For adaptive ski inventor, it’s been all downhill
Henry Wohler became obsessed.
A child in St. Patrick’s Elementary School in Pincourt, where he served as principal, told him he wanted to go skiing.
The trouble was that he had two artificial legs, and an artificial arm, and back then in 1976, there was no ski equipment that was adapted for him.
“I thought about nothing else really for about two years,” Wohler said. “I went to the Montreal rehab institute and spoke to doctors. I read manuals. Everyone was basically telling me I was crazy. I took ski lessons, so I could better understand what was involved so I could adapt it for him.”
Wohler designed a system that would allow his student, Richard Lemieux, to control himself going down a hill. It required four skis: two attached to his legs, and two others attached to poles that were supported under his armpits.
Wohler started the Richard Lemieux Foundation, and used donations to build ski equipment for Richard and others with physical disabilities. It allowed Lemieux to get the equipment he needed, and it even paid for several trips to Banff, Alta. While Lemieux is no longer skiing, the foundation that bears his name has grown steadily over the years, and Wohler still serves as its president. His work volunteering in the adaptive skiing community has earned him a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal. Wohler received the medal in the mail a few weeks ago — one of 60,000 Canadians recognized as part of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne.
Currently, there are 15 skiers and 20 volunteer instructors teaching skiing in Laurentian Adaptive Snow Sports, based out of Mont Avalanche in StAdolphe-d’Howard in the Laurentians. Wohler helps co-ordinate volunteers, and works with his counterparts across the province as Quebec president of the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing.
Wohler said he still takes delight in seeing someone with a disability ski for the first time.
“For them, it is tremendously exciting,” he said. “The first time they come down the hill, they are excited. Some of them are crying; some just want to stay out there and they don’t want to come in.”
Through his volunteer work, Wohler has been involved with the Canadian Paralympic Committee and served as its president.
His work with the national groups got him selected as chef de mission for the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said. “But I only slept about four hours per night.”
He also travelled to Torino, Italy, in 2006 as president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
He still keeps in touch with some of the athletes he has met over the years, including Mont- realer Arly Fogarty, who started in Wohler’s program when she was 5. She’s now a two-time Paralympian in the 2006 Torino Games and the 2010 Vancouver Games and a bronze medal winner in the 2008 World Cup.
In the future, Wohler would like to see the program grow, but he is limited by how many people are willing to volunteer to help others ski.
“Our program used to be bigger,” he said. “Now, we generally have people on a waiting list.”
He said he’d ideally like to see 40 instructors and 25 skiers.
But Wohler’s ultimate goal is to make the program strong enough so that he can step back and go skiing himself. For the most part, he’s doing a lot of administrative work during the weekends to ensure everything is running smoothly.
“I bought a ski pass at Mont Rigaud this year just to force myself to get out during the week,” Wohler said. “My goal in life is to retire from this.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” his wife Betty quipped.
He credits his success to his supporting wife, the hundreds of volunteers he has worked with, and the media.