Tanya & Hua Loo Loo in Switzerland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE&mode=related&search   點這看影片

感謝一個性格帥哥  寄email分享這個影片 及這段感人的故事    Thanks a friend for sharing this movie clip and a very touching story with me ...   
the followng is what I have found on the internet about this  " TEAM HOYT "     

After I read about the story about them ....  and plus Christmas is coming soon which always reminds me of being grateful , and appreciate what I have right now ...   no matter what happens , or how difficult or impossible the task is ....  it's important for us to have LOVE and FAITH ..   
在我讀了他們的故事後 ( 我上網查了 一下資料 )　　加上耶誕節總是會讓我想起要感恩　知足　我們現在所擁有的　　不管發生什麼是　不管面臨多困難多不可能的挑戰　我們一定要保有愛與信念　

the following is the Chinese Version and English version

一段令人震撼的片子，這部影片叫"Team Hoyt"

是在講一對父子的故事

爸爸叫做Dick Hoyt

兒子叫做Rick Hoyt

這對父子是長跑健將

在過去二十五年間

他們一共跑了3770mile

其中包括78次半馬拉松賽，64次的馬拉松賽，24次著名的波士頓馬拉松賽，20 次Duathlons賽，7 次18.6 Milers賽，34 次10 Milers賽，143 次5 Milers賽，6 次20Milers 賽，27次 Falmouth 7.1 milers賽，15次4 Milers賽，2次11公里賽，8 次15公里賽，204 次10公里賽，4 次8公里賽，92 次5公里賽，206 次奧運標準的三項鐵人賽,6次被公認不是平常人可以承受既Ironman distances的終極三項鐵人賽……

但是你知道嗎?

兒子Rick是不能說話也不能走路的!!

Rick在出生時因臍帶繞頸導致腦部缺氧受損，醫生告訴Dick，孩子是植物人，沒有任何希望了

因此他只能在輪椅上渡過他的一生。Dick引述在Rick九個月大時，醫生對他和他妻子祖迪（Judy）說︰「他從此會像植物人一樣，還是把他送到療養院吧。」

然而，他們兩夫婦對此並不認同。他們發覺當他們在屋內活動時，Rick的眼睛會緊盯著他們。當Rick十一歲時，他們把他送到特夫斯大學（Tufts University）的工程系，詢問是否有令孩子與人溝通的辦法，可惜Dick得到的回覆是︰「不可能，他根本沒有任何腦部活動。」

Dick反駁說︰「跟他說個笑話吧。」他們便說了個笑話，Rick果然笑了，證明了他的腦內確有不少活動。結果，他們為Rick加裝了一部能用頭的則面控制滑鼠標的電腦，Rick終於能和外界溝通了！

在Rick十五歲時，Rick的一位中學的同學因意外而癱瘓了，學校為那位學生舉行跑步籌款，Rick便透過電腦打出︰「爸，我也想參加。」

Dick之前並非跑步運動員，也沒有跑過馬拉松賽

但因著兒子的要求就參加了

於是他就推著Rick跑完了5mile的全程

在結束之後

Rick對父親說:"我今生第一次不覺得殘障了!"

這句話深深地震撼了爸爸Dick！

他決心要把那種感覺盡可能帶給兒子，預備好參加1979年的波士頓馬拉松。

「不接受報名。」便是比賽當局給Dick的話，原因是Hoyt父子既不是單獨跑手，又不是輪椅參賽者。結果幾年來，Hoyt父子只在賽事中跟著大隊一起跑，但他們終於找到正式參加比賽的方法︰在1983年，他們參加了另一個馬拉松，他們速度之快，令他們能入圍參加之後一年的波士頓馬拉松。

不久後便有人對Dick說︰「何不參加三項鐵人賽？」一個從來未曾學過游泳的人，一個自六歲起便從未踏過單車的人，如何能拖著110磅（50公斤）的兒子完成三項全能賽？但Dick還是勇於一試。

屈指一算，他現在已完成了212次三項全能賽，當中包括了四次在夏威夷舉行，極費體力的15小時鐵人賽！

因著父愛，父親去學習游泳，學習踏自行車…

他願意為Rick做出許多的犧牲和付出，他又曾拖著他的兒子越野滑雪，又曾背著他爬山，其中一次更用單車拉著他橫越美國。

於是從那時候開始他們父子就常以"Team Hoyt"報名參加馬拉松和三項鐵人賽:

跑步時Dick就推著Rick跑

游泳時Dick就拖著Rick躺著的橡皮艇游

騎自行車時Dick就騎著特製的自行車將Rick放在自行車前騎乘……

那麼Dick為何不試試自己一個人參加比賽，看看表現如何？「我不會獨個兒參賽。」Dick說。他參加比賽純粹是為了當他們一起跑步、游泳和踏單車，看到Rick面上露出甜美笑容時的「奇妙感覺」。

今年，Dick與Rick分別65和43歲，已完成了他們第24次波士頓馬拉松，在20,000名參賽者中排名第5,083。他們的最佳時間？是在1992年的兩小時40分—— 只落後世界紀錄35分鐘；當然，或許你還未留意到，這紀錄是由一個沒有推著輪椅的人所創的。

兩年前，在一次比賽中，Dick輕微心臟病發。其後醫生發現他的一條大動脈有95%栓塞了。其中一名醫生對他說︰「若非你一直保持著這樣好的狀態，你大可能15年前已不久於人世。」

現在，儘管Rick有自己的住宅單位（他享有居家照料服務）並在波士頓工作，而Dick從軍隊退役後已在麻薩諸塞州的荷蘭市居住，但他們總有團聚的方法。他們經常在全國各地發表演說，而每週末也會參加極耗體力的比賽，當中包括今年的父親節。

當晚，Rick會請父親吃晚飯，但他最想送給父親的禮物，是他永遠買不到的。Rick打道︰「我最想送給爸爸的，是爸爸坐在椅上，由我推他一次！」

看這支紀錄片(記得開喇叭...聽I can only imagine .....) 父子倆通過終點的那一幕,.....非常感人!

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.

"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."

The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.

In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."

Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:

" What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck."

It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:

"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."

After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."

With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.

"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.

They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.

And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:

"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working." 

The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."

Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:

"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or "Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they’ll say "Go Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this."

Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.

"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."

That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."

Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"

Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.

Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.

Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father’s dedication — perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:

"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life."

David Tereshchuk is a documentary television producer. He currently works for the United Nations. 
 (   http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml   )