2008 PARALYMPIC GAMES
Paralyzed athlete serves winners
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Beth Arnoult said she wasn't particularly athletic growing up on a farm outside of Lake City, Iowa.
Beth Arnoult:
Maui resident is looking forward to competing for the U.S. in the Paralympic games
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Cheerleading, some track, competitive water skiing and scuba diving ... that was about it.
But when an ATV accident in 1991 left her paralyzed at age 25, Arnoult knew she didn't want to be lying in bed, feeling sorry for herself for the rest of her life.
Although she initially turned down attempts to get her into a wheelchair tennis program, "I gave it a try and fell in love with it," said Arnoult, a Paia, Maui, resident. "The freedom of moving around on the tennis court, swinging my arm to hit the tennis ball, and just the feeling of participating in an active sport was amazing.
"I felt alive again."
Some 17 years after her life-changing accident, the 42-year-old finds herself in Beijing, competing for the U.S. in the Paralympic Games. Arnoult is seeded eighth in singles and, with Kaitlyn Verfuerth, fourth in doubles in the tennis competition that begins Sunday.
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Beth Arnoult is making her farewell tour as a wheelchair tennis player.
What better place to end her career than in Beijing at the Paralympics.
The 42-year-old Arnoult, of Paia, Maui, arrived in China earlier this week to prepare for competition.
"I'm very excited about it, overwhelmed and nervous," Arnoult said. "I'm hoping for a good draw. It's so exciting.
"Just qualifying for the Olympics, representing the U.S., is wonderful. The idea of coming home with a medal would be serious icing."
Arnoult has had a whirlwind summer that included a reception at Maui Community College and a trip back to her hometown of Lake City, Iowa. She said that every store front in Lake City (pop. 200) had a "Go, Beth!" banner or sign congratulating her.
"It was really a warm send-off," Arnoult said. "I couldn't drive down the street without there being tears. They even hung an Olympic flag in the town square.
"It was so neat to have so many people behind me, so neat to know that other people's hearts and spirits are with you."
Wheelchair tennis is one of 19 sports to be contested between tomorrow and Sept. 17. Tennis competition - with 34 countries and 112 players entered - begins Sunday.
Arnoult is seeded fourth in doubles, teaming with Kaitlyn Verfuerth, and seeded eighth out of 32 in singles. She and Verfuerth are the only women on the U.S. tennis team.
"I think the best hope for me is in doubles," said Arnoult, who is ranked in the Top 10 internationally in both singles and doubles. "We wouldn't face No. 1 or No. 2 until that semifinals. That's exciting for us. I don't think a U.S. women's team has ever gotten this far.
"In singles, it will be the luck of the draw. I could get the top player in the first round. We won't know the draw until the night before."
Arnoult began competing in wheelchair tennis in 1996, five years after being paralyzed in an ATV accident in the sand dunes of Las Vegas. She just missed making the U.S. team for the 2004 Paralympics in Athens and dedicated the past few years to making it to Beijing.
In 2005, she was honored with "Beth Arnoult Day" in conjunction with the start of a wheelchair tennis program in the County of Maui. Arnoult continues to give clinics and compete in tennis tournaments, both for wheelchair and able-bodied players.
As for international tennis competition, "this is it for me," Arnoult said. "I'll probably do some league tournaments and I help out my son's sports teams.
"But now I've gotten into paddling."
She competed for Pure Light Racing at last month's World Sprints in the adaptive division, winning silver in OC-1 and a gold in double-hull mixed. Next on the agenda is competing in the Na Wahine O Ke Kai women's Molokai-to-Oahu outrigger canoe race.
But first there is Beijing, where she'll have a cheering section of about 10 family members and friends.
"Wheelchair tennis has created amazing opportunities for me to see parts of the world I would have never imagined and to meet people of all walks of life," she said. "It has definitely given me a more worldly view of life. And I do believe that God put wheelchair tennis in my life at a time when I needed it and to make me realize that I am the same Beth with or without a wheelchair."