Trisha Driscoll of Mount St. Maple is sick and tired of people talking to her about the Paralympics … and the games have just begun.
Driscoll, 34, is a bilateral below-the-knee amputee due to birth defects. She currently works as a sound engineer in a local theater, and in her free time she enjoys knitting, playing with her dogs and cooking. She freely admits that the only reason she exercises is because doctors have emphasized to her how good exercise is for her overall health. Athletics of any type have never been an interest of hers. She chose swimming because it was the least objectionable of the options available to her, as it did not involve interacting with people in any way like going to a gym or playing a team sport would. Or at least, under normal circumstances, swimming should be a solitary activity.
“I usually go in, I do my hour, that’s it,” she said. “Until this summer. Now people keep stopping me in the hall and asking if I have heard of Mikaela Jenkins or Ali Truwit and who do I think will win and how I must be so inspired by them.”
For the record, Driscoll has never aimed, and is not aiming now, for the Paralympics. And as the weather warms and she starts wearing shorts, making her prostheses visible outside of the YMCA, even more strangers are feeling the need to interrogate her about her nonexistent opinions on the Paralympics.
“Sports are boring! Let’s talk about the Drama Desk Awards!” she declared. “If one more person talks to me about the Paralympics and asks what I compete in, I’m going to gold medal in punching their face.”
With that, Driscoll drove away in her decidedly unsporty 2009 Toyota, complete with a bumper sticker that reads, “I may not have legs but at least I have manners.”