I know her determination and perseverance are inspirational to our family and friends, and I hope she inspires others, disability or not, to go for whatever goal they've set for themselves but might be a little afraid to start.
Want to help?
Liz Baker has a personal USABA page that explains more about her condition and her conquests and gives people a chance to contribute to her considerable expenses for competition. Find it at bit.ly/LizBakerUSABA.
On Sept. 11, Elizabeth “Liz” Baker of Signal Mountain will plunge into the dirty water off Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for her triathlon in the 2016 Paralympic Games.
The 42-year-old is one of 10 members of the United States team in the debut of the three-discipline sport at the competition for people with various disabilities and impairments.
The participants will swim 750 meters, ride bicycles 20 kilometers and run a 5k.
Baker’s disability is visual, which is quite a problem for someone trying to swim, ride a bike and run in a crowd – but not enough to keep her from running races of varying lengths.
Afflicted in her youth with Stargardt’s disease, which has created scars blocking the centers of her retinas, Baker had a major decline in her sight when she was 19 and a student at the University of Georgia. She went from “like 20/60” vision to “20/120 or 20/140,” she said. Decline has continued but at a much slower rate.
Regardless, it is not stopping Baker, who was propelled into international competition by an impressive finish in the 2014 Chattanooga Ironman. Despite a late, late forced adjustment in how she was allowed to race, she finished the full Ironman in less than 12 hours and won the “physically challenged” category, and someone suggested she throw herself into paratriathlons.
Once she got opportunities, she quickly excelled in international points events with Helen Phipps of San Antonio or fellow Chattanooga physical therapist – and Ironman World Championship qualifier – Sara Gibson serving as her required same-gender guide. That involves being tethered during the swim and run and riding a tandem bike, all with strict restrictions.
Other than the training she put herself through, Baker’s biggest challenge was getting to compete.
“You can’t get into races if you don’t have any points – there are limited slots – and I was starting with no points,” she said. “I sort of thought I had no chance, but things started opening up.”
Baker got a foot in the door with a second-place finish in her category in the USA Paratriathlon nationals in May 2015, and she finished second again in her first International Triathlon Union world event three months later, in Detroit. Then she won the CAMTRI American Championships this past March in Sarasota, Fla., and an ITU world race six weeks later in Penrith, Australia, and finished second in May in Yokohama, Japan.
But she said she still has not faced some of the best competitors she will encounter in Rio.
“I’m so new I haven’t raced against all of them,” Baker said. “I would be amazed with a medal. Those women around the world are really strong. My goal is for every race I do to be my best race.”
A Massachusetts native who grew up in Roswell, Ga., and came to Chattanooga in 2001 after physical therapy school, she said she always has enjoyed competition. That goes back to swimming and diving as a young child and moving on to gymnastics until middle school, when she shifted to soccer and mixed that with cheerleading.
She started doing triathlons in 2004 and ran her first marathon in 2007, but for years she didn’t reveal to anyone involved that her vision was impaired.
She wants to be in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga next spring but has doubts about keeping up the required training regimen for the next Paralympics in 2020.
“I’ll be kind of old then,” she said with a smile, “and I hope we have some younger women coming along by then to represent our country. I do think it would be fun to compete again next year when the pressure won’t be so strong – there are a couple of neat places I’d like to go – but I’d also like to have my husband get his turn after the sacrifices he’s made for me.”
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 757-6291.