PLAY THE HAND YOU'RE DEALT

NO QUARTER ASKED.

In the tumultuous early days of learning to ride a push-bike, ‘going one-handed’ is a sign of elite mastery, of cool control. It means you’ve nailed the fundamentals and are ready to showboat. Zac Pomphrey has been going one-handed for his whole life, in everything he does. That makes this 13 year old's journey to the upper echelons of junior sport quite incredible.

Born without a right hand, Zac’s story bares more than a passing resemblance to that of sprinter Oscar Pistorius - ‘the fastest man on no legs’. We imagine ourselves with such disabilities and it scares the crap out of us. How could we live a ‘normal’ life? How could we expect to compete with able bodied opponents? Pistorius and Pomphrey have grown up with their conditions. No other choice. No other way. They probably have moments when they think “What if things were different?” But soon enough those thoughts are gone. What’s left is an attitude of no can't do. The dreams of future triumphs take over and they just get on with the business of competing.