Wendy Gumbert
	Coaching the Paralympic Games

The crowd will cheer. The athletes will wave their flags. In September, the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Paralympic Games will welcome thousands of athletes from around the world.

Saul Mendoza and Wendy Gumbert at a training center in Spain prior to the Athens Paralympic Games.

It won’t be the first time Wendy Gumbert ’89 will have been part of the excitement of Opening Ceremonies. Beijing will be Gumbert’s third Paralympic Games.

The Paralympics are elite sport events for athletes from six different disability groups. They emphasize, however, the participants’ athletic achievements rather than their disability. The Paralympic Games occur in the same city and at the same venues as the Olympics, usually two to three weeks later.

“We always say ‘the Olympics are a warm-up to the real games when the Paralympics happen,’” Gumbert said. “We have so much more excitement from the locals. With our games, the local people can get tickets – they can afford tickets – and it is such a neat experience because they fill the stadiums and cheer for everyone. They are so excited at the whole movement. That’s what I’ve experienced in both Athens and Sydney, and I assume China will be the same.”

Gumbert was a rugby coach for Team USA from 1997-2004. She traveled to Sydney in 2000, the first year wheelchair rugby was officially recognized as a Paralympic sport. Gumbert described coaching the championship game as the single most exciting sporting event in her life.

Saul and Wendy introduce baby Paul to marathon racing.

Winning Gold
“The stadium was packed, and we were playing Australia, the home team, so it seemed like everyone was rooting for them. After 36 minutes of play, we emerged with a 32-31 victory and the gold medal!” she said.

After coaching teams to the gold in 2000 and the bronze in 2004, Gumbert was inducted into the United States Quad Rugby Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Gumbert switched sports. She went from rugby to track and is now coaching the wheelchair track team. She coaches both female and male middle distance, distance and marathon athletes.

Gumbert said she loves coaching because she gets to see all the athletes’ hard work and preparations pay off.

“They train hard, eat right and stay in top physical shape,” she said. “I like to say that these athletes are the same as any other Olympic athletes except they use a wheelchair instead of athletic shoes. Seeing my athletes perform is great because I know the hard work they have put into their preparations.”

Wendy rode the MS 150 Bike Tour with the wounded service members from Brooke Army Medical Center.

Since 2005, she has taken her athletes to competitions in the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil and across the U.S.

Gumbert is looking forward to the Beijing Paralympic Games, which will be Sept. 6-17. Sixty-five spots have been allocated for the entire USA track and field team, but it will not be determined which athletes will be competing until after the trials in June. Gumbert has high hopes for her team.

“Our female athletes are excellent. We have a number of record holders, and we expect them all to be on the medal stands,” she said. “Our men are young, and their future looks great. For many, this will be their first Paralympic Games, but we hope to see some of them on the medal stands, too.”

Wendy with two of her US Paralympic track athletes at a camp in Warm Springs, Ga.

Drawn to her work
From an early age, Wendy Gumbert was drawn to this work.

“When I was in junior high, I had a cousin who suffered an injury, and I was intrigued by how well he recovered. He lives such an active and fulfilling life, even though he’s in a wheelchair. It opened my eyes,” she said.

In the late 1980s, Gumbert attended Texas Lutheran, playing basketball for Coach Lana Urbanek and majoring in physical education. Although TLU did not have an adapted physical education program at the time, when Gumbert expressed an interest in working with people with disabilities, Dr. Kathryn Yandell (now professor emeritus of kinesiology) created a special degree plan for her.

“Dr. Yandell was my mentor and adviser for all of my adapted work,” Gumbert said. “She took me under her wing and helped me get all my hours, student teaching – everything I needed so that I was able to graduate with a specialization in adapted physical education.”

Gumbert is currently a liaison for Adapted Sports Programs throughout the Unites States where she assists in developing program resources and planning camps, clinics and competitions as well as coaching both developmental and elite athletes.

Gumbert and her husband, Saul Mendoza, live in Wimberley with their baby, Paul, who was born Feb. 24. Mendoza is a Paralympic gold medalist who competes for Mexico in middle distance and distance races. ♦

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Sarah Saatzer ’08
contributed to this story