No Stoppin’ Now!

Read this article that was written in the ECU News Bureau. It talks about my training and how things have been going as of this year. Leave comments after you have read it.

While I’m writing this, I have to give a shout-out to my ECU family. I love you guys! To be specific, everyone at Campus Living, everyone at DSS, and all of my people in the RCLS department! I also want to thank everyone at Raleigh Parks and Rec. I love you too! Thanks for your support!

Oh yeah, and go Pirate football! You’re doing really good so far this year!

Here’s another interview that you must watch! It’s from the local Fox station here in San Diego:

Let me know what you think about it.

If you don’t already know, this is my second Paralympic games. I went to Athens in 2004, but I didn’t get a chance to attend the opening ceremonies because I had to compete the next day. This year, that isn’t the case. My competition doesn’t start until Monday.

Last night was ridiculous! All of U.S.A. sat outside of the stadium waiting to march inside the National Stadium (A.K.A. the Bird’s Nest). The crazy thing is while we were outside, we could still keep up with what was going on inside because there were television screens on the side of the building. While we waited, I was doing my usual, talking and joking around with other team mates.

It was finally our turn to begin walking in. There were tons of Chinese people greeting us and cheering us from both sides of the walk way and we weren’t even inside yet. There were tons of clapping hands and yelling voices applauding us.

We entered the tunnel. I could hear nothing but our delegation yelling “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” We made it through to the other side and everything opened. It was the national stadium full of spectators. I would assume majority of them were Chinese. It was sold out, 92,000 strong. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anything like that. We walked around the stadium on the track which was covered by some carpet material. I waved to the crowd and to our Chinese friends standing in the middle of the track. As soon as all of our people made it in, we took our seats in the stands.

I sat in my seat as the rest of the delegations marched in. Time kept passing, and more time kept passing, and then…the crowd erupted. It caught my attention very quickly. The PA announcer proudly announced that the Republic of China would be marching in next. The place went bananas! I’ve never heard so much cheering, screaming, and enjoyment like that in my life. They were really getting some major love. This had to have gone on for about 20 minutes or so.

Once everyone was seated, we all were entertained by talented Chinese musicians and dancers. I have a small video clip of some of the dancers that you can watch right here:

Overall, the show was outrageous. Never have I been a part of anything like that in my life. I’m glad I actually got a chance to attend it this year. And now, I’ll have to move my focus to my competition.

Like I said before, if you have comments or questions, leave them for me and I’ll respond. Check out the video clip as well.

Check it out guys:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is pleased to announce that Universal Sports, a multiplatform destination for amateur sports programming, will provide the first-ever multiplatform broadcast coverage of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, presented by GE in the United States. Daily video highlights will also be webcast on the official site of the U.S. Paralympic Team, usparalympics.org.

The groundbreaking broadcast will premiere on Sept. 6, on UniversalSports.com and Oct. 8, on Universal Sports TV, followed by a special presentation of the events on NBC, Oct. 18.

…

Viewers will have the opportunity to watch the Paralympic Games, Sept. 6-17, with daily live and delayed highlight shows on UniversalSports.com and usparalympics.org. The official U.S. Paralympic Team site will also host daily video blogs from U.S. athletes and delegation members. Beginning in 2009, the U.S. Olympic Network will re-air portions of the 2008 Paralympic Games.

…

For current Universal Sports scheduling information for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, please visit UniversalSports.com.

(official announcement)

Be sure to watch whenever you get a minute!

After nine days in Okinawa, we’re now in Beijing, China. Weather wise, everything is pretty much the same as Japan to me. It’s still pretty humid, but no big differences in my opinion. We’ve been in China for three days now. There hasn’t been anything exciting going on except for practice, if you want to call that exciting.

Today, though, we took a trip to the Great Wall of China. Talk about a cool place. These are the types of places that you dream about going to, and when you visit them you will never forget the experience ever. Anyway, so we get to the Great Wall only to find about a thousand steps waiting for us to climb. The coaches told us that we wouldn’t have a work out until the afternoon, but they tricked us. Walking up those steps was a work out in itself. It’s something I will never forget and wouldn’t give up for the world. We climbed up higher and higher, and higher and higher. Finally, we got to a point where we just stood around and took pictures. I took a few pictures standing on this rock that was really high up. I had to get on it carefully because if I would have made the wrong step, it would have been the end. It was a scary feeling, but it’s all good, I’m still living.

Overall, the wall was really intriguing. It just took a lot of work to climb up there. And you know what, there was a tram that was taking people back to the bottom of the Great Wall, but they wanted like $20 per person to ride. That’s correct, $20 U.S. dollars. Yeah right, I’ll take the walk back down. It’s not that serious; I’m an athlete.

Like I said before, if you have any questions/comments about anything, write it on my blog and I’ll respond to them. Keep checking for new posts and information.

Opening ceremonies begin tomorrow, so check it out online at www.universalsports.com. Also check out www.paralympicsport.tv.

(Also see Part I.)

One interesting place we went to while in Okinawa was the island aquarium. There were so many creatures and creepy-crawly things in the tanks. Many of the people on our team were picking up some of the creatures like the star fish and the sea cucumber. I didn’t want to hold any of these things at first, but I gave in. The star fish was huge. It was probably the size of a medium sized nerf football. The texture was rough feeling. As for the sea cucumber, it was slimy feeling. It seemed as though it didn’t have any stability; it just lay helpless in my hand. There was another tank with whale sharks in it. The whale sharks were huge.

There’s one reptile that you don’t want to encounter and that’s the habu snake. These snakes are deadly, and supposedly, if you get bitten by one and you don’t die, they’ll send you away from the island for good. That sounds brutal. All in all, there are a good number of animals that you don’t want to meet up with.

When I think of Japan, though, I actually think of deadly animals that can strike once and kill any human. Let’s be glad that I’m staying on the base and these creatures are not prominent on the base. That’s the end of my National Geographic episode.

Okay, this is going to sound odd, but the McDonald’s over here are better than the ones at home. The food is made to order so it’s always hot and it’s not as greasy. It truly tastes like a clean burger. That’s still not an excuse to eat it all of the time, but it’s funny that theirs is better than ours. This is all my opinion though. Others may think that I’m crazy, but I love to eat so my opinion stands strong!

Yesterday was our last night in Japan. We had a banquet to send us off. The food was very good as usual. The attendees were the track & field and swimming teams and everyone’s sponsor so it was a pretty big crowd. I had a chance to experience some true Japanese song and dance. There were young children who put on a little routine where they played their drums to Japanese music. It was a different experience, but they did well. I liked it a lot. After the banquet, we all left and went back to our rooms to get ready for the most important part of our trip, heading to Beijing!

If you have any questions about Japan or anything, leave a comment on my blog and I’ll respond to them all. Keep looking out for any new information and posts too.

Well, I’ve been gone for a week and a half now and figured I’d write in the blog to tell you how things are going.

Everything started off in Colorado Springs, CO at the Olympic Training Center where the track & field and swimming teams flew in for team processing. Team processing is basically a time where we receive all of our team apparel for the games. When I say apparel I mean, three pairs of shoes, like five warm-up suits, a ton of socks, a bunch of t-shirts, numerous running speed suits, five or six hats, four or five pieces of luggage, a team watch and a team ring (there’s some ice on that ring of course), not to the mention the suit that we have to wear during opening ceremonies, and some other things like a Visa card with an allotted amount of money on it for use in Japan and China. There’s also certain training that must be dealt with as well, like media training which informs us on how to handle the press while in Beijing.

After two days in Colorado, the next stop was Okinawa, Japan. It was incredible! Kadena Air Force based housed the U.S. team, and they did a great job at it. Each team member had a sponsor from the base who was enrolled in the U.S. Air Force. Basically, your sponsor was your friend and guide for the week. My sponsor was really cool. He had only been in Japan for two months, so he was pretty new to the area, but he took me to a few places on the base. He was really interested in beep baseball because he plays softball with a league in Okinawa. I’m going to send him a beep ball when we get back.

The weather in Japan was really nice with the exception of the humidity. I know that’s odd coming from a North Carolina boy, but this humidity had nothing on our summers. It wasn’t like the temperatures were really hot; it was just a high level of humidity. My sponsor warned me of this as soon as I got off of the plane.

I went off of the base a few times. Wes and I went to a beach that was near by. There were nets in the water keeping jellyfish from getting to swimmers who wanted to get in. Don’t ask: I didn’t even think about getting in the water. Don’t get me wrong, I can swim and all, but this was unfamiliar territory.

Surprisingly, Okinawa is only about 66 miles by 20 miles in size. That’s not very big, but it can get crowded on the roads. They say that it can take at least four hours to get from one end of the island to the other end. That’s a long time to travel 66 miles.

Unfortunately, I have to go to practice in a little bit, so check back soon.

(Continued in Part II.)

Well, once again, Wes and I have made the big screen; or, maybe just your computer screen. This latest interview is from the KPBS Morning Show called These Days. It is about our trip to Beijing next week, how training and competition is looking right now, and some other interesting things.

If you have Flash Player, you can listen to the interview (about 32 minutes) right here on the site by clicking the play button just below:

You can also download the interview (22.4 MB) if you don’t have Flash. There’s also a video of Wes and me on the track, so be sure to check that out too!

Thanks to Alan Ray and These Days.

Last year, when I was deciding on a web address name, I was having a hard time choosing. I could have easily picked “ElexisGillette.com,” but that's so blah. Don't get me wrong, I love my name, but I wanted something different, something that could get stuck in someone's head; something that could relate to everyone, and not just me. So it clicked in my mind to call the site “No Stoppin' Now.com.”

So why No Stoppin' Now? I’m so glad you asked!

No Stoppin' Now is a slogan for all of us who strive to do great things in life. When you have numerous goals and strong aspirations, there's no stoppin' until you have accomplished everything that you have set out to do. There's nothing that will hold you back on your dreams if you want it that badly. Why should we have to settle for the next best thing when we can go out and get anything that we desire? I mean, anything that's worth having is worth working for, right? It's easy to accomplish “nothing,” but it takes work to accomplish “something,” so until you accomplish that “something,” there's No Stoppin' Now.

I have many dreams and goals, one being the world record holder in long jump for the Paralympics. That takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication. I know that I can't sit around and let it come to me, so I choose to do the things that I need to do in order to accomplish that goal. And even when I do accomplish my goal, I'll still have to work hard because they say once you get to the top people want to knock you down.

You shouldn't settle for just anything, strive for the best. If you feel as though there's some unfinished business that you must complete, keep moving, keep working, and know that there's No Stoppin' Now!

Here's another old article from the News & Observer (my hometown newspaper). It's from 2004 as well and it talks about my preparation for the Paralympics in Athens, Greece. There's some other info in there as well that may make you laugh, LOL.