Welcome to another inspiring story of “Meet The Real Heroes” on Special Neighborhood, an exclusive Social Network for the specially-abled. For our first time readers, this series is dedicated to individuals, who have conquered problems resulting from their physical or mental disabilities to achieve their dreams and ambitions. The world of Specially Abled needs more role models and this series is dedicated to bringing those real-life heroes to you.
As per WHO, more than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning. Consequently, to achieve the goals set under UNITED NATIONs SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS of building an inclusive and equitable world, it’s imperative to empower people living with disabilities
Moving on now, let's celebrate the life of Trischa Zorn.
Trischa Zorn has proven the world that her disability can’t stop her from achieving what she dreams in her life after she became the most successful Paralympian until date, retiring with 55 international medals (41 gold, 9 silver, and 5 bronze). Born on 1st June 1964 in Orange, California with Aniridia, a congenital, genetic eye condition that causes the eye to stop developing prematurely making her completely blind by birth.
Over the years she has competed in the 1908,1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Paralympics swimming in (S12, SB12 and SM12 disability categories). After starting at the age of 10 at the Mission Viejos Natadores Team, she has never looked back.
She won 7 gold medals during her first Games in 1980, after which she won 5 more golds at Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 and enjoyed her most successful Games at Seoul 1988 claiming a staggering 12 gold medals, easily breaking the previous record of 10 set by Italian Maria Scutti at the first Paralympics in Rome, in 1960. She topped the individual medal table at the 1992 Games in Barcelona with 10 gold and 2 silver medals and became the only athlete to win 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals in the 1996 Games in Atlanta. In the Sydney Games of 2000, she had 8 world records to her name in the disability category (50 m backstrokes, 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, 200 m individual medley, 400 m individual medley, 200 m breaststroke, 4×50 m medley relay, 4×50 m free relay) and she retired from swimming post Olympics in Athens in the year 2004 after her mother expired due to cancer.
In the year 2001, she started teaching young school-aged children with special needs in Indianapolis which she continued doing for 10 years, became one of eight athletes honored during New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York City on 1 January 2005 and got inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in the year 2012. Being a Lawyer she works currently with the Indiana Pro Bono Commission in Indianapolis and lives in Indianapolis with her husband Bryan and her stepdaughters Emelie and Erika.
Do you still think a disability makes you weak in front of others? Examples like her are there in every domain to prove you wrong because remember that you are not disabled but specially-abled.
It’s time to dump the word “DIS-ABILITY” and pronounce it loudly as “SPECIAL ABILITY”. Special Neighborhood (https://www.specialneighborhood.com) is an initiative focussing on building an inclusive world by bringing together all the specially-abled on a single platform, empowering them with an ecosystem, which enables them to Connect, Collaborate, Communicate and Create. Additionally giving them access to jobs, events, news and much more from the world of Special Abilities.
