October 19, 2006

Wheelchair racer Nick Cunningham before the Yellow Springs Street Fair 5K race on Saturday, Oct. 14.

By Virgil Hervey

Nick Cunningham wheels down Xenia Avenue to the Emporium for an interview in a dilapidated wheelchair carrying his eight-year-old son on his lap. When you see him, you might be tempted to lend him a hand, but that’s not really necessary.

“Growing up in my house you did everything for yourself,” he said at the recent interview. “I was an expert at climbing up on cabinets. Nowadays, people think they have to help me, but they forget I’ve got a six-foot reach.”

Cunningham, a world-class wheelchair racer who moved to Yellow Springs in August, often talks of two communities, the disabled and the able-bodied. Having lost his legs at the age of eight weeks in a freak household accident, he has been a member of the former for as long as he can remember.

Cunningham was born in Ireland. His family moved to England when he was four, then to Canada when he was seven. When he married his wife, Amy, an American citizen, they decided to live in the U.S. They moved to Fairborn four years ago, so she could pursue an MBA at Wright State. Cunningham said that they enjoyed their frequent day trips to Yellow Springs so much that they decided to move here.

Since high school in Winnipeg, when Cunningham borrowed a racing chair and won his first race, wheelchair racing has defined his life. Racing for the Canadian team, he competed in the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona and won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay. That year he also qualified for the finals in the 100 meters and the semifinals in the 200 meters. In 1996 in the Atlanta Paralympics, having competed for his team in the preliminary rounds, Cunningham won a silver medal as an alternate on the 4 x 400 team, and made the semifinals in the 100 and 200 meters.

According to Cunningham, on the eve of the 2,000 Paralympics in Sydney, he was ranked fifth in the world in the 100-meter dash. His prospects for an individual medal were looking good, when he suddenly had to quit racing to become a single dad. His son’s mother abandoned them, Cunningham said, and he was left to raise his son, Thomas, on his own. For the next seven years he didn’t really train, but raced sporadically to keep his name on the list of prospects for the Canadian National Team, he said.

Cunningham, who is majoring in exercise biology at Wright State, said he was approached by Shannon Morrisey from the Office of Campus Recreation and asked to start a wheelchair track team. It didn’t take him long to say yes, since he had been planning on using his education to start a career in coaching. Soon he found himself coaching four wheelchair athletes and training and competing again himself.

In May, Cunningham won the 100, 200, and 400 meters at the Ohio Wheelchair Games on the Ohio State University track with times that were almost twice as fast as his nearest competitor. According to the official results posted on the Web site of the Ohio Wheelchair Sports Association, his time for the 100-meter dash was 15.53 seconds.

Cunningham races in the T4 classification, meaning that he has full use of his upper body. The classifications, which run from T4 to T1, depend on what use of muscles the athletes have, with T1 for athletes who have extremely little muscle control, he said.

After Cunningham became a state champion, the coaching requests started pouring in. He is currently coaching two state champions and one U.S. champion at Wright State and is considering coaching some of his competitors from the Ohio Games.

“I don’t see disabled athletes,” he said, “I just see athletes.”

Cunningham is not shy about his abilities, and talks with the confidence of a champion. When speaking about his racing, he says things such as, “I smoked him,” and, “he didn’t know who he was dealing with.” Cunningham is now 35.

“I’m better now than I was in my prime,” he said. “Well, I thought that was my prime.”

Cunningham recently started a Web site, www.afhracing.com, and advertised it in the classified section of the News so he can let people know about his achievements. AFH stands for America’s Fastest Hippie, a nickname he received from some Yellow Springs locals who saw him speeding around town in his chair, Cunningham said.

The Web site also has a section in which he seeks sponsors. In his heyday, Cunningham said, he had enough sponsors so that he could devote his full time to training and racing. He used to make a living at racing and have enough extra money to buy a new chair every year, he said. Now that his hiatus from serious racing is over, he is starting from scratch.

As it turns out, Cunningham could use some help after all. In June of 2005 at the national championships in Atlanta he crashed in the 400 meters and broke his hand and wrecked his racing chair. He’s been holding it together with chewing gum and bailing wire ever since, he said. He dares not use it for training, choosing instead to save it for races. Cunningham said he needs $2,050 for a new racing chair, an amount that does not include the price of the wheels, which he already has. He could also use $1,500 for a new “day” chair, since he is currently getting around in a borrowed one.

Plans for a fundraiser are just coming together, according to Cunningham, who has hopes for an eclectic combination of live music in a large venue. He will be updating his Web site regularly as the arrangements are firmed up.

At 9 o’clock last Saturday morning, Cunningham rolled up to the starting line of the Yellow Springs Street Fair 5K. He had given up racing elsewhere on the cool October morning, including a homecoming day event at Wright State University, even though there were no other wheelchair racers in the Yellow Springs event, because he wanted to do something in his new town. His time of 17:40 for the 3.1 miles was slow by his standards. He said his gloves were stiff due to the cold weather, but he still “smoked” the field of able-bodied runners.

According to Cunningham, from here on in he plans to enter as many races as possible, make the U.S. National Team, and set records in Beijing in 2008.

“I know I am the best,” he said. “I just need a proper comeback chair.”

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com