BMX Bikes Athletes with limb loss connect at Extremity Games

BMX Bikes news and information -- Kelly Allen of Kingsford, Mich., lowered herself into a yellow kayak on Pontiac Lake, preparing to compete in the first timed trial of the Extremity Games kayaking races Saturday morning.
Allen, 16, was one of more than 80 athletes participating in the third annual competition for people with limb loss or limb difference.
The event, which ran Thursday through Saturday, included events such as BMX biking, wakeboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing and skateboarding. Allen has proximal femoral focal deficiency, which means she was born without a major thigh bone.
"She had her first prosthesis at two months, for crawling," said Barbara Allen, Kelly's mother. "She's had 37 legs total. When she was little, she used to hate getting rid of the old leg when she got a new one. It's a part of her."
Kelly has competed in the Extremity Games since they began in 2006 in Orlando, Fla. Last year, also in Orlando, she won second place in rock climbing and she hoped to place in kayaking this year. After the first heat, her time put her at third place overall and first place among females.
Kelly, who also plays high school tennis and is almost a black belt in karate, said being able to meet other athletes means just as much to her as competing in the sports like BMX bike racing.
"It's a good place to come to meet other people," she said. "I'm from the U.P., so I don't get to see people like me very often. It's great, I can come here and we talk about leg stuff."
She says the Extremity Games also made her change the way she felt about her prosthetic leg. "I used to want to wear the most natural-looking leg," Kelly said. "But when I came here the first time, I was surrounded by all these athletes who wore prostheses for function, rather than how they looked."
This year, Kelly competed for the first time with a new leg that she can program for different activities, such as walking and tennis. She changes modes by bouncing a specific number of times on her leg.
Ken Eick of Wright & Filippis, a prosthetics company based in Rochester Hills, said events such as the Extremity Games are an inspiration to people with limb loss.
"Most of our patients are older and lost their limbs due to diabetes or poor circulation," Eick said. "The athletes here are generally younger and lost their limbs because of accidents. Their prostheses are high-tech and they don't like to hide them. "They show others that they can also be active, even if it just means going for a walk with their spouse."
Beth Geno, 27, co-founder of the Extremity Games and secretary of the nonprofit Extremity Events Network, says she came up with the idea while working at College Park Industries, a prosthetic foot manufacturer.
"A lot of our clients were really into these kinds of extreme sports such as BMX bike racing, but they didn't really have anywhere to compete," she said. "We wanted to create a place where they could compete peer to peer, limb loss to limb loss."
"A lot of our board members live here, so it just made sense" to hold the games in Michigan this year, said Geno, who lives in Clinton Township. "We're planning on keeping it here. Michigan has a lot of natural beauty to offer."
Tyrone Bradley, 31, of Detroit, competed in the mountain biking race Saturday. He lost his leg five years ago in a car accident. This was his first year competing in the games, and he said he'd met a lot of people.
"It's exciting," he said. "I haven't really been social since I lost my leg. Now that I'm here and meeting a lot of different people who are in the same position that I am, it's opening up a lot of doors." BMX Bikes news and information.