Team Chris: Local athlete with cerebral palsy chasing Ironman world championship dream<\/a><\/p>\nAmong the injured was 23-year-old federal grain inspector Kevin Saunders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blast threw him 300 feet,\u201d an archival report from the time noted, leaving him with a broken back and severe internal injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy body was broken in half \u2014 lungs collapsed \u2014 massive injuries,\u201d Saunders recalled. \u201cThey didn\u2019t think I\u2019d live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saunders survived, but the explosion left him paralyzed from the waist down. What followed was a dramatically different life \u2014 and a new path forward.<\/p>\n
Through adaptive sports, Saunders found purpose in competition, eventually reaching the international stage at the Paralympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be hurt and put in a wheelchair and still have a chance to win a gold, an Olympic medal, like Carl Lewis \u2014 that\u2019s awesome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Saunders went on to win two Paralympic bronze medals and set a world record in the pentathlon at the 1992 Paralympic trials.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have a lot of options,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cSo you gotta play the hand you\u2019re dealt. And that\u2019s probably the most important thing I learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
His journey extended beyond athletics.<\/p>\n
Saunders later worked under College Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State, his alma mater, and appeared alongside Tom Cruise in the Academy Award-winning film Born on the Fourth of July \u2014 a moment he still remembers fondly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked me for my autograph. I wrote, \u2018Go for it 110%,\u2019\u201d Saunders said. \u201cI asked him for one, and he wrote back, \u2018Kevin, go for it 200%.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He also served at the highest levels of government, becoming the first person with a disability appointed to the President\u2019s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition under George H. W. Bush and later reappointed by Bill Clinton \u2014 the only member to serve consecutive terms under two administrations.<\/p>\n
In that role, Saunders helped promote health and fitness initiatives nationwide, including efforts aimed at increasing opportunities for people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
Despite his accomplishments, Saunders credits his strength to something deeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be pushed in on all sides, but I am not crushed,\u201d he said, quoting scripture from the Bible.<\/p>\n
Now 68, Saunders continues to push himself physically, spending time in the gym and refusing to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can put more on if you need me to,\u201d he said while lifting weights. After finishing a set, he added with a smile: \u201cI\u2019m not tired yet \u2014 piece of cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decades after the explosion that changed his life, Saunders remains a testament to perseverance.<\/p>\n
No matter the challenge, he maintains that \u201cthere\u2019s always a way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A survivor of a deadly 1981 grain elevator explosion in Corpus Christi is sharing his story of recovery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-240373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}