LAKEVILLE, Minn. -- In late December, three months after Mallory Weggemann swims at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she will be married in Minneapolis. With the help of a wedding planner, Weggemann worked out every detail, including a walk down the aisle that almost certainly will have everyone holding their breath.Weggemann, 27, is paralyzed from the waist down. She uses a wheelchair to get around. But on her wedding day, shes determined to walk, using carbon fiber leg braces under her wedding dress.A few weeks ago, Chris Weggemann, Mallorys father and an executive with an environmental company, sketched on a dry erase board in his downtown Minneapolis office to show how the braces function. A former architect, he marveled at the mechanics.But, he said, its a chore. Mallory will need specialized training at the Mayo Clinic to develop core muscle strength to move the braces. Chris and his wife, Ann, will accompany Mallory down the aisle, just in case.Oh, and theres one more thing: Mallory plans to stay in the braces for the first dance.It takes a lot of energy for her to stand up and do that, Chris Weggemann said. She does it with a smile on her face, but weve seen the ramifications the day after, because her body takes a toll. Shes got great ambitions on that day, and Im just like, dont crash and burn. Dont wear yourself out. Its a long day.Maybe its too much, But the Weggemann family learned a long time ago what happens when Mallory puts her mind to something.An accomplished high school swimmer, Mallory was left paralyzed following an epidural injection for back pain in 2008, shortly before her 19th birthday. Two and a half months later, after her sister took her to a Paralympic swim meet at the University of Minnesota, Mallory returned to the pool.Between 2009 and 2011 she won 22 international gold medals, three consecutive USA Swimming Disabled Swimmer of the Year awards, and a 2011 ESPY as Best Female Athlete with a Disability. She added 50-meter freestyle gold and a relay bronze at the 2012 Paralympics in London. Mallory holds 15 world and 34 American records.Then in March 2014, a freak accident in the shower at a New York hotel -- the bench she sat on gave way -- left Mallory with permanent nerve damage in her left arm. Unable to move her wrist or grip properly, Mallory lost her hard-gained independence. She couldnt wheel herself, dress herself, drive, or even braid her hair. With one fully functioning arm, swimming seemed out of the question.I had a hard enough time trying to figure out how to live each day, how to do everything each day, Mallory said. I didnt really know how I was supposed to think about getting back in the water and swimming again. That was hard.When I had my paralysis, the way I fought back was, I got in the pool and I swam. Swimming is a spiritual thing for me. Its not just being a competitive swimmer. Its my place. Its my sanctuary. That has been the place that gave me the strength to go and conquer everything else. After my arm injury, I felt like it was taken from me. I thought I had to retire, and that was terrifying.How Mallory puzzled it out, eventually qualifying for seven events in Rio beginning Thursday, reflects her steely perseverance and the support of her family and friends.As a competitor, Mallory may only have one good arm, Chris Weggemann said. But shes got a head on her shoulders that believes she can do anything.First, Mallory needed a new coach to replace Jim Andersen, who guided her through London but moved away. Someone to rebuild her shaken psyche, then push her.That proved to be Steve Van Dyne, a family friend who coached her at Eagan High School. Van Dyne stopped coaching in 2012 to watch his young daughters swim, but told the Weggemanns to get in touch if they ever needed anything.Steve was the savior, said Jeremy Snyder, Weggemanns fiancé and manager.There was a lot to do. Van Dyne never coached an athlete with a disability before. Mallory hadnt been in the pool for five months. The nerve damage also caused occasional uncontrollable tremors in the arm, and when they struck, Mallory couldnt swim at all.We had to get her back into the right frame of mind, Van Dyne said. I still have to drill it into her a little bit even to this day: Youre not exactly the same swimmer as what you were before the arm injury. Then it was really just chipping away, day by day.We were always bringing her back to, where were you six months ago? See the positives and not focus on the arm. If [the] arm hurts, dont practice. Go have a little coffee, talk, figure it out and lets get in the water tomorrow.Van Dyne is, for lack of a better term, a friendly agitator. He and Mallory needle each other constantly, whether on the pool deck at Life Time Fitness in Lakeville, where Mallory trains, or afterward in the club café.Theyre like little kids, Chris Weggemann said. The two of them have a relationship that is really unique. He knows how to push her, right to the edge, not too far. She pushes back, and thats OK. Steve knows how to play her. If he says certain things to her, shell swim faster.Part of that goes back to when she was a kid. You tell her, You cant do that, shell just be, Well, heck, Im going to do it. Thats what Steve plays on. You cant do that. Well, Game on then. Lets go. And -- boom -- she does it.Along the way Mallory endured moments of doubt, especially in April, when disappointing times at the Paralympic test event in Rio made her fear she wouldnt make the team. Van Dyne told her not to sweat it.I wasnt worried, because we were still a long ways away, and I knew what she was capable of, he said. Id seen glimpses in our practices.Three months later, at the U.S. Paralympic team trials in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mallory made the team easily. Even with her arm limitations, Mallory swam a personal best in the 100-meter backstroke and her second-fastest 200 individual medley.When Mallory wheeled herself out of the meeting room after learning she made it, her parents, fiancé and coach were waiting. Even Van Dyne -- Mr. Tough Guy, Mallory said -- couldnt hold back tears.When I say she did the impossible, I dont mean that shes not capable, because she certainly is, said her mother, Ann. But what she did in those two years seemed insurmountable. It was an incredible moment.When first paralyzed, Mallory focused on little victories, regaining small pieces of her independence. That continues. Reworking the hand controls in her car allowed Mallory to drive again. She learned to maneuver her wheelchair without a left-hand grip.The arm remains troublesome, and the pain from training frequently makes Mallory sick to her stomach. But Van Dyne believes Mallory has more medal-winning performances in her.As hard as life can get in certain moments, theres always a way to move forward, Mallory said. We just have to choose to move forward. I knew how to do that. I learned that after my paralysis. I knew I had the strength to do it. I just had to find that again. Cheap Austria Soccer Jerseys . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble. Austria Jerseys From China ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. http://www.cheapaustriajerseys.com/ . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Womens Austria Jerseys . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Youth Austria Jerseys .In my heart and mind Im competing for India, luge competitor Shiva Keshavan told The Associated Press in an email interview. Every day Im flooded with messages from Indians all over the world telling me they are supporting me. I remember it: Sunday at the Sinhala Sports Club, Colombo - August 1, 1993. The day India beat Sri Lanka to win an away Test match for the first time in my career. Young Indian cricket fans have no idea how rare that was. When we stepped onto the SSC that morning, it had been seven years since Indias last away Test win. Headingley,1986; even though I wasnt to take a fifer or be a star in that game, being a part of the Indian eleven on that day made the day precious, made me feel blessed.We knew the Test could go only go two ways: either Sri Lanka, two down with 386 to win, would bat us out to a deathly draw or we would win. Back in the 90s, no one scored more than 250 in a day and for us, everything hinged on getting rid of Aravinda, who was on 10 overnight and after him, Arjuna. They were the only two who could bother us, take the game down to the very end till we ran out of energy and purpose.I know why I remember this day with such a good, strong memory. We had travelled to Sri Lanka after being defeated in back to back series in Australia and South Africa; evidence enough that again, we were not that good in terms of getting results when we went outside India. We had always grown up hearing stories about how India doesnt do well abroad. Almost like an inevitability.The Colombo wicket wasnt like the spin-friendly turners we got in India but Anil was still our main man. He was coming off a series against England in which he led the rout against Graham Goochs side. Basically, we were like bowling fillers to Anil, who would come on as a very rapid first-change. He was the wicket taker and we used to surround him and bowl those few overs. I remember my exact role in that team and on that day. I was young and quicker than Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar. As the second change, my job was simple. At my pace, bowl bouncers at a few targeted batsmen. I remember bowling a lot of short-pitched balls in that Test match. I hit Arjuna Ranatunga on his helmet, maybe Hashan Tillakaratne too, that was my job. In the 90s, I was the guy who played a fill-in part but was eager to make it count, because before the Sri Lanka tour, I had gone through a tough eight months.After a Man of the Match award in my last Test in South Africa, I had spent months sitting in the dressing room. It was disorienting; after a good performance in the first two Tests in South Africa, Id been compared to Allan Donald in an article written by Hansie Cronjes father but then maybe it didnt go down well and I was dropped for the third Test in Port Elizabeth. India lost and there was more drama for the final Test, but I was to make it to the eleven and ended up man of the match. Then, from January to August 1993, zero Tests for Javagal Srinath.India would pick three spinners, I wasnt the first choice seamer; called in only for the ODI stuff. By the time we got to Sri Lanka, I didnt know if Id be picked at all. In the Kandy Test, I bowled an over and it had rained for the rest for the match. So Colombo became my first Test match after a very long time. I was desperate to get back into rhythm and it felt good to bowl short and watch the ball whistle past the batsmen. When you have energy and even desperation, when you bowl short on a slowish kind of pitch it doesnt fly high. It comes exactly to a height where the batsman cant even escape, hes jammed; so leaving the ball also becomes difficult and it makes the bowler feel even better.On that Sunday at the SSC, we were to push on towards victory in very taxing weather, the crowd was thin, but I remember Percy there, waving his flag. Hes still around, but its like I tell him when we meet now, he was even old then and he is old even now. It was a terribly sticky and draining day and all through the morning there was a lot of complaining about the umpiring and how we would need to take 16 wickets and noot eight to win.dddddddddddd There were two local umpires then, and looking back, maybe cricketers do get into a competitive, irascible mindset in tight match situations. Every 50-50 decision you dont get becomes part of a grand, deliberate conspiracy against the entire team, with even the gods turning their eyes away from you. The same thing happened to us in Australia, even South Africa, we felt that the umpiring was not with us, maybe at some point through an entire decade. It was always them, not us. Half of what cricketers look at comes from an emotional standpoint, rather than an objective one and I think that is what happened there as well.There were some outstanding individual performances in that match and the scoreboard is proof: Vinod Kambli got a fighting century in the first innings, Anil took 5-75, and I remember catching Ranatunga off his bowling in the deep, just as he was threatening to break away and trim our lead in the first innings. Then, centuries from Sachin Tendulkar and Navjot Singh Sidhu in the second. But to me, what stays in my mind was the happiness at winning together, walking off that field, having done the job just after lunch. It was Indias first Test win in Sri Lanka and the dressing room felt and looked so different than it had in the miserable months on our last tours.I saw happiness on the faces of senior guys like Kapil, and Mohammad Azharuddin. We had a good celebration, not over the top but certainly nothing like Id seen before in an Indian dressing room when on tour. You could see how buoyed the team was by that result. The sweetest thing about victory is how it binds a team, whatever your differences. Your mind is suddenly cleaned of all negativity, you dont take offence to what is said, no one minds what you say. There was none of the agenda stuff you suspected was at work on days when the going was not great. Things change drastically with victory for the good. It becomes like a drug, you keep wanting to win more. We went to dinner at the high commission that night and there was much bonhomie.This great bogey of not being able to win overseas had been so much on our minds when we left the country and to prove it wrong was liberating in itself.As a young player, I was at a very crucial stage of my career, I had experienced a bit of success and it had begun to dawn on me that I could take cricket as a career for the rest of my life. When I was called into the team, I found myself in a very fragile place. I had not finished my engineering and it formed a part of my back-up plan in case the cricket didnt go well. I wanted to play for India, I enjoyed it but in the first few months, I wasnt sure in my heart whether I belonged at that level. After South Africa, the ODI series against England at home where I was the highest wicket taker for the team, made me feel stronger and more confident about my place in the team; no matter who I was competing against. I knew I was younger, stronger, quicker. That day in Colombo, winning overseas, gave an extra layer to that awareness, just watching the dressing room celebrations and experiencing how sweet the fruit of an away victory really was, I thought that this could be the beginning, this could be the moment that would mark the change in the Indian cricket team, in the way we played and the way we played when we travelled. I was to be proved wrong, of course. Our next away Test victory was to come eight years later in Bulawayo, when I was the oldest guy in that team, watching wild celebrations in the dressing room. But Colombo will remain precious because it was to unshackle many things about my cricket. About what I could be and what kind of a team I wanted to belong to.As told to Sharda Ugra China NFL Hoodies Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Jerseys NFL China Discount NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys 2018 Wholesale NFL Autographed Jerseys ' ' '