By Sarah Nienaber, St. Cloud (Minn.) Times
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — On a chilly Mother's Day in 2002, Bob Mrozek, a high school junior and motocross racer, took his off-road motorcycle out on a familiar trail. His journey ended abruptly when he lost control and was hurled over the handlebars. He lay three hours in a ditch before help arrived.
A spinal cord injury paralyzed Mrozek from the waist down. Today Mrozek is blazing a new trail for himself and other paraplegics by continuing to race despite his physical limitations.
"I thought I couldn't ride dirt bike or do anything anymore," says Mrozek, now 24, of Sartell.
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Jim Nelson of the Amateur Riders Motorcycle Association says Mrozek may be the only paraplegic to ride motocross in Minnesota.
The day he was injured, Mrozek was scheduled to race. The race "got rained out, and I just needed to go for a ride," he says. He was practicing when he lost control of his cycle.
Mrozek had surgery to fuse six vertebrae and place two rods and 12 screws in his back. Doctors told him he wouldn't walk again, but he didn't let that keep him from riding: "I can just get on my four-wheeler and leave my wheelchair behind," he says.
His four-wheeler is modified so he can control it with his hands, but he has to be strapped to the seat. He races motocross most Friday nights at Race Freex, a track near Brainerd, and is ranked first in the Quad Open Class, where the four-wheelers are allowed to be modified.
He is in his third year of college. His goal is to be an elementary physical education teacher. "I want ... to give younger kids an outlook on disability. Plus I'm their height."
Last month marked the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.
Mrozek reminds those with disabilities not to sweat the small stuff: "Don't let the little things stop you. If you still got life, you can still go," he says. "You always have your brain."
Published in the St. Cloud Times: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-08-6Aracing_N.htm?csp=YahooModule_News
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