
She was diagnosed with post-polio; at least, that is what doctors believe her condition is. No accurate diagnosis has been determined, but her condition has left her paralyzed since birth.
When Canaday came to the U.S. around age 11, she was eager to learn the English language and enroll in school. By good fortune, a secretary from the school where Canaday’s father worked gifted Canaday with a used contraption that would forever mold her new way of life: They gave her a racing wheelchair.
Canaday is now a wheelchair racer in the University’s Adaptive Sports Club. You can find her and her teammate, Matt Howard, racing laps around Hayward Field a few times a week on crisp Eugene mornings. They compete against the clock and work to improve their times.
Canaday, Howard and University alumnus Eli Ettinger, who founded the ASC, share the same passion for wheelchair racing. They all participated in their high school track teams against able-bodied contestants and transferred to wheelchair racing when they journeyed to college.
The idea for the ASC sprouted from Ettinger’s senior project, but it bloomed into so much more. In spring 2008, Ettinger collaborated with Kevin Hansen, a previous Paralympics coach who is also in charge of World Wheel Chair Sports based in Eugene, and received a $15,000 grant from Nike for equipment.
“We chose wheelchair racing to start off with,” Ettinger said. “Eugene is known as Track Town USA, and there is so much field behind it, wheelchair racing was just a good fit.”
The ASC hopes to include other sports for students with disabilities such as tennis or basketball in the future, but the club needs to find a permanent place to store its equipment first.
“Everyone has different athletic shoes for their sport; our shoes are our wheelchairs, and they are just a little bit bigger,” Hansen said.
After practice, the teammates disperse to different places to store their racing wheelchairs. Since spring 2008, the athletes of the University wheelchair racing team have been unable to find a permanent place to cohesively store their racing wheelchairs on campus, causing Canaday to miss practice from time to time because she was unable to get to her racing wheelchair.
Last year she was fortunate enough to have a dorm room to herself, creating more than enough space for the equipment. This year, her dorm room is unable to house her, her roommate and the racing wheelchair. It is clear which one was the likely candidate to receive the boot.
“I don’t mind waking up at 7 a.m. for practice,” Canaday said, “but I just want to have my tools available to use.”
And Howard, a University sophomore, has been unable to use his hand cycle — a similar piece of equipment used in racing — because of space issues. He currently stores his racing wheelchair in his truck to endure the potential effects of Mother Nature.
Each racer, current and past, has had to find his or her own means to store his or her racing wheelchair. Temporary places have been used. Many have left their chairs at Coach Hansen’s house. Unfortunately, Hansen lives out by Gateway Mall in Springfield, making the trip inconvenient and time-consuming for students.
Hansen and his racers say the Student Recreation Center would be an appropriate place for permanent wheelchair storage, as the large facility holds many athletic teams’ equipment. It would be another step forward in making the members of the ASC feels a part of the world of Oregon’s collegiate sports. ASC students desire a place for their racing wheelchairs to be stored out of harm and in an accessible place for current and future students.
A variety of ideas have been proposed in the last two years, and the racers have found support and help through the rec center and other organizations, but  no permanent home has yet to be found.
Although the dilemma might affect less than one percent of our student population, we can’t just brush it off.
“We are looking for our champion,” Hansen said. “No one will stand up and be it.”
Fortunately, less than 24 hours before writing this piece, Hansen received news that the rec center would work to accept Hansen’s donation of a roller — a treadmill designed for students with disabilities. The roller would enable racers to work out inside when the rain forbids fair practicing conditions.
Hansen believes this advancement will also open a door for finding a solution for the overdue storage predicament, and she keeps an optimistic approach through it all.
“It is positive for me. I am promoting the team and promoting the disabled community,” he said.
While the racers and members of the ASC still may not know the face of their champion-in-waiting, Ming, Howard, Ettinger and Hansen know how to overcome any obstacle that lies ahead.
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