Paralympian’s coin toss symbol of the possible
Amy Alsop was born with a rare condition that left her with only 10 per cent of her vision.
Now, after navigating university, the Paralympics and building a career, she wants others with disabilities to know there’s always a way through.
“No adversity is insurmountable,” said Alsop.
“Every challenge that we’ve ever faced, there is always a way,” she added.
This is the message she hopes to share on Sunday night when she and her husband Kurt Langford — who is also visually impaired — do the coin toss at the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ diversity game on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
Alsop began using CNIB’S services at age five to gain independence by learning important skills like how to ride the bus.
Armed with these skills and the support of friends and family, Alsop stayed in her neighbourhood school and got involved in sports.
She discovered goalball — a sport designed specifically for the visually impaired — and represented Canada at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games in the sport, where she was a gold medallist in 2000 and 2004.
Now Alsop is a service development manager at Sasktel in Regina, where she works with new ideas from beginning to market launch.
“It’s a neat experience to be able to showcase to ... 30,000 people, to give them a different perspective of what it is like to have a visual impairment,” she said of doing the coin toss at the Rider game.
“Growing up, most people wouldn’t have thought of being a marketing manager or my husband’s an engineer or, you know, I’ve got a friend who’s an occupational therapist,” she said.
“Those weren’t careers that we knew blind people had, and I think it’s really great that now we can show kids that we have these types of careers and these are the things you can aspire to.”