"America doesn't support its athletes, Americans do"

This phrase is well known to athletes all over the United States. Whenever you see an Olympian or Paralympian on the victory stand receiving their medals, it wasn't instant success, but years of hard training and sacrifice, physically; mentally and emotionally.

It is the one who struggles, endures the pain and makes the huge sacrifice to achieve their goals and even then there is no guarantee. It is the one individual who will go a little further than his competitors to reach their dream. Along the way they need a lot of emotional support from their family, friends and teammates, but just as important is the financial support.

The Paralympic Games is designed for the Physically Disabled Athlete in both the summer and Winter Games. They compete in almost all of the events as they do in the Olympics Games.

The athletes in Judo are Blind and compete with the same rules as the sighted athletes, the only difference is the beginning of the match where both competitors hold on to each other, at that time the referee says "Hajime" (begin). Both male and female athletes compete in Judo.

At the 2000 Paralympic Games the United States Judo Team won 2 Gold, 1 Silver and a Bronze Medal in Sydney, Australia. Team USA won top honors as the Number 1 team in the World and the 2 Gold medals were a first for America since Judo was introduced in 1964.

It was a different result in 2004, not enough team training time; the athletes came from all over the United States and with little financial support to finance the training. The team was only able to get their best training the last two months before they left for Athens because the coaches paid for some of the flights, all their food and even lodging.

They still picked up 3 medals, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze, not the top team in the world but still an impressive record with only 6 competitors on the team.