Shutterstock.com (background); Courtesy of family (all other images)
I Play All Kinds of Sports!
Emma D’Antonio is a wheelchair athlete from New York. Here’s how this 10-year-old rolls.
Last year, I started playing basketball with the New York Rolling Fury. In June, our team went to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Championships in Kansas.
We played against nine other teams, and we won third place! One of our last games was super exciting. My teammate made the winning basket in the last 10 seconds. We all cheered!
I Don’t Give Up
I’ve been in a wheelchair for about three years. In 2018, I got sick with something very rare called acute flaccid myelitis.
At first, I couldn’t move anything from my neck down. But after a lot of hard work, I can now move everything but my left leg.
I use a special wheelchair to play basketball. It’s faster and lighter than the one I use every day, and it doesn’t have brakes.
I had trouble dribbling the basketball at first. Now I dribble up and down the court and shoot the ball.
My older brother is an athlete too. He tried my basketball wheelchair once. He couldn’t believe how hard it was to dribble and wheel down the basketball court!
All-Around Athlete
Basketball isn’t my only sport. I play wheelchair tennis and hockey, and I compete in track and field.
At my first track meet, I did the 400-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. I won them both. I’m going to train hard so I can go to the track and field national championships. It’s good that I have a lot of energy!
Emma plays hockey, kayaks, and loves basketball.
