Thursday, January 17, 2013

A boy with cerebral palsy is a sports star of the year—and his brother, too


Sports Illustrated Kids has declared not one but two kids to be SportsKid of The Year, featuring them on their December issue. Actually, they're brothers. Actually, one of them has hypertonic cerebral palsy and can't walk. Actually, they enter triathlons together and one brother tows the other on a bike, pulls him in a raft and pushes him in a trailer.


You may already know of Cayden Long, 7, and Conner Long, 9, of White House, Tennessee, since the two have been making headlines since they started participating in triathlons a year and a half ago. They go by the name Team Long Brothers, and they've been traveling the East Coast to compete in races.

I love that Cayden gets to participate in triathlons, and I am seriously inspired by Conner's extreme devotion and ingenuity. I hope that kids who see this understand that there are all sorts of ways to include kids with disabilities in activities, and that sometimes you just have to think outside the...bike.

I only recently heard about the SportsKids honor. I shared this video on Facebook, and wanted to make sure all of you here saw it, too. Enjoy. Pass the tissues.

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10 comments:

  1. amy t sharpJanuary 17, 2013 at 6:59 AM

    LOVE this so hard!!! xx

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  2. UnknownJanuary 17, 2013 at 8:30 AM

    That's awesome! I love seeing things like this in mainstream media.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2013 at 9:48 AM

    I have to stop watching the videos you post while I'm at work... such a wonderful story that brought tears to my eyes.

    I've never commented before, and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to leave a name if I don't have a site to tie it to. Thanks for sharing that story, those boys are going to open a lot of eyes.

    Shannon

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2013 at 12:02 PM

    Thanks for sharing this! Love, love. This is my son's triathlon story, also helped by his big brothers! Such simple races, but mean so much more for them and their evolving relationships.- Deirdre

    http://youtu.be/bzz6P9QjdAc
    "Trigator 2012"

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  5. NishaJanuary 17, 2013 at 1:00 PM

    This story is so heartwarming talk about brotherly love.

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2013 at 6:28 PM

    For those yearning for more info like I was, this video will satisfy! Here's the backstory.

    http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7208128

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  7. AnnieJanuary 18, 2013 at 7:35 AM

    Hey Ellen. Love this. Also you may want to check out the New York Times The Choice blog entry by its The Envelope series blogger Bryan Strommer. His September post ypu will likely find very interesting.

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  8. KrystalJanuary 18, 2013 at 12:42 PM

    LOVE this story! We've been sharing it as well! i hope that my Conner also 9 can learn from him about being this kind of big brother!

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  9. CMSavage6January 18, 2013 at 1:07 PM

    I was so proud of Sports Illustrated Kids for having this. I was even more proud when my daughters (11, 10 and 7) picked the magazine up off the library display and showed it to the librarian. What an inspiration. It's either Parents or Parenting Magazine what also has a "special" kid on the cover this month. Awesome!

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  10. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2013 at 9:00 PM

    Aw yeah!

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Thanks for sharing!