Ralph Green: paralympic skier

Ralph Green, 28, is on a journey of a lifetime to become the first African-American man to ski an alpine event at the Paralymic Winter Games this February in Turin, Italy.

As daunting as it sounds, the feat takes on another incredible layer when you consider that, at age 16, the promising high school football star and multisport athlete was gunned down on the streets of Brooklyn in a random drive-by shooting. Green was comatose for three months, hospitalized for eight months and had 28 surgeries. When he awakened, his left leg had been amputated at the hip.

But the determined athlete refused to allow tragedy to ruin his future. After his recovery, the family took a trip to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, where Ralph fell in love with skiing. After high school he moved to Winter Park Colorado, to attend the Winter Park Sports Center for the Disabled for three months, and he decided to become a competitive skier.

"Fear is not a factor," says Ralph, who no longer wears his prosthetic leg because he's more comfortable without it. "I'm skiing until I'm the best."

Coaches from the National Team noticed his competitive drive and asked Ralph to join in 2002, making him the first African-American male on the team. He has become a role model for children and an inspiration to everyone. "A lot of kids don't know color, but they know admiration, and if I can be a role model for [just] one kid, and at one point, in his life he has a critical decision to make and he can think about me and what I went through, then hopefully that can help that kid live a better life."

Ralph is supporting his training through Home Depot's U.S. Olympic Committee's Job Opportunities program. Home Depot offers Olympic and Paralympic athletes a flexible 20-hour work week with full-time pay and benefits to accommodate his demanding training schedule.

"I've traveled around the world," Ralph says. "I would have been in a totally different reality if I hadn't been shot. I'm happy I'm still alive."

COPYRIGHT 2006 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning