No Stoppin' Now | USA's 2008 Paralympic Silver Medalist

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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

So I was searching around the web and ran across some old articles that were written on me when I was a little younger. Here's one that was written when I was still attending ECU. It's pretty cool. It talks about my first trip to the Paralympics which was in Athens, Greece in 2004.

Today was a pretty exciting day. The “Governator” came out to the training center to give all of the Olympians and Paralympians a big boost for Beijing. Basically, he wished us much success in the games that are quickly approaching. And yes, I got to meet him and shake his hand. I'll have pictures on the site as soon as possible.

You can watch a video and read a transcript of the Governor's speech online. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And until next time, Hasta la vista, baby.

The U.S. Paralympic Track and Field trials were this past weekend in Tempe, AZ. Talk about a hot state. I can't remember the last time where I walked outdoors and my skin felt like it was going to melt. Even growing up in North Carolina, I can't remember any days where it was 112 degrees outside. That's ridiculous. Track and field is my job, and life, so I had to suck it up and make things happen out there.

Originally, I was supposed to run the 100M and 200M, but I strained my hamstring a few days before the trials so I dropped the two events to focus on my strength, J.U.M.P.I.N.G. I felt really good after warming up for the long jump, but once I started competing, I could feel the hammy acting up. I didn't perform that well, which sucks because all of the attention was on me since long jump was the last event of the night. Not only did I want to meet my standards for making the team, I also wanted to jump really far to display my talent. Needless to say, I did neither. I didn't jump well at all. The pain hindered me from running fast down the runway, but I gave it my best shot. My standard to make the team was 6.18M and I didn't even come close. I felt dejected. Long jump is my best event so I always expect to do well in it, but it didn't happen this time, but more importantly, I didn't meet my standard for making the team. But I still had triple jump on Sunday.

The next day, I came out pretty early in the morning (7:30AM) to get ready for the triple jump competition. Again, I warmed up and felt as good as I would ever feel with the injury. Wes, my guide runner and long/triple jump caller, pumped me up and gave me a lot of motivation and confidence. We feed off of each other so much while competing. He helps me keep my head up when things aren't going the way I want them to. The competition began and I took my first triple jump. By the way, this was my first time ever triple jumping in a competition, so I was kind of nervous about it, but the first jump killed the “first-time jitters”. I got through all of my jumps surprisingly, and I think all of them were legal. Meaning, I didn't foul on any of my attempts. My best triple jump was 11.50M (37 ft, 6.5 in). That also set a new American record in the event for my vision classification. I felt really good about it since it was my first time, but still, I didn't meet my standard for the team.

The banquet was later on that Sunday evening. I didn't even really want to go because I didn't want to go and listen to everyone's name being called for the team except for mine. After a while, I just said forget it, I'll go. As expected, they wouldn't announce the team until later on, so I was sitting at the table with my teammates trying to keep my composure. Time crept by, and finally, they started announcing the team. “Can we have Elexis Gillette come up here please?” Man, I was so relieved to have Coach Engle call my name. It seemed like a thousand pounds was let off my shoulders. I thought to myself, THANK GOD!!!

Now, I'm back at the Olympic Training Center rehabbing and trying to get my hamstring back into shape. Things are going good right now, but it'll take a little bit to heal it up totally. And now that I've made the 2008 Paralympic team, I can sleep easier at night knowing that I will now be getting paid, LOL.