![]() ![]() Clark also won two state championships in wheelchair racing.Īcross Clark’s upper back in large block letters are the tattooed words NO EXCUSES. In his senior year, Clark won 33 out of 50 wrestling matches, won his high school championship, nearly qualified for the Ohio state championship and went on to wrestle at Kent State University. Clark already had tremendous upper-body strength because he prefers walking on his hands to using prosthetic legs or a wheelchair, but Donahue taught Clark how to use explosive power and new techniques to win matches. Then he met Gil Donahue, the high school wrestling coach at Massillon High in Massillon, Ohio. He lost virtually every match he played from grade school through his junior year, but he never quit. Wrestling was Clark’s passion but he struggled in the sport. “You may find yourself at the bottom of the barrel getting the crap beat out of you and it’s up to you if you’ll stand up and fight back or not.” ![]() “I love wrestling because I get to go be myself,” he said. The only place he felt safe and cared for was at school, where he signed up for many extra-curricular clubs and sports to avoid going home. Clark said he was bullied, underfed and mistreated and became a difficult child. His birth mother gave him up to the foster care system as a baby and he bounced through seven or eight foster homes in his youth. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)Ī native of Columbus, Ohio, Clark was born with Caudal Regression Syndrome, a rare disorder affecting one in 100,000 people that impairs the development of the lower half of the body. ![]()
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