Bethany Hamilton: A Brief Biography

It is true that she had great challenges to come because of her disabilities. When she was only 19 months old she became ill with what at the time was called, “brain fever,” and is now thought to have been meningitis or scarlet fever. When she finally recovered,

Joni Eareckson Tada once said, “Sometimes God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves” (Goodreads). Since she was born on October 15th, 1949, Joni had always been an athletic, horse-loving young lady (“Sweet Surrender” 39). That changed one hot summer day in 1967 when seventeen-year-old Joni went to the Chesapeake Bay with her sister and her boyfriend. While swimming, she dove into the water not knowing that it was shallow. As a result of the shallow water, Joni hit her head on a rock and broke her neck. Luckily, her sister found her and got her safely to a hospital. Due to the break in her neck, Joni has had to deal with the life-threatening condition of quadriplegia, or paralysis from the shoulders down without the use of her

By showing others that even the shortest amount of words with confidence, it can go a long way. She has made an impact. Although, she knows that that is only possible by having confidence. When people see a confident, strong, independent person like Alex they will aspire to be like her. She is influential enough, that people become like her and influence others. Anyone can do anything and it is especially easy when you have a positive influence. Alex Morgan is that positive influence to not only young athletes but women in general.

During an afternoon bike ride she was struck by a car, leaving her paralyzed. She was rushed to the hospital where she was nursed back to health before beginning her next life challenge. “…a bike accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. Downing threw herself into rehab and--on top of learning how to care for herself--mastered the challenge of using a handcycle and a racing chair” (Balmain). Downing did not allow an accident to stop her. After being treated at the hospital she began rehab to get back up and start tackling challenges. She began to work towards athletic training with handcycles and racing wheelchairs. She overcame these very different types of sports that she has had no experience with and became a pro at them. Downing is not a person that will give up, no matter how tragic of a place she is

All this success has been just in her working world. In her personal life she has four children. Two of those four children have been adopted from Malawi.

Bethany Hamilton is a professional surfer who survived a shark attack. Bethany was so successful, she always did good in her contests, until a shark attacked her. It was difficult for her to get back on track with surfing. She couldn’t surf effectively anymore because her left arm was bitten off. Her dad made her a board specifically for her which was easier to use in her condition. She kept saying she did not want to surf anymore because of her arm and that she couldn’t do it. She realized that surfing was her passion so on her own time, Bethany would practice and practice until she got better. From then, Bethany preferred doing things alone and motivated herself to not give

To add on, Bethany Hamilton, author of Soul Surfer, undertook the mission of surfing again after a shark attack and wanting to become a professional surfer. No one thought she was able to, but she did. The writer states,“Seemingly level-headed about the incident and the radical change to her body, she vowed to return to surfing as soon as possible” (Biography.com Editors para. 6). This shows that ever since she got attacked by the shark she wanted to and was going to surf again. The writer states, “Even more important, Hamilton demonstrated that the loss of an arm was no obstacle to fulfilling her surfing goals” (Biography.com Editors para. 8). This shows that she was determined and she wasn’t going to give up and is going to surf. The writer states, “The author states, “Hamilton resumed surfing just one month after the attack, her determination helping to keep the story alive in the

Bethany Hamilton is an American professional surfer who survived a 2003 shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off. On the morning of October 31, 2003, Bethany went out to surf at Tunnels Beach in Ha'ena with her best friend, Alana Blanchard, and Blanchard's father and brother. While lying on her board,she suddenly felt intense pressure on her left arm and was pulled back and forth for a few seconds. Originally feeling no pain, she noticed the water around her had turned red, and her friends realized that her left arm had been bitten off nearly to the shoulder. The process of healing after that was challenging and hard for her, but she overcame it with her faith in God and hard work.

Aimee Mullins is an accomplished paralympian athlete whose goal is to raise awareness in the world of disability and adversity. From her speech, titled “Adversity,” she suggests that it “isn’t whether or not you’re going to meet adversity, but how you’re going to meet it.” This statement describes one of the most influential points in her speech, and widely represents much of the message she is trying to convey: that adversity is not so much a mountainous difficulty which is impossible to scale, but that it is a challenge to face head on; a change which can and should be accepted. Through her use of strong diction and syntax, she appeals to the audience with both strong emotion and a firm tone. She utilizes mankind’s ability to empathize to target an audience consisting of anyone who will listen, lieky knowing that her showing of emotional and logical appeal will draw attention and cause a mass effect in the audience, sparking a desire within the audience to understand the kinds of emotions she felt. All in all, her constant reference to known facts in combination with her ability to entice the audience gives Aimee Mullins an aura of professionalism and credibility.

She made an ESPN segment of our story that had such an effect on people that we received monumental amount of donations. Soon after, we received enough to allow Leroy and I to follow whichever path in life we desired. Lisa stayed with us no matter what happened. Without a doubt, If we fought, or challenging things came up in our lives Lisa never gave up on us. Leroy and I defied the odds and graduated high school even with our school’s less than 50% graduation rate. I continued to a training center in Colorado and trained for judo after high school. Eventually, I made it to the Paralympics and won bronze in judo. While I was training for Judo Leroy graduated college, had a baby girl, and became a game designer.

She continues to develop herself and to grow the amount of her support from her friends and family. When the time comes she will be graduating and being able to make a difference in daughter’s life and the classes she teaches. She’ll be leaving a legacy to those who know that she went out of her way to make sure everyone succeeds.

After Bethany recovers she learns to surf with one arm and re-enters the competition only to lose so she gets disheartened and decides to quit surfing. Later, another mission trip comes up and she decides to go on it. She is teamed up with a little boy who has a fear of water so Bethany, using creative thinking, uses her surfboard to coax him into the water. Her idea worked and she realized that she could use her gift of surfing to inspire and help others overcome their fears. This motivated her to take up surfing again and she later wins a national championship. During an interview, she was asked what she would do if she could undo the loss of her arm her response was, “she would still lose it because she can embrace more people than she ever could with both” (Brookwell, David, Producer, & McNamara, Sean, Director, 2011).

Bethany Hamilton is a great surfer. She has been surfing since 4 or 5 year olds. When she was 13 she was bitten by a tiger shark. She was surfing and didn’t notice the shark. The shark bit her arm off. When she was bitten by the shark she did not panicat all. Bethany was bleeding badly. If Bethany would have panicked even more blood out of her arm. Bethany was rushed to the hospital. She stayed strong and told everyone it would be alright. After the shark attack Bethany went back on water. She was confident about going to surf again. It took Bethany a couple of trys when she first went back on water after the shark attack. But after practicing a lot she finally got it. Today Bethany is one of the best surfers in the world. Bethany

This amazing incident helped her get a place in the Guinness book of world record. She has been travelling around the globe performing for the student community, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Politicians and Educationalists.

Being one of the first of many characters within this series she could never be forgotten even if someone tried. Having much involvement with many stories and a numerous amount of accomplishments it is no wonder why she has impacted this fictional world and the real world in a variety of ways. People in that fictional world look up to her and people in real life as well. The purpose of these stories were to have fictional heroes but one thing that many fail to understand is that there actually are heroes in any and every type of