Real Race, The : Skip Wilkins' Story

Skip Wilkins knows what it's like to have everything and to lose it all in an instant. He's learned what it's like to gain everything back, and in the process to be truly thankful for what he has.For Wilkins, that process meant letting go of old dreams and learning that life isn't about gold medals and professional football, but about being the best you can with what you have.That's his message. He shares it in his book, "The Real Race," co-authored with Joseph Dunn. Wilkins' childhood dreams died in 1967. He was 17 and had just graduated from high school in Virginia Beach. He had more than 20 football scholarships and was planning a summer of surfing and girlfriends. One day while waterskiing, the back of his ski hit shallow ground, flipping him in the air. He landed on his neck, crushing two vertebrae.Doctors said he might never move again. But the spinal cord wasn't severed, and Wilkins gradually regained control of his arms.Even as he wheeled himself into Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Waynesboro, Wilkins was confident he would walk again. He wheeled himself out two months later, still unable to straighten his fingers and terrified at the thought of entering Chesapeake Junior College a week later.Then he fell in love and married and Wilkins graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College with a degree in psychology.He also had new goals. He wanted to be the best wheelchair athlete in the world. Wilkins achieved his goal many times. He has been world champion in the shot put, a 10-time national table tennis champion and selected to the U.S. wheelchair team 15 times. But he realized life isn't about winning gold medals.Everyone faces obstacles in life. Wilkins calls those "water-skiing accidents." Overcoming those obstacles means not worrying about or competing with other people but concentrating on your abilities and being the best you can.That, he says, is the real race.