Asperger's and sports; Athletic aspies?

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Anthony Ianni diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), at age 4, is the first-ever person with ASD to play in Division I college basketball, suiting up for the Michigan State Spartans.

When he was a child, doctors told Ianni's parents he would barely graduate high school and college wasn't a possibility. They said he would likely end up living in a group home.

The boy, who was also told he would never be an athlete, eventually won two Big Ten Championships, a Big Ten Tournament Title, and received the 2012 Unsung Player Award.

Since graduating from college with a degree in sociology, he's worked with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, is a anti-bullying motivational speaker, and started a family.

he first goal came from Isaac Baron in the corner, a horizontal line-drive to Tucker Kruse’s stick. All he had to do was tap it straight into the net while the puck was in full acceleration.

It was the third of 13 goals scored by the North Iowa Bulls Saturday, Jan. 20, against Wausau, but the first of two for Kruse, and it was a big deal.

The 5-foot-4 Woodbury, Minnesota native raised his fist in the air as his teammates engulfed him on the ice. It’s a classic hockey celebration, but for him, it was a well-deserved moment.

“He’s the very hardest working player we have every single day,” head coach Todd Sanden said. “There’s no middle ground for him so everything it is what it is, he gives every bit of effort he has.”

Kruse has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, but there’s no limitations. Not even his height plays a factor as he speeds past others on the ice.

People with Asperger's tend to find special passions in one topic or activity, something they can become experts in. That could be the case for Kruse, who looks at the game with logical humility.

“First goal my line-mate did all the work, so I just had to put it in the net,” Kruse said.

“I try to model my game after Zach Parise, for sure, of the Minnesota Wild,” Kruse said. “He’s a hard-working player and I try to model my game after him, he never quits on anything.”

The dedication Kruse has on the ice translates outside the ice, his teammates love to be around him. They love to see his hard work paying off.

“Tuck, he’s a great kid, I love him ... he’s pretty funny, he likes to mess around with me and I like to mess around with him back,” Connor Clemons said.

Meet Evan Koutsopetras, 15, from Brooklyn. He was diagnosed with autism at age 3, did not start talking until six months later, was was told by a private high school that as a special-needs student his IQ was not high enough to compete academically.

Today, Koutsopetras is a junior and plays No. 1 on the golf team at Fort Hamilton High, the second largest high school in New York City, with nearly 5,000 students. He is an honor student, an Eagle Scout, and on Friday will be one of 78 First Tee participants from across the country playing alongside members of the PGA Tour Champions in the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.

“He would not have been exposed to typical kids,” his father, George, said, addressing the role golf and The First Tee played in his development. “Golf above any other sport affords the opportunity to learn and exhibit really good mannerisms and behaviors. The First Tee was really critical, because they have the nine core values. They were teaching life skills, how to greet people, how to interact.”

Woohoo! I've been out of training for a year (aikido) due to a back injury, so I both sympathize and rejoice with you.

As Tom Stoltman crouched down to pick up the fifth and final Atlas Stone, a 210-kilogram (almost 463 pounds) spherical behemoth -- slightly heavier than an upright piano -- and lift it up to a platform at shoulder height, he knew it was the only thing standing between him and becoming the 'World's Strongest Man.'

It was the final lift, in the final event, in a week's worth of grueling challenges designed to test the upper limits of human strength, pitting giants from all over the world in trials ranging from pushing a 20-ton train for maximum speed, to squatting 320kg (about 705.5 pounds) for maximum reps, to tossing a 33-pound keg for maximum height and numerous other unimaginable feats of strength.

In the end, the title came down to two men: 2020 runner-up Stoltman, who is from Scotland, and four-time former 'World's Strongest Man' Brian Shaw. A win for Stoltman over his American opponent in the Atlas Stones and the title was the Scot's.
As Stoltman dropped the mammoth stone onto the platform, he turned to see his American opponent still negotiating his way through the colossal orbs.
The Scot dropped to his knees in equal parts exhaustion, celebration and relief. The 27-year-old knew he had achieved what once seemed impossible; he was the 'World's Strongest Man.'

[Growing up] I didn't have a clue that I was doing anything wrong," Stoltman recalls. "All my behaviors and the stuff I was doing, like in the house, out of the house, to my parents, siblings, etc., I thought was normal.

"I thought the other kids, doing different things, were the ones that were in the wrong."
As Stoltman became a teenager, his social issues intensified, until "something just clicked in my brain" and he decided to tell his closest friends at school.

"I stood up and took my seven or eight best mates into a room and said, 'Look, I have autism.'
"And they said, "Look, there's no problem at all. We're still going to like you for who you are.'
"And that day is when a weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt normal. Like a normal member of society. I felt just normal around people and they all just treated me the same as them.
"That was the day that changed my life. When I was open about having autism."

And as he began honing his focus on his ever-increasing strength, Stoltman was finding his autism was proving to be a valuable asset.

"Having autism and [going to] the gym goes hand-in-hand," reflects Stoltman. "When you're in the gym, you need a routine. And obviously, when I found 'Strongman,' it's all routine.
"You're waking up every day. You're eating the same meals every day. You're doing the same things every day. And you're going to the gym at the same time every day."
However, his relentless quest to improve his performance presented challenges.

"Sometimes, if I missed that lift, I'll think about it for 24 hours or not talk to my wife. I'll be in a really bad head space. So there are positives and negatives with it and I still struggle with the negative side of things."

Soon, teenager Stoltman followed his older brother Luke, who was already competing in strongman competitions, to the local gym.

"I was a skinny boy, not much confidence, and Luke said, 'Come on to the gym.' So I went to my local gym and hated every single minute of it. I didn't like the people staring at me. But I kept going and kept on pushing myself and Luke kept on pushin

In 2016, Stoltman's mother Sheila succumbed to cancer. His biggest fan, Stoltman made a vow to her before her untimely death.

"I made a promise to my mom before she passed away that I would win 'World's Strongest Man' for her and also be [a] kind gentleman and a man outside of the sport as well."

The nearly 400-pound giant smiles as he ponders how she would have reacted to his victory.

Stoltman's rise to the top of the world of strongmen was part of a three-year strategy, a plan he's delivered upon with unerring accuracy.

In 2019, he told the Strongman "Giants Live" tour: "I'll win it in two years' time. I want to get [on the] podium next year, then win it the year after."

Despite the interpersonal, emotional and physical obstacles Stoltman has had to overcome to achieve his goals, his journey has left him with a positive outlook to pass on to other people with autism.

"I always say to young kids and parents of young kids to use it as a superpower. You know, we're different. But now we've got an advantage over people that aren't different. We've got a superpower, they don't."

On any given day, swimming across the Palk Strait—the sea channel that connects India and Sri Lanka—is not imaginable.

Imagine doing it on a day when there was a cyclone brewing in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, off India's East Coast.

Jiya Rai, a special child, completed this feat successfully by covering a distance of 29 kilometres in 13 hours and 10 minutes.

She swam between Talaimannar (Sri Lanka's north-western coast) and Dhanushkodi (India's Southern Coast) on Sunday (March 20) when cyclone Asani was inching closer to the Andaman archipelago, not too far away.

When most others of her age played with toys and balloons, two-year-old Jiya Rai had a fondness for water. Be it at home or at playschool, the little one couldn’t just stay away from a bucket of water.

It was around the same time that her parents noticed her to be very different from her peer group—she was always a loner and barely uttered anything.

Undeterred by the condition that their daughter was diagnosed with, and in keeping with the baby's liking for water, parents Madan Rai, a naval officer and Rachna, a Chemistry teacher, decided to teach her swimming.

While she was able to communicate with her parents, Jia was unable to grasp what the coach was trying to tell her. In order to help their child, the mother quit her job and started taking swimming lessons from the coach, so as to impart the same to Jiya.

Having understood that the child learns best by witnessing action and visual depiction, the parents prepared a repository of swimming Legend Michael Phelps' videos and played them out for her.

Despite the odds, the young girl commenced to swim at 4.22 am from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka and reached Dhanushkodi, India, by 5.32pm.

Throughout the journey, she was provided escort and search & rescue support by vessels from the Sri Lankan Navy, Coast Guard and also the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, while staying in the waters of the respective countries.

A recipient of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Purashkar (PMRBP), 2022— the highest honour given to Indian citizens below 18 years of age—Jiya, according to her parents, is on a more ambitious mission.

"She is on a mission to become the first and youngest para swimmer of the world by swimming seven oceans," her Indian Naval Officer father, Madan Rai, signs off.

Joshuha Hodkinson, 18, who was diagnosed with Asperger's five year's ago, was inspired to take up the sport after he lost an 'uphill' battle with his sister Chloe, 17, and will now attend the Virtus Ocenia Asia Games 2022 next month in Brisbane.

The sporting event, which will take place from November 5-11, is an international multi-sport competition for elite athletes with an intellectual impairment.

He said: "I first started at Trowbridge Budokwai in 2012 as my dad encouraged me to start a sport as my sister Chloe and I fought on a nearby hill called the White Horse and she beat me up!

"So from a few weeks after that, I started judo and haven't stopped.

"I have competed an uncountable amount of times, some notable titles I have had is, Ben van der Eng (BENG) Adaptive World Judo Games champion three years in a row.

"It was cancelled in 2020/21 due to Covid - so I won in 2022, 2019 and 2018.

"Judo allows me to forget whatever has happened in the day, and allows me to clear my mind by focussing on doing judo.

I enjoy learning new techniques and trying them when we do randori - sparring in judo."

A GofundMe page for the team has been set up help finance The Great British Adaptive Judo Team compete in future International Judo Championships.

From the Parkinson chat show on BBC TV, circa 1978-79:

Michael Parkinson: "When were you at your fittest, Peter?"

Peter Cook: "Er....date of birth".

I sometimes feel that applies to me as well.

For many, running 100 miles might sound unfathomable or unrealistic. But Zach Bates was steadfast to run a 100-mile event before his 20th birthday.

"I wanted to do it before I was 20 because there's not much people who do it in their teens," Bates told "Good Morning America."

At the time, Bates was 19 and had just graduated from high school. He quickly went to work. After seven serious months of training and preparation, Bates finished the 100-mile Coldwater Rumble on Jan. 16 in 28 hours, 6 minutes and 36 seconds, about two months before his birthday.

He became the youngest participant to ever finish the Coldwater Rumble event, which was held in Estrella Mountain Regional Park in Goodyear, Arizona.

Rana Bates, Zach's mom, never doubted her son, who has autism.

Rana Bates teamed up with her son, bought books on ultramarathoning and recruited a mentor, John Mark Hendrix, and later, a coach, Nickademus de la Rosa, to help Zach along the way.

We just really hit it off and it took a little while but he opened up to me," Hendrix told "GMA," noting that he quickly learned about autism and Zach Bates' own experience. "We covered a lot of miles together and had some great conversations and the further we got into this, the more I was convinced that he really can do this, and I believe he has the wherewithal to pull this off."

The 60-year-old would know. Hendrix has been running since junior high school. He said he's run 40 marathons and crushed 50-milers, 100-milers and even a 200-miler.

"The thought of a 19-year-old taking this on is just incredibly remarkable," he said. "I tell people all the time, running an ultramarathon is 90% mental and the other 10%, well, that's mental, too. A 19-year-old just doesn't necessarily have the experience to commit and actually run 100 miles. That is just super, super unusual. This is an older person sport, people who have already accomplished lots of running and in less than a year, he ran a 5K and then a couple of marathons and he did it. He ran 100 miles!"

Hendrix ended up pacing with Bates at the Coldwater Rumble, running with him from mile 60 to mile 80, from about 9 o'clock at night to 3 o'clock in the morning.

"It's a tough, tough thing to do, especially the first time you do it. And he was in a lot of pain but he never ever once in the 20 miles that I ran with him that night, complained or said, 'I don't know if I can do this.' He just kept going," he recalled.

Bates' epic Coldwater run will be the focus of an upcoming documentary called "Break the Mold: The Zach Bates Story," produced by Travis Holt Hamilton. Fans can follow Bates' story on social media through the @running.farther accounts, which Rana Bates helps run.