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In her new wheelchair, Marilyn Hamilton excelled at
tennis, winning the U.S. Open Women’s Wheelchair
Championship twice, both in singles and doubles.
(Eventually she did get her yellow wheelchair.)

efore you jump off a 3 Still, Hamilton was determined to
1 live a full and active life, and ready to try
B mountain, there are a new things. Regular tennis was out, but
few things you have to do. a friend got her started on wheelchair

Usually, Marilyn Hamilton did them all, tennis. It was frustratingly difficult, and
and had a great time soaring in she’d come home from the courts at the
California’s Sierra mountain range under end of the day with badly blistered
her hang glider. But one day in 1978, she hands. She hated her wheelchair! Its
forgot to clip her harness to the glider. steel frame made it heavy (close to 27
She was lucky not to be killed, but the kilograms, or 60 pounds) and hard to
crash broke her back. At the age of 29, maneuver. And it was ugly. Being
Hamilton’s life changed forever—but the imprisoned in that wheelchair was the
lives of millions of others would also be exact opposite of being able to fly in a
changed by that simple mistake. hang glider. One day, that difference
2 Hamilton was never able to walk gave her an idea.
again. After a stay in the hospital and
three weeks of therapy, she was given maneuver To maneuver something is to move it.
a wheelchair and encouraged to get on
with her life. She was eager to do that
but worried about the things she would
never be able to do again, like running,
biking, squash and racquetball,
hiking, and hang gliding.

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