[Blindtlk] Just another awesome person doing his part to change what it means to be blind.

[Aziza Canos]

Check this out guys, this kid is totally awesome! And this of course
has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a swimmer too.... Lol.
Aziza
>From the Los Angeles Times
Blind swimmer is true inspiration
Andrew Luk, a sophomore at Diamond Bar High who joined the junior
varsity swim team last month, has a growing list of admirers,
including opponents.
Eric Sondheimer
March 19, 2008
A loud beep tells the six swimmers standing on starting blocks to dive
into the pool. Andrew Luk of Diamond Bar, wearing goggles, pushes off
from the wall
as his competitors splash and dart ahead in the 500-yard freestyle race.
By Lap 18 of the 20-lap race, Luk is swimming all alone. Drama builds
with each stroke because those watching Luk can't believe what they
are seeing. The
clapping is increasing, the cheering is becoming more boisterous and
the chanting is growing louder, "Go, Andrew, go."
Luk is blind, and the fact he has the courage to compete for his high
school swim team is emboldening teammates and opponents alike.
"It's amazing and wonderful," said Eve Chen, the mother of a Diamond
Bar swimmer.
Luk's story is more than inspirational. It's a triumph of the human spirit.
Luk joined Diamond Bar's junior varsity swim team last month after
much agonizing over what he should do with his life.
At 5, he lost his vision because a 1.1-centimeter tumor damaged his
optic nerves. Radiation reduced the tumor's size, but its location on
the brain stem
made it too risky for surgery, leaving him blind and partially deaf.
He can detect light and darkness from his left eye but nothing from
his right eye.
As the years went by, he'd swim for fun, but making the decision to
join a team was never considered, until last year.
"It was a need to be part of something and get out and do something I
enjoyed because for a long time I've been sitting around and talking
about what my
future could hold but never got up and did anything," he said.
With the urging of teachers and counselors, he enrolled last summer in
a competitive swimming program at Mt. San Antonio College run by Jodi
Lepp, an age-group
instructor for Brea Aquatics.
"I thought it was awesome that he had no fears of jumping in and was
willing to get his feet wet," she said.
She taught him fundamentals of swimming competitively, though she had
never worked with a blind student before. Through repetition and
learning to count
his strokes, he figured out when he would be approaching a wall.
"If you practice it every day, you get more comfortable," Lepp said.
"The thing I love about Andrew is that there are other kids who will
complain, 'My
toe hurts, my leg hurts.' And he goes, 'What's next?' He motivates me."
Luk joined Diamond Bar's swim team in February. He was a 16-year-old
sophomore welcomed with open arms by Michael Spence, a dedicated,
always positive
veteran coach who has a Santa Claus-like white beard and a "big
heart," as one parent put it.
Spence immediately endorsed the idea of Luk competing for Diamond Bar.
And he assigned one of his varsity swimmers, senior Lynn Han, to serve
as his mentor
and personal coach.
Before each race, Han takes Luk by his arm and guides him to the pool
rail, where he gingerly drops into the water for competition. Han is
one of two tappers
who hold a 75-inch long white pole with a tennis ball fastened at the
end to touch Luk as he nears each wall. It's the way he avoids banging
his head when
he loses count of his strokes.
Han has taught him how to refine his stroke and swim in a straight
line within his lane.
"He's competitive, he's passionate," she said. "His attitude is determination."
In his first race this month, Luk's time in the 500 free was 9 minutes
55.14 seconds. Two days later, his time was 9:32.45. In his next race,
it dropped
to 8:54.28. The personal bests keep coming, and last week, he
practiced for the first time diving into the water, a dangerous
maneuver for someone who
is blind but important toward improving his time.
Winning, though, isn't his top priority.
"More important to winning -- and I want to win badly -- is just
learning to work as a team, learning to be dedicated to a sport,
learning to be disciplined,"
Luk said.
Luk lives in Chino Hills. His older sister attends UCLA and is
studying to become a doctor. He has two younger sisters, ages 11 and
8. His mother, born
in Indonesia, and his father, a native of Vietnam, run a furniture business.
Royani, his mother, said after watching her son compete in his first
swim meet, "It was so emotional. I'm very proud of him."
Of the estimated 56,000 kids who are blind in the United States,
approximately 100 are competing on high school or club swim teams,
according to Mark Lucas,
executive director of the U.S. Assn. of Blind Athletes. Blind swimmers
have been competing in the
Paralympics
, and the
USABA
has more than 3,000 members who compete in 11 sports.
Luk, 6 feet and 165 pounds, gets around Diamond Bar's campus with the
help of a cane. He has a laptop that allows him to translate letters
in Braille.
He's visited once a week by a mobility instructor and has an aide
lookings out for him during the school day. And then there are the
many students who
admire his commitment to participate in the high school experience.
"It's pretty brave of him," freshman swimmer Casey Eng said. "To come
out here and play sports and do something with his life is a true
inspiration."
Luk had a 3.8 grade-point average last semester and is well-versed in
a variety of subjects, including politics, music and sports. He plays
the piano and
listens to countless radio programs. He said he might want to become a
journalist because he likes to write and recently won a trip to Spain
for one of
his essays.
There's always the hope that a medical breakthrough could restore his
vision, but he said, "That's something that leaves you on the edge of
your seat,
but you don't live your life hoping it's going to bail you out."
Luk appreciates the new friends he has made and the support he has received.
"It's been the most touching thing, the opposing team coming up and
congratulating me and complimenting me and telling me that I've
inspired them," he
said.
Last week, during a swim meet at Villa Park, most of the home swimmers
were scattered during Luk's race. They were either eating a snack or
talking among
themselves. Diamond Bar's swimmers were all cheering and rooting for Luk.
Then, on the final two laps, with Luk the only swimmer still
competing, there was a magical moment. Villa Park swimmers stopped
whatever they were doing
and turned their attention to their pool. They started to clap.
Everybody in the swim complex was focused on Luk as his coach, Spence,
kneeling on the
starting block, exhorted him to "reach" with every stroke.
Luk finished seventh in the field of seven, but the lesson he's
teaching about living life to its fullest sent chills through my body.
eric.sondheimer at latimes.com