By Beccy Tanner
Two years ago, when Wichitan Delbert
Richardson first woke from a dream where he saw himself biking across America,
he never envisioned it would lead to him carrying an Olympic torch.
But shortly after 8 a.m. Friday,
Richardson will carry an official Olympic torch. His wife, Monique, will
too.
Richardson made national news last
fall when he completed a 5,100-mile journey by bike that began in Seattle
and ended at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The 48-year-old Wichita native did
so despite battling multiple sclerosis for four years.
The disease initially left him depressed
and physically unable to perform daily activities. He began using a wheelchair,
stopped driving his car and could no longer work.
Nevertheless, last spring, after
experiencing the same dream three more times, Richardson began a cross-country
journey on a recumbent bicycle.
On April 9, he began his six-month
journey. In the process he lost 40 pounds -- and also many of his fears
about life.
"... It was more about getting out
of myself and into doing for others,'' he said.
"You have a vision of what America
is supposed to be like," he said. "Being a person of color, I was going
into areas that you think normally you might not be accepted. And here
these people were opening up their homes and hearts to me.
"And I thought, 'This is what America
is.' "
After he runs his leg of the relay,
Richardson will pass the torch to his wife, Monique.
"I was in total shock when I found
out I'd been selected," Monique Richardson said. "The first thing I said
to Delbert was, 'But I don't run!'
"And he's been making me go out and
train every day, every evening."
As he looks back, Delbert Richardson
said he had no idea his dream would take him so far.
When he was in the desert, a Hopi
Indian told him his dream was no regular dream. It was, instead, a vision
quest.
He thinks of it more as an odyssey.
"Journeys have ends," he says. "This
is an odyssey where you have to keep going."
© The Wichita Eagle
2002-01-10
EDMOND -- "Did you ever know that
you're my hero? And everything I would like to be?"
The words from the popular Bette
Midler song "Wind Beneath My Wings" hold a special meaning for an Edmond
mother and daughter.
"It's always been a song between
the two of us," said Kathleen Means, 54.
She said her daughter is her hero.
Means' daughter, Katrina Shaklee,
hopes the wind is just right Friday, the day she accomplishes one of her
lifelong goals -- to become part of the Olympics.
Shaklee, 28, is one of 61 Oklahomans
who will carry the Olympic flame through Oklahoma as it makes its way toward
the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
On Friday, Shaklee will carry the
flame from the state Capitol, north on Lincoln Boulevard to NE 29 and Lincoln.
Shaklee said she has chosen to jog
the two- tenths of a mile.
To train for the event, Shaklee said
she has been jogging with her "little black mutt," Harley.
Shaklee said she's not concerned
about the jogging portion of the event, but she is worried about carrying
the 3 pound, glass-topped torch. She is afraid she will drop it.
"Nobody's dropped it yet. I'd forever
be remembered," she said, laughing. "I think it's a great opportunity.
I love the Olympics, and I've enjoyed sports all my life."
Shaklee was chosen in July from more
than 210,000 nominees to carry the torch.
Although several family members submitted
essays on Shaklee's behalf, it was Means' essay on why her daughter was
an inspiration to her that caused officials to choose Shaklee as a torchbearer.
Means said she simply told her daughter's
story.
While seeking a master's degree in
sports administration from the University of Northern Colorado, Shaklee
awoke on New Year's Day, 1998, blind in one eye.
Means said it later was discovered
her daughter's occasional blindness in one eye was a side effect of multiple
sclerosis.
"Everybody was devastated for a while,
but she attacks everything head- on," Means said.
Means said despite the blindness
in one eye, her daughter got her master's degree in one year. She said
her daughter took daily injections to control her illness.
Shaklee said when her relapsing,
remitting multiple sclerosis acts up, her symptoms include blindness in
one eye or numbness in her legs.
"MS affects everyone differently,
and it's very unpredictable," she said. "I could wake up tomorrow and not
feel anything from the waist down.
"Every day, I wake up and thank God
that I'm well for another day."
In 1998, the same year she was diagnosed,
Shaklee married and moved back to Edmond.
After her move, Shaklee said she
decided to host sporting events for physically disabled athletes.
"Because she couldn't do what she
wanted to do so badly, which was work for a sports franchise, she came
home and went to work," Means said.
In February 2000, Shaklee formed
the Edmond-based, nonprofit organization The Sports Group Inc. That same
year, the organization began hosting the annual Endeavor Games for athletes
with physical disabilities.
Because of the success of the Endeavor
Games, the organization started a second event, the Oklahoma Amputee Golf
Tournament.
Shaklee is working on a third project,
a special- needs baseball team that will begin in April.
Means said the way her daughter helps
others makes her a hero.
"She always manages to look at the
positive," Means said. "She took lemons and made lemonade.
"Anytime you're helping people, that's
the goal in life."
Means said the nomination was a way
to give her daughter something for helping so many others.
"She has watched the Olympics since
she was a little child and always wanted to be part of it in some way,"
she said. "I just think it's so fantastic that she's going to get this
opportunity to do something that she's wanted to do for so long.
"I'm so very proud of her. She's
just a really neat individual."
© The Wichita Eagle
The Wichita Eagle
Torch
runner inspires mother's support
By Kenna Griffin
The Oklahoman