[Sportsandrec] Aylmer runner Gaston Bedard competes on world stage

[Gaston Bedard]

Aylmer runner Gaston Bedard competes on world stage


http://www.bulletinaylmer.com/aylmer-runner-gaston-bedard-competes-on-world-
stage

Totally deaf, blind

Aylmer runner Gaston Bedard competes on world stage 

 
Julie Murray, Aylmer Bulletin.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015.

As a competitive runner, nothing can stop 62 year-old Gaston Bedard-not even
complete blindness and deafness. The Boston Marathon, April 20, will be his
16th full marathon since running his first in 1979.  Mr. Bedard will be
competing with "Team With a Vision", a group of blind and sighted athletes
who run the Boston Marathon every year to raise funds and awareness for the
Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  
The group's mission?  To prove that with good support, people with
disabilities can do anything.
 
A retired elementary school teacher, Mr. Bedard has severe hearing loss and
is totally blind, having suffered Usher syndrome with retinitis pigmentosa
since childhood. 
He caught the running bug in the excitement of the 1976 Montreal Olympics,
bought a pair of $4 running shoes at a bargain store, and began, 
eventually completing 15 marathons and numerous road races.

 
He interrupted competitive running for a decade of career and family
obligations, and because his worsening vision made running alone in large
road 
races very difficult.  In 2008, he enlisted the help of Ken Clement, owner
of Aylmer's Florida Fitness, to get back on the fitness track.  Despite his
dreams 
of making a road-racing comeback, he was now nearly completely blind. He has
to remove his two hearing aids when he runs, leaving him completely deaf. 

 
Through plenty of creative thinking, he invented a tubing tether and found
sighted guides, Christopher Yule and Melany Gauvin, who accompany him on his

runs.  In Boston, his son Marc will act as his "social facilitator"-his eyes
and ears; Mr Yule and Ms Gauvin will run beside him.  Mr. Bedard appreciates
all 
this support, commenting, "When you have good people around you, it is
amazing what you can do." 

 
The Massachusetts Association has fielded "Team With A Vision" in the Boston
Marathon for 22 years, and the 119th running of this historical contest will

feature many world-class athletes who compete on the global level, despite
visual impairment. This year's diverse team has runners from the U.S.,
Canada, 
France, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong.

Aylmer Bulletin.

http://www.bulletinaylmer.com/aylmer-runner-gaston-bedard-competes-on-world-
stage


end of article.