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In Remembrance of Jimi Flowers

In Remembrance of Jimi Flowers

Aimee Berg - U.S. Paralympic Team July 16, 2009

To an elite athlete, life and sport can become so finely intertwined that it is hard to know the difference. Jimi Flowers knew the difference.

In 2005, Flowers received a phone call saying one of his former athletes on the Auburn swim team had been paralyzed.

"As a human, you just ask, 'What can you do?'" he said in a phone interview last summer. And when he visited the 26-year-old athlete in the hospital, he didn't know what to expect. It didn't matter. "You just give him a hug and see how he's doing," he said.

Flowers rarely expressed anger, but he was irked by someone on the internet support page that suggested the swimmer return to the pool only a week or two after the accident.

"The timing was terrible and inappropriate," Flowers said. "This wasn't about swimming, this was about life."

Ultimately, the athlete did return to swimming. Not because Flowers prodded, but because he knew Flowers would help.

Read the full article on USParalympics.org

Posted: 07/15/2009

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