Waddell distinguished himself in the Paralympics for disabled athletes, winning 12 medals in skiing, 5 of them gold.
Chris Waddell gave the commencement address at Westfield State College in 2006.GRANBY –Former Granby resident Chris Waddell has been called one of the Most Beautiful People by People magazine, Greatest Person of the Day by the Huffington Post and one of Western Massachusetts' greatest athletes of the 20th century by The Republican.
Now ABC television is calling him “Super Human.”
Tonight at 9, he will be featured on a special edition of the TV news magazine “20/20,” devoted to exceptional achievers.
Waddell was paralyzed by a skiing accident at age 20, but went on to achieve successes such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa using hand-pedals.
Footage from a new documentary about Waddell called “One Revolution” will be included in the show, Waddell said in a phone interview.
Other “Super Humans” on the show will be wing-suit flier Jeb Corliss, 11-year-old opera singer Jackie Evancho and artist Steven Wilshire, who can draw complicated scenes from memory.
Waddell has lived in Utah since competing there in the 2002 Paralympics for the disabled.
He lived in Granby from fourth through seventh grades. His mom was a teacher in Belchertown.
Waddell said he has “fond memories” of those years, and was especially nostalgic when his family sold their home on North Street in Granby. “It’s such a beautiful, spectacular place to be,” he said of Western Massachusetts.
06.22.2004 | GRANBY – Chris Waddell practices for the ParaOlympics on the track at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley.He attended Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy, and was a student at Middlebury College in Vermont when his athletic career was cut short – or so it seemed.
In subsequent years, Waddell distinguished himself in the Paralympics, winning 12 medals in skiing, five of them gold. He is in the Paralympics Hall of Fame.
Waddell, 42, makes his living as a motivational speaker and head of the One Revolution Foundation, which is developing adaptive technology for paraplegic people in the Third World.
He said climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was something he did to show that “ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”
Being picked for People’s “50 Most Beautiful People” issue in 1998 was “very flattering, but curious,” he said. “How did they find me? I’m not a star by any means.”
Though he uses a wheelchair, Waddell has worked as a model and stays fit by keeping busy.
“Name Tags” is what he calls his program for schoolchildren. He tells kids that people are much more than the “tags” others apply to them – and he’s living proof.