TheBeastWCBB
03-18-2009, 04:22 PM
http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19990323body6.asp
Wheelchair bodybuilder found strength in face of tragedy
Tuesday, March 23, 1999
By Monica L. Haynes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
"There can be miracles if you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe."
- "When You Believe" from the movie "The Prince of Egypt"
Her abs have more ripples than a lake on a windy day. Her biceps are sculpted as if from granite. Her back is an inverted triangle of muscle mass.
This is the body that Pasqualena Mitchell took to the National Wheelchair Bodybuilding Competition in West Palm Beach, Fla., last Saturday. And when Mitchell brings her finely hewn instrument to Florida, there is no competition.
Flexing her muscles to the strains of "When You Believe," the 39-year-old bodybuilder from Brookline out-posed her adversary to take the title of National Women's Wheelchair Body Building Champion for the second year in a row.
Her father was so confident she would repeat as champion that he had the homecoming banner for his daughter's return from Florida last year changed from 1998 to 1999.
The first thing Mitchell told her sister, Carmella Markovich, when she called with the news was, "Tell Daddy to hang the banners."
Mitchell's song of choice, "When You Believe," is not just indicative of what can happen in competition when you believe, but in life as well.
"I know I didn't choose this for myself, but somehow my light shines and it's able to illuminate other people's lives because I am doing God's will," Mitchell said.
Working out five days a week in the gym builds her physical strength. As a student studying business management at Community College of Allegheny County, South Campus, she builds her mind. But God gets the credit for emotional and spiritual well-being.
That's a message that Mitchell, disabled 21 years ago in a car accident, shares with students throughout the region.
"The students are so open to what it is that I'm sharing with them, which is my experience, strength and hope," Mitchell said.
She's always introduced as the National Women's Wheelchair Body Building Champion. However, it's not until she takes off her blazer that students see the results of the hard work.
"They can't even believe it after they hear the story of where I've been and how far I've come and what it's taken for me to get here," Mitchell said.
Last October, she was the keynote speaker for the eighth Annual MADD Youth Leadership Conference. As she does in all her speaking engagements, she told the group about her triumph over a tragedy that began with drinking and driving.
Mitchell was riding with her boyfriend and two other friends. Everyone had been drinking. When she asked to go home, her boyfriend became angry and started speeding. He lost control of the car and hit a utility pole. Everyone was hurt. Mitchell was permanently injured.
"I don't want to blame him for what happened to me. I gravitated to people who used alcohol and drugs," Mitchell said. "That's who I was back then. I thought that was being cool."
Years of hard work and physical therapy helped her make an independent life for herself, despite having to use crutches and a wheelchair to get about.
"I thought I would be the burden child in the family, the one that ended up in this tragic accident with a severe disability, and here it is that my family really sees me as an inspiration," Mitchell said.
Kim King, co-owner of King's Gym on Saw Mill Run Boulevard and a strength coach for the University of Pittsburgh, has walked every step with Mitchell on that long road to being a body building champion.
"When she first came in [to the gym] she came in strictly out of my suggestion that she could gain some strength in her body that would help her be more independent in her life," King said.
Mitchell was not physically strong, but she promised King she would commit herself to working out. "She pretty much just did everything I told her to do to the letter," King said.
"Once she has a weight in her hand and she gets going, she's as strong as one-fourth of the men in here," King said.
No one in the gym focuses on Mitchell's disability, although it has to be considered.
It takes her longer to move among the machines. She also has to be strapped into them.
Mitchell makes it look easy when she's flexing and posing, but it takes more effort on her part than someone without a disability, King said.
She must endure more intense pain after a workout. She takes medication so she doesn't get muscle spasms. "It's a hard sport, period, with very little recognition. If you're doing it, it's because something inside your heart wants to do it," King said.
One day, after about a year of Mitchell's working out, King noticed how her body was developing.
"I told her I thought she would do well [in competition]," King said, who had competed for 14 years and is currently a judge in the sport. That little bit of encouragement was all it took. "I can't even believe what I'm capable of achieving through the grace of God," Mitchell said.
Wheelchair bodybuilder found strength in face of tragedy
Tuesday, March 23, 1999
By Monica L. Haynes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
"There can be miracles if you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe."
- "When You Believe" from the movie "The Prince of Egypt"
Her abs have more ripples than a lake on a windy day. Her biceps are sculpted as if from granite. Her back is an inverted triangle of muscle mass.
This is the body that Pasqualena Mitchell took to the National Wheelchair Bodybuilding Competition in West Palm Beach, Fla., last Saturday. And when Mitchell brings her finely hewn instrument to Florida, there is no competition.
Flexing her muscles to the strains of "When You Believe," the 39-year-old bodybuilder from Brookline out-posed her adversary to take the title of National Women's Wheelchair Body Building Champion for the second year in a row.
Her father was so confident she would repeat as champion that he had the homecoming banner for his daughter's return from Florida last year changed from 1998 to 1999.
The first thing Mitchell told her sister, Carmella Markovich, when she called with the news was, "Tell Daddy to hang the banners."
Mitchell's song of choice, "When You Believe," is not just indicative of what can happen in competition when you believe, but in life as well.
"I know I didn't choose this for myself, but somehow my light shines and it's able to illuminate other people's lives because I am doing God's will," Mitchell said.
Working out five days a week in the gym builds her physical strength. As a student studying business management at Community College of Allegheny County, South Campus, she builds her mind. But God gets the credit for emotional and spiritual well-being.
That's a message that Mitchell, disabled 21 years ago in a car accident, shares with students throughout the region.
"The students are so open to what it is that I'm sharing with them, which is my experience, strength and hope," Mitchell said.
She's always introduced as the National Women's Wheelchair Body Building Champion. However, it's not until she takes off her blazer that students see the results of the hard work.
"They can't even believe it after they hear the story of where I've been and how far I've come and what it's taken for me to get here," Mitchell said.
Last October, she was the keynote speaker for the eighth Annual MADD Youth Leadership Conference. As she does in all her speaking engagements, she told the group about her triumph over a tragedy that began with drinking and driving.
Mitchell was riding with her boyfriend and two other friends. Everyone had been drinking. When she asked to go home, her boyfriend became angry and started speeding. He lost control of the car and hit a utility pole. Everyone was hurt. Mitchell was permanently injured.
"I don't want to blame him for what happened to me. I gravitated to people who used alcohol and drugs," Mitchell said. "That's who I was back then. I thought that was being cool."
Years of hard work and physical therapy helped her make an independent life for herself, despite having to use crutches and a wheelchair to get about.
"I thought I would be the burden child in the family, the one that ended up in this tragic accident with a severe disability, and here it is that my family really sees me as an inspiration," Mitchell said.
Kim King, co-owner of King's Gym on Saw Mill Run Boulevard and a strength coach for the University of Pittsburgh, has walked every step with Mitchell on that long road to being a body building champion.
"When she first came in [to the gym] she came in strictly out of my suggestion that she could gain some strength in her body that would help her be more independent in her life," King said.
Mitchell was not physically strong, but she promised King she would commit herself to working out. "She pretty much just did everything I told her to do to the letter," King said.
"Once she has a weight in her hand and she gets going, she's as strong as one-fourth of the men in here," King said.
No one in the gym focuses on Mitchell's disability, although it has to be considered.
It takes her longer to move among the machines. She also has to be strapped into them.
Mitchell makes it look easy when she's flexing and posing, but it takes more effort on her part than someone without a disability, King said.
She must endure more intense pain after a workout. She takes medication so she doesn't get muscle spasms. "It's a hard sport, period, with very little recognition. If you're doing it, it's because something inside your heart wants to do it," King said.
One day, after about a year of Mitchell's working out, King noticed how her body was developing.
"I told her I thought she would do well [in competition]," King said, who had competed for 14 years and is currently a judge in the sport. That little bit of encouragement was all it took. "I can't even believe what I'm capable of achieving through the grace of God," Mitchell said.