Paul Callahan

 Skipper Paul Callahan, with crew Keith Burhans (Irondequoit, N.Y.) and Corky Aucreman (Dana Point, Calif.) won the Paralympic Trials in the Sonar class in April in St.Petersburg, Fla. As the U.S. representatives to the 2000 Paralympic Games, Callahan and crew will be breaking new ground in Sydney -- for the first time at the Paralympics sailing will be a full medal sport after having served as an exhibition event at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Georgia. (Callahan, Burhans and Aucreman have been members of the US Disabled Sailing Team since it was established in 1998 to recruit and train athletes for upcoming Paralympiads.)

Callahan, injured in a fall on a wet floor while an undergrad at Harvard, is a C-4 Quadriplegic Incomplete. He has no tricep control (ability to push away), but he has some bicep control (ability to pull). He holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard and is currently a Director at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Callahan started sailing in 1993 at Shake-a-Leg-Newport, a progressive therapy center located in Newport, R.I., that provides post-trauma rehab and activities for people with spinal cord injuries. It is world renowned for it's adaptive sailing program. Callahan has served as Chairman of the organization since 1995.

"The boat, wind and water don't know that I am in a wheelchair," said Callahan who has been on a two-year mission to reach the Paralympic Games. "If my crew and I make the right decisions, we can make the boat go as fast or faster than the one next to us, that is our goal."