Just like many other high school kids, Margaret Beaudoin gets a rush from competition. Currently, she’s getting those endorphins from track and field.
“I do the 100m, 200m, long jump, shot put, discus and javelin,” says Beaudoin.
Beaudoin gets more than participation ribbons, too. She has set national records in javelin, discus and shot put. She also earned the title of U.S. Paralympic high School All-American for long jump. There are only 66 athletes in the country with this distinction, and only one in the state of Michigan.
Beaudoin has earned all of these accolades, and she’s overcome more than most to get them.
“We started noticing some things -- her not using her hand -- when she was about 5/6 months old,” explains her mother Christine McNish.
A few months later Beaudoin was diagnosed with left hemiplegia: a form of cerebral palsy that causes weakness and paralysis.
“Some of those visions you have for the future for your child, you sort of put those on hold because you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” says McNish.
Her whole family admits they never could have predicted the kind of athlete she could become, but Beaudoin says she never doubted her abilities.
Her big goal is to compete in the 2020 Paralympic games in Tokyo, Japan.
