The Olympics are over, but are they?

This past Sunday the 2008 Olympics came to a close with the ceremonies in Beijing, China. They were exciting to watch and while I had grown a bit tired of them, many people didn't want them to end. There was a lot of excitement and incredible stories of human endurance, accomplishment and triumph. They were enjoyable from start to finish.

For many, the Olympics are not over, but instead, they are just about to begin...

I want to tell you about a guy named Kevin Stone. He is a 47 year old guy from Kodak, Tennessee. Kevin has been married and divorced, raised two kids, a boy and a girl, and served his country in the army. Kevin however isn't a typical guy though. Kevin is a fighter whose determination is driven by every cell of his body and he has an incredible story.

Kevin is an accomplished archer. So much so that he is considered one of the top twenty markspersons in the United States. On August 23rd, 2008 he kicked off the fire works for the Knoxville Smokies Triple-A baseball team by lighting the first fuse with a flaming arrow from 325 feet away. To put that in perspective think about how difficult it would be to shoot ONE arrow the length of a football field to hit a target. Now imagine that arrow on fire with the entire stadium full of people watching you and your target being a small ring. That is an incredible feat to say the least.

A crazy as his abilities with a bow, Kevin is even more amazing because of his past.

In 1985 Kevin was in the army, stationed in Granada. On his way back to base one day he was the passenger in a jeep, sleeping soundly, when the driver lost control. The jeep plummeted over a cliff, with Kevin strapped inside. The driver managed to bail out, but Kevin had been sleeping and suffered an impact with a granite ledge. Hitting top first, Kevin took the impact to his head. It drove his skull into his spine column and broke four vertebrae. The diagnosis for Kevin was grim: "Death, or total quadriplegia forever." His family was told he'd have neurological damage, degenerative disc disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's and degenerative brain disease.

Kevin would not give up fighting though and eventually left the hospital, wheelchair bound and doped up on large amounts of medication. In the years that followed Kevin continued to fight and eventually learned to walk again. He was so determined to live a normal life that at one time he even played volleyball in his spare time with his friends he met while going to college to ear two degrees in art and music.

In the early 90's the pain became even more unbearable. He was taking up to 4,200 milligrams of narcotics a day to deal with his medical conditions. Additonally the brittle bones in his legs started to chip from his efforts to try to move without a wheelchair. Eventually the doctors wanted to amputate his legs. Kevin refused to allow them to.

Then in 1996 a therapist suggested that Kevin suggested that Kevin get involved with athletics. He headed out to Seattle for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games where he saw people competing with more limitations than he had and they were blowing away any score he possibly could imagine.

An accurate long-range shooter in the Army, Kevin decided to compete in rifle shooting. To his surprise, he was beaten by a paralyzed veteran who used a blow tube to activate the trigger and moved the rifle with his chin. In the end this motivated Kevin and he began to train in earnest.

This new fight gave Kevin new motivation and provided him with an upgrade in his quality of life. Always a fighter, this gave Kevin an outlet for his energy, and he began to excel. He managed to medal at various events, finding success in team pistols.

It was then that Kevin decided he was going to up the ante and become an Olympian. He switched his discipline to archery and managed to qualify foir the U.S. Archery Team, disabled team. With that he traveled to Madrid, Spain and competed at the World Championships. The following year he represented the United States at the Paralypic Games in Athens, Greece.

The Paralympic Games are the shadow of the Olympic Games, occuring in the same city as the Olympic Games, just a few weeks later. They have similar events for handicapped individuals. The similarity doesn't end there though. There is also stringent drug testing and Kevin knew that preparing for though games meant getting off the meds.

Kevin suffered through a month of pain medication withdrawls, going from 4,200mg to 10mg of meds a day, including abandoning a 17 year habit of taking 160mg of morphine every day. This came in addition to working out 10 hours a week, strengthening his back and core muscles, and shooting a bow and arrow 30 hours a week. In 2004 he went to Athens and came home with a bronze medal in team archery.

In less than two weeks Kevin will travel to Beijing to compete in the 2008 games in both team and individual archery. Among Paralympic archers, he's ranked in the top 10 in the world.

He works hard to keep that ranking. Kevin practices archery for five hours a day, six days a week. He also works out three hours a night at National Fitness Center in Sevierville: 35 minutes of cardio, a half-hour of core training (sit-ups, back extensions), one of various routines using weights, and a half-hour solely on his legs. He can walk short distances but risks breaking bone.

So, to say that the Olympics are over would be an understatement as I know that Kevin's aren't, nor are the games for 100's of others across the globe who will converge on the same venues that we, over the past two weeks, have become familiar.

There won't be the same coverage for these games. You won't see blocks of competition broadcast on NBC, or scrolling results at the bottom of your screen on ESPN. Yet these athletes will be giving the same degree of effort as Michael Phelps, Husain Bolt, and Misty May.

I will be following the results as best I can, watching online to find out how Kevin has done. Over the last few days I have thought back to those games of volleyball I shared with Kevin. I remember going back to Adrian College for homecoming and hearing how Kevin refused to bring his wheelchair to the football game because he didn't want any of his fraternity brothers seeing him diabled (this was at the time when his doctors were suggesting that Kevin get his legs amputated). I remember Kevin joking with me, calling me Captain Adverb (in reference to the old School House Rock cartoon "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here"). You see Kevin is my friend and brother. One that I've known since shortly after his accident. I learned his story as he's lived it. I got to see him struggle with raising a family with his horrible disability. I've got to see him watch his wife Bonnie work while he put himself through college.

It is so rewarding to see him find something that he excels at and claim back his life that was written off by so many doctors. Kevin is a great guy, with a great heart and the drive and determination to never, ever give up. I am proud to have him as a fraternity brother. I am proud to have him as a friend.

So, if the readersof this blog can find it in them to give the Olympics a little more attention, I encourage you all to follow Kevin's progress in his quest to get a gold medal while in Beijing. Think about him when he leaves and competes during the second week of September. I will keep you all updated on his results. Let's hope he brings home gold.

And Kevin, if you happened to read this article, I just want to tell you good luck and as always, Love and Respect.