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COVER STORY
Third time was a charm for Dunn,
who failed to make national team twice
before being added to the Tokyo roster
we said, ‘I think we have an opportunity
here.’”
Breaking ground
Dunn tried out again in January of 2019
and didn’t make the team for the second
time. She transferred to a United States Quad
Rugby Division I team in Texas in the fall to
compete at a higher level, however, and then
in December 2019 she tried out for the third
time — and made the 16-person roster from
which the Tokyo 2020 team was to be selected.
The only other woman ever named to the U.S.
team was Kerri Morgan in 2009.
Women are still very much a minority on
international rosters. Miranda Biletski was
on Canada’s Paralympic roster in 2016, and a
total of three women competed at the Parapan
American Games Lima 2019. If Dunn
were to compete for the U.S. this summer in
Tokyo, she would break ground for women
in the sport in this country.
Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games –
which are always held within weeks of each
other – were supposed to take place in Tokyo
in the summer of 2020. They were postponed
one year because of covid-19.
Throughout much of 2020, the national
team, which trains at the Lakeshore Foundation
in Birmingham, Ala., couldn’t do
much in terms of practice or preparation
because of the pandemic. At the start of this
year, however, they had their first training
camp together in nearly 11 months, meeting
for two weeks, and then meeting again in
March. With preparation now fully underway
for Tokyo, 12 athletes from the 16-member
team will soon be chosen to compete in
the Paralympics.
The Paralympics open in Tokyo on Aug. 24
and conclude on Sept. 5.
When Dunn isn’t working on her rugby
game, she’s working as a research assistant
at Pitt on two different studies. One focuses
on nutrition and disability and will be used
to design a program aimed to get people
back into activity and a healthy lifestyle
following injury. The other is a long-term
study on spinal cord injury that follows up
with patients every five years to assess their
health and other issues related to the injury
that will then allow those working in the field
to see where gaps may exist in rehabilitation
and treatment.
Sports in general, and rugby in particular,were instrumental in Dunn adjusting to life
in a wheelchair, she said.
“Especially with rugby, all my teammates
had been injured longer than I was and so
you learn all about life post-injury,” she
said. “You learn about rugby, too, but also
everyday life, which is super helpful learning
about different chairs, different techniques
of dressing, tips on transferring or traveling,because rugby travels quite a bit. It’s a really
important part for me, too, because I always
used activity as a stress reliever. It keeps me
strong and active, which helps physically
but also mentally it makes a big difference,
too. And most athletes would say the same
exact thing.”
Karen Price is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
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