A Paralympian’s Oral History SHIRLEY REILLY 2004 Paralympic Games – Athens 2008 Paralympic Games – Beijing 2012 Paralympic Games – London 2016 Paralympic Games – Rio – Track and Field – Interviewed by: Alan Abrahamson February 20, 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 SHIRLEY REILLY Alan Abrahamson Interviewer: Good morning. It is Wednesday, February 20, 8:25 a.m., I'm Alan Abrahamson, and we are here with Shirley Reilly. Good morning to you. Reilly: Good morning. Abrahamson: We are here in Los Angeles, California, for the next in our series with Paralympic champions, of which you are one. How does that feel to say Paralympic champion? Reilly: I am very honored and excited to say that. Abrahamson: We are delighted to have you here. Reilly: Thank you for having me. Abrahamson: Before we start, big, broad, open question – anything. If the answer is nothing, if the answer is something, feel free. Anything you want to say at the get-go about this idea, this project, the idea of the Paralympics in general, the idea of Paralympic athletes? Just anything, it can be nothing, it can be something. And if the answer comes to you over the next two hours, interject, just generally. Reilly: What does Paralympics mean to me? Abrahamson: Just generally, just an open-ended question. Reilly: I think it shows that we are elite athletes, and we are the same as able-bodied athletes, and that we – Paralympics is a great way to show inclusion. And, it is a great way to be open-minded, and to really educate – my goal really is to show that Paralympics is an elite status level, and if we can show the US the same way that London showed us the same appreciation, and the same recognition that we got when we're in London, we're on the right path to really show how we are elite status, and that everyone should know about it, and be a part of it. Abrahamson: What I think we're going to do here so we can sketch this out is we're going to start like Mary Poppins in the very beginning, and we're going to circle all the way back to London, and then Rio, and now it's 2019, and I'll try to ask you that same exact question to wrap up again, after we talk for almost two hours. Tell me – I don't think you have any memory of this, but you know the story. Where were you born? Reilly: I was born in Anchorage, Alaska. 1 Abrahamson: Which is the one of the 50 states I have not been to. Reilly: I have not been back there since I've been born. I was born in Anchorage, Alaska. My mom's side is from Barrow, Alaska. And yeah, I was born – when my mom was in labor, she went to Anchorage. She had me there. But my whole family, my mom's side of the family and my brother, and his family live in Barrow, Alaska. Abrahamson: And they are Native American? Reilly: Yes, we are Alaskan Native. Abrahamson: And your father's side? Reilly: And my dad is an Irish guy. He is from Maryland. Abrahamson: What was he doing in Alaska, of all places? Reilly: He graduated; he went to Xavier. Abrahamson: Xavier, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wow. Reilly: Yeah, he went to college in Xavier. He graduated, and then he went on a plane, and he saw an ad to get some work in Alaska, being a construction worker, and he just took the risk of going up there, and being a recent college grad, and not knowing what he's doing, went up there. Didn't have much money in his pocket, and he went up there, to worked there for a couple years, and he met my mom, and that's how – Abrahamson: And as they tell the story, was it like love at first sight? Reilly: I think it kind of was. My mom had always said that – she worked at a Japanese restaurant, and so, he was there. and then, she also – she saw him once. She had a couple of jobs, and she also worked at a hotel. She saw my dad there, and so, I guess it was not love at first sight, but they definitely liked each other, just by meeting each other through her work. Abrahamson: Are there two, your brother and you? Reilly: I have an older sister and two older brothers, and I'm the youngest. Abrahamson: You're the baby. Reilly: I'm the baby, yes. Abrahamson: The reason I'm asking this, people in your family, do they call you the baby, are you the younger sister, or what do they call you? 2 Reilly: They don't call me the baby. I guess – I got teased about it a lot when I was a kid, just being a younger sibling, "You're the baby." They keep babying you. But yeah, they don't call me the little – Abrahamson: And how do you think of yourself in the sibling dynamic, because it's been fascinating in the course of these oral histories to talk to people about the family dynamic and the way family structures and the way people – the way they grow up, the way all these things play into their championship mentalities. That's why I'm asking. Reilly: Basically, for me, I was the only kid with a disability – Abrahamson: In your family? Reilly: Right, in my family. What happened was, I guess I could tell you a little bit about how I was born. I was born premature about six weeks, and I was put in an incubator. And, when I was in an incubator, the oxygen wasn't turned up high enough, so I suffocated, and both my – Abrahamson: You suffocated? Reilly: I suffocated, yeah. And both my lungs had filled with blood and ruptured, and then, that's what paralyzed me from the waist down. But growing up, my family, very athletic. All my brothers, both my brothers play basketball. My sister – and they both play basketball, they both play football, and me and my sister were cheerleaders. And then I was always involved in track. I was involved in a wheelchair support program called Wheels on Fire in San Jose. And they have multiple sports. So, I tried everything from basketball, table tennis, archery, swimming, and track, of course because track is the thing that I found out I was good at. Abrahamson: Let's back up just a sec. So, it's a girl, two boys, girl? Reilly: It's a boy, girl, boy, girl. Abrahamson: And when did the family move from Alaska back down to the Bay Area? Reilly: Not too long after I was born. I needed – I have scoliosis, so as I got older, I got really bad scoliosis. I needed to put rods in my back. And so, we moved down to California, better medical care, and that was why we went to Shriners Hospital. They are the ones who did my surgery. I've actually had two major back surgeries, because the first time they put my rod in, they were too long, and they were touching on my bladder. And so, I was losing 3 bladder control. So, once we found that out, we had to do immediate surgery, and redo it again, and put in the correct size. Abrahamson: And how old were you then? Reilly: I was 12 years old. Abrahamson: Wow. Reilly: And I was in the hospital for about three months, long time. I don't think it would have been that long because of just having to do it again. That recovery time took a lot longer than we wanted it to. Abrahamson: Everyone normalizes everything. Kids know what they know. So, you knew mobility as you knew it. Some of the stories we've heard have been "This is what I knew." Did you ever have the "What if, why me?" moment, or – Reilly: Never. Abrahamson: You've already said, "I was a cheerleader." You were in San Jose or Los Gatos or where? Reilly: When we first moved down to California we moved to San Jose, and then we lived there for a couple years, and then my parents wanted to move to Los Gatos. Abrahamson: Was the school district accommodating or were there issues? Reilly: My father has told me that – and I don't remember this – but I guess in elementary school, they wanted to put me in a special school, and I don't remember anything about that. But he said that they wanted to put me in a special school, because of the accessibility part of it, and he fought them, and said, "No, she'll be just fine," and it ended up working out OK. I went to the school that he originally wanted me put in. And I didn't have any issues. Abrahamson: Do you have any memory whatsoever of your mobility being an issue in any way whatsoever? Reilly: Not really, because when I was in elementary school I used to always be on a skateboard. Abrahamson: On a skateboard? Tell me about that. Reilly: I loved being on a skateboard.