For born without a lower body, Zion Clark, his world is in his hands, or rather, in his palm.
Last year, Clark ran 4.78 seconds with his hands 20 meters, breaking the Guinness World Record and becoming the fastest running person in the world with his hands. On October 13 this year, he successfully broke two Guinness World Records: his hands jump box had a height of 33 inches (0.83 meters) and completed 248 diamond push-ups in 3 minutes.
Clark has a tattoo of "No excuse" (NO EXCUSES) on his back, which may be just a cool saying to others, but for Clark it is a magic spell for his survival.
Clark, born in 1997, is from Ohio, USA. Because his mother was taking drugs, he suffered from tail degeneration syndrome when he was still a fetus, stopped developing below the waist and even had no excretion system. After he was born, his biological mother abandoned him in the hospital. He was sent to one foster home after another and later threw him in a welfare home. He was not adopted by his current adoptive mother Kimberli Clark Hawkins until he was almost 17 years old.
Clark said the first 17 years of his life were raised under the foster care system, where he suffered "mental abuse, physical bullying and malnutrition." When no one else was willing to take him in, Hawkins, who had long donated to the welfare home, was willing to have another child for him.
If there were no Hawkins, Clark said that after he moved out of the welfare home, he would become one of countless homeless people, lying on the roadside like garbage with "a plastic bag and a few clothes".
"They made me feel that I was definitely the worst kid on the planet, but my mom didn't believe them."
With the support of my family, Clark was able to focus more on academics and sports, and was admitted to the Kent State University's architecture department with outstanding grades. After winning the track and field state championships many times, he began to seriously wrestle .
This also depends on the help of Gil Donahue, part-time teacher at the welfare home, a wrestling coach who led Clark into the world of wrestling when he was bullied and told him to use wrestling to make himself stronger.
Donahue is the only role model Clark has recognized so far, and he has inspired Clark's body's athletic potential.
In 2016, Clark won two championships in the "Wheelchair Racing" event in the United States, successfully entering the national team. In 2018, Clark won the Sports Emmy Award .
In addition to sports, Clark also plays drum set , guitar, keyboard, trumpet, saxophone , bass and other instruments. He often shares his daily life of playing drums on social media.
However, Clark is temporarily single now. According to the New York Post , although he said it is not suitable for dating now, he admitted that he really wants a child, and one of his goals is to form a new family at some point, because every child should have a home forever.
However, this goal is still far away for Clark. He now has many lofty ambitions, including training for the Olympics and Paralympics. He just signed an MMA ( MMA competition) battle agreement and broke his own record again.
has the next most important goal - parachuting . Clark plans to try how high he can jump as much as possible. "I have jumped from the bridge or cliff. Next time I want to jump from the plane."
Jiupai News Reporter Liang Xia
[Source: Jiupai News]
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