MODESTO — When Paraplegic athlete Darwin Holmes touched the wall at the America’s Center pool in St. Louis, he had a feeling his time was fast.
A casual glance over his shoulder at the rest of the field told him his time was fast — probably one of the fastest-ever by a paraplegic swimmer.
Holmes, paralyzed from the waist down, secured a spot at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens later this summer with a stunning upset in the 50-meter freestyle at the 24th Annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games.
“The funny thing is I only swam three days before the trial,” Holmes said.
The Manteca-native sprinted away from the pack — including world record holder and 2000 Paralympic (Sydney) gold medalist Curtis Lovejoy — winning by nearly half a pool length.
“(Lovejoy) came up to me and said, ‘You are the fastest thing in the water that I’ve seen in a longtime,'” Holmes said.
His time of 39.87 seconds was confirmed by the U.S. Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs as a new Wheelchair Games record and is believed to be a new American record for class and division too.
He will also swim a leg on one of the relay teams, Holmes said with a chuckle.
“I didn’t think that I was world class,” Holmes said. “I went there and competed so that it could keep my mind off things. I go and compete and come to find out that I’m smoking some of the top competitors.
“I thought it was weird, but I felt like Matt was with me.”
FarFrumWalkn
Matt Roamano is Holmes’ best friend of three years and a driving force in nearly everything he does these days.
He is Holmes’ wheelchair basketball teammate, skating buddy, and now it appears, his swim coach.
From afar.
Matt committed suicide less than a year ago after slipping into Depression, but his influence over Holmes has only gotten stronger since.
“He took his life and things haven’t been the same since then,” Holmes said. “I’ve promised him a few things, and that includes to push on and increase awareness in spinal cord injury.”
Enter Project Athens and FarFrumWalkn.
The Paralympic stage offers Holmes all the publicity he needs for FarFrumWalkn, a year-old paraplegic sports organization formed by Holmes and inspired by Roamano’s story.
“The whole goal is to help people who are confined in their homes or their heads,” Holmes said of FarFrumWalkn. “It lets them know that it’s OK.
“We can do anything you can do, just modified.”
But Holmes originally had hoop dreams for Athens.
It was, after all, Roamano’s game and the birthplace of their friendship.
Holmes and Roamano originally met courtside at a wheelchair pick-up basketball game. Holmes, struggling with his injury at the time, found solace in Roamano and an excitement that he hadn’t experienced since being paralyzed.
Like Arthur Agee and William Gates in the 1980’s basketball documentary, their story and their lives would become just as unseparable.
“After I became paralyzed, most of my friends stopped coming around,” Holmes said. “I was at an all-time low. I never felt lower in my life.
“That’s where I met Matt,” he added. “He came up to me and said we needed a sub… For two years, him and I went to compete in basketball tournaments and skate parks.”
And with every stop they stoked their competitive fire, realizing that though life may have changed it was still far from over.
“He was an Air-Borne Ranger,” care-giver and longtime friend Chris Davis said of Holmes. “I knew he had what it took to be an athlete because he was one before.”
He won’t stop. He can’t.
But Holmes’ Paralympic hoop dreams never materialized. Instead he found Wheelchair Games gold in the unlikeliest of events — swimming.
“He never swims,” Davis said as cleaned the pool in Holmes’ backyard. “I’ve told him year after year, then he finally swims and he’s blowing the doors off (the competition).”
Experience aside, Holmes will gladly swim for the U.S. in Athens, where all of a sudden he is the odds-on favorite in the 50-meter freestyle.
His mind, however, will be on other matters — not just Paralympic gold.
Qualifying for the games was the first step in a long and informative athletic journey for Holmes and members of FarFrumWalkn.
“(The Paralympic Games) was the logical next step,” Holmes said. “That way I can be known worldwide and get some notoriety. Hopefully, that will open some doors for other people.”
Holmes is in Burnside, Ore. today for the first stop of FarFrumWalkn’s three-month “Skate Across America” tour, which will feature cameos by professional skaters.
From there he’ll fly to Athens.
And then it will be off to another promotional tour of sorts, he’s sure of it.
He won’t stop because he can’t stop.
“This is a second chance on life from a different point of view,” Holmes said. “I’m trying to open up doors and different channels to get us accepted in sports.”
Just as Roamano did for him three years ago.
By JAMES BURNS
staff reporter of the
Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin
