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{"id":526598,"date":"2023-04-03T06:57:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T13:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=526598"},"modified":"2023-04-03T07:47:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:47:15","slug":"against-the-odds-how-st-catherine-university-coach-justin-zook-became-a-paralympic-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/against-the-odds-how-st-catherine-university-coach-justin-zook-became-a-paralympic-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Against the Odds: How St. Catherine University Coach Justin Zook Became a Paralympic Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Against the Odds: How St. Catherine University Coach Justin Zook Became a Paralympic Champion<\/strong><\/p>\n

St. Catherine University (Minn.) swim coach Justin Zook is a study in overcoming adversity. He was born in Chicago in 1985 missing half his right foot and with non-functioning right leg growth plates. Thirty operations lengthened the leg, but caused nerve damage, muscle weakness, range of motion problems and a lifetime of pain. As a form of therapy, and a way of life, he started swimming at age 6.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a youngster, Justin Zook<\/strong> was a very accomplished age grouper, beating fully-abled athletes even into his college years. There he competed for Springfield College (Mass.), was a member of the school\u2019s 2005 New England Women\u2019s and Men\u2019s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship squad and an NCAA qualifier. Along the way, he discovered swimming for the disabled, becoming a three-time S10-class Paralympic gold medalist in 2004, 2008 and 2012 and a three-time world champion (2002, 2006, 2013) in the 100 meter backstroke. He was also S10 world champion and one-time world record holder in the 200 back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwimming has been a guiding force in my life since age 7 or 8,\u201d says Zook. \u201cI always used it as a bit of a compass for my direction in life. Swimming helped me learn an important perspective: Life is not fair. My parents say I was not a \u2018Why me?\u2019 child. Accepting physical difficulty was just a way of life for me. From all my surgeries, I gained a unique perspective and became truly grateful for the things many kids don\u2019t think twice about.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome kids remember hearing the story of when they first walked. My parents have 15\u2014when I first walked, re-learned and re-learned how to walk. I give credit to them for helping foster an environment where the things I could do were celebrated. They made sure when there was something I could do within my physical limitations that I was encouraged to try, even if it meant ending up in pain afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom still cries thinking of me trying to ice skate. We had a pond across the street. I convinced my parents to let me get skates and try to skate across. I spent hours moving an inch and falling repeatedly onto my right leg. I eventually got across, experiencing excruciating pain and bruising to the point where I could barely walk. My parents allowed me to explore my limits and live with the consequences. That experience set me on a lifelong path discovering how to navigate and explore life\u2019s path, given my limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought much about how to define myself as an athlete,\u201d says Zook. \u201cFor the first 16 years of my swimming career, I considered myself an athlete on whatever team I was representing, but rarely looked at anything differently due to my disability and\/or Paralympic swimming involvement. After my collegiate career, I was no longer swimming able-bodied meets\u2014but mainly in Paralympic competitions. At that point, I had come to accept myself as a Paralympic<\/a> athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"