A Paralympian's Oral History SCOT HOLLONBECK 1992 Paralympic Games – Barcelona 1996 Paralympic Games – Atlanta 2000 Paralympic Games – Sydney 2004 Paralympic Games – Athens – Track and Field – 1992 Olympic Games – Barcelona 1996 Olympic Games – Atlanta 2000 Olympic Games – Sydney 2004 Olympic Games – Athens – Track and Field Exhibition – Interviewed by: Alan Abrahamson and Wayne Wilson January 10, 2019 Los Angeles, California ©2019 LA84 Foundation All rights reserved This oral history may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form without prior written consent of the LA84 Foundation www.LA84.org LA84 Foundation 2141 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90018 SCOT HOLLONBECK Wayne Wilson Interviewer: Scot, thank you for being here. Today is January 10, 2019. Alan Abrahamson and Wayne Wilson are interviewing Scot Hollonbeck, who is a U.S. Paralympian in track and field, who competed in every Olympic Games and Paralympic Games from 1992 through 2004. Alan Abrahamson Interviewer: I'm Alan Abrahamson. Great to be here again on January 10, 2019. Scot, thank you for being here with us today. Let's start as we like to do these kinds of things at the very beginning. Where in the world is Rochelle, Illinois? Scot Hollonbeck: What? you never heard of it. Well, it's one of the best kept secrets in the Northern Hemisphere for sure, to this day. It is west of Chicago about 90 miles. And, no one seems to know where it is other than the 9,811 people who live there. Abrahamson: Rochelle, with one L or two? Hollonbeck: Two. Abrahamson: Were you born and raised there? Hollonbeck: I was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, compliments of the Vietnam War, but really from Illinois. My families, both mother and father, from central Illinois. Abrahamson: Champaign or further south? Hollonbeck: A little further south but then west of there. So, it's the Amish part of the state. Abrahamson: Rantoul-ish? Hollonbeck: Oh, close, very close. Well, little more. Forty miles from Rantoul, just south of Decatur, Illinois, if you know where that is so. Even smaller amazingly well-kept secrets of the universe, Bethany and Sullivan, Illinois. Fabulous place to grow up as a kid. We used to go to my grandparents' little farm and spend our summers there and worked in the strawberry fields and we had a blast. When I say "we" my sister, and I have an identical twin brother, Sean. Abrahamson: Are you the younger or the older twin? Hollonbeck: I am the older. Abrahamson: And, were you the king of the house? 1 Hollonbeck: We shared our monarchy, so it wasn't even really a monarchy, you'd have to ask him. Abrahamson: And, how much younger is your sister? Hollonbeck: My sister is nine months older, excuse me, 10 months older. Abrahamson: Wait, there were three of you born within 10 months? Hollonbeck: Yeah. We had Irish triplets I think is the term. Evidently according to my mother and some unsubstantiated scientific research. If you have two kids within a year, you're twice as likely to have a mental breakdown in your lifetime and if you have three it's something like six times as likely. She's still working that. Abrahamson: Serious question here. We were just watching home movies in our house over the holidays. What was the noise level in your house growing up? Hollonbeck: It was pretty high. When you have an identical twin and a 10-month-old sister and all of them are type A and wired like 240 volts, it was pretty full-on. I don't know, but I think my mother must have spent most of the '70s and early '80s on some kind of psychiatric medications, but she's well now. Abrahamson: So, what kind of work did your parents do? Hollonbeck: My father was an optometrist. He's passed away. My mother was predominantly a stay-at-home mother. She also worked at the optometrist office and did a few different jobs after my parents divorced. They ranged from realtor to working at the slaughterhouse. They were really good union jobs. Didn't make it very long at the slaughterhouse. Another one of the amazing businesses and the best kept secret in Rochelle, Illinois. Abrahamson: And, what kind of environment would, did you grow up in? I mean, the way we grow up tends to shape the way we are as adults. What were the rules in your house? I grew up in rural Ohio. So, I think rural Ohio and rural Illinois are a lot alike. I think that Midwestern values thing is a real thing. But, I also had a hard ass for a dad. I was raised to say, "yes sir," "yes ma'am" to people, to open doors for women and to generally be respectful of people in my community. How do you think growing up in rural Illinois helped shape you in any life in this very crazy loud house? 2 Hollonbeck: Sure. That's a great question. I think that we had a few rules. One was, was it kind? Is it necessary? Is it true? Is it of service to others? So, if it didn't qualify as that, you might have some redirection. My grandfather on my father's side was a drill sergeant and grew up in the Depression and was a trained military personnel and he was he was definitely a hard ass. My father was very strict as well. But, they all lightened up and I think being the second child helped a little bit. My mother was a good protective shield for us. And, we were always having so much fun that whenever we got in trouble there was usually a lot of laughter before the spanking started, which kind of help with some of that. We were expected to give our best, to work hard and work. I try to explain to my daughter. I literally started working at age 5 and 6. We would get paid in the summers to work in the fields. So, I've done about every kind of manual labor there is, including detasseling corn. We worked a lot of migrant labor that would come through town. We had a Del Monte factory in town and so it is a different world. Wilson: So, in addition to working the fields as an 8-year-old, how did sports fit into your life? Hollonbeck: From day one. My grandfather and father were very engaged in multiple athletic endeavors throughout their lifetimes. So, we were encouraged and did that as well. You name a sport, I probably did it. That was what we did. We basically went to school to play and then also do sports. When I did have my accident in 1984 I was on a summer swim program, summer track team. And, I played baseball competitively, and then I also worked for Del Monte in the fields during the day and so that was that was kind of a snapshot of what things looked like. Abrahamson: Were you a competitive athlete? Hollonbeck: Yeah, I think having an identical twin is a wonderful advantage because you basically have your own genetic clone that is the same speed as you and essentially wired the same as you. So, we pushed each other throughout, literally in the womb for survival. My mother didn't know she was having twins until a week before. It was the '60s. You know, it's like, "Oh, there's two in there." She thought she was having an 8- pound baby. She was having a 6 and a 3 something. My brother Sean barely survived because I was hogging all the nutrients. But, once he got out and caught up, then that's what we did. We just ran and pushed each other constantly. It was great growing up. You're expected to get out of the house and play and we that's what we do. We ran around like a pack of wolves and hyenas with all the older 3 kids in the neighborhood. It was great. So, you were always being pushed by not just your age group peers, but you know up to 10 years older than you, so it's a great way to become an athlete. Abrahamson: Before we get to the accident, which will be my next question, you literally I'm sure had one of these childhoods – where Rochelle was one of these towns where you could go out and just be home by dark? Hollonbeck: That's all we did. We were fed and got out of the house to go run around. Abrahamson: If I know the story, you were 14 when this accident happened. Can you elaborate? Hollonbeck: It was 1984. I was 14 and I loved competing in sport. I had set a swim team record the night before my accident, in butterfly. Everything on television was about the LA '84 Games and so I was dreaming of one day being an Olympian. Abrahamson: It was July of 1984? Hollonbeck: Yeah, July of 1984. So, that day's swim, the night before the practice the next morning was optional. Practice started at 6:00 a.m. And, I'd been working that summer and saved up enough money to get a bike. My father had gotten us into cycling at a very young age, 8. We did our first 273- mile bike ride at the age of 8, when we had to carry our own gear.