World T.E.A.M. Sports at 20 Years October 2013 | Page 5

do next?” Of course, we had nothing planned next, we were just lucky
that everybody survived this thing, but you can’t say that on national
television. So, I shot out the two things that I wanted to do next. One
was to run the Great Wall of China marathon, and the second was to
climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I suggested that we were going to run in
Beijing and also climb the most mystical mountain in the world, the
most magical freestanding mountain in the world, the 19,342 foot
Mount Kilimanjaro. He said that sounds very good. After saying that,
then you have to try to follow through with it. So, we went back and
we found that in China disabled people can’t run in the marathon.
They can’t run at all, because with the one child policy in China and I

James Benson (center) on Kilimanjaro, 1990. Cathy Griffin photograph.

don’t want to offend anyone, there aren’t any disabled people. At least
there weren’t any disabled people of an age where they would be able
to participate at that particular point in time. We scraped that idea.
But Mount Kilimanjaro was a good idea. We put together a team of
12 athletes. We did practice climbs in southern California. We put this
team together. We went on a one month trip to Africa in January and
February 1990, and it was a fabulous adventure. We had a television
crew film it. David Breashears, now a world famous mountain
cinematographer, was our cameraman. But we had some bad weather.
We took our group of 12 athletes and 20 coaches to 16,000 feet and
then it snowed for four days in a row. It snowed, and it snowed, and it
snowed. Our guide said that we really couldn’t take the group all the
way up. We could only take five athletes, five coaches and our
experienced camera crew.
So, we had to break the group into two and the one athlete, Patrick
Halspice from San Rafael, California, a severely retarded person, but a
gentle soul said it was okay. He and the other six would go down
because if they didn’t go down, the others couldn’t go up and we’re all
a team. So, this is just as an important part of being on the team. It was
an amazingly adult thing for someone to say. If you’ve ever seen the
film of that specific remark – it was captured on film.
Our five athletes and coaches made it to the top and went down
and we were at the bottom of the mountain in Arusha. The seven who
hadn’t made it up and the five who did got together. They blended
together as a team easily and completely. There was no you made it
and I didn’t. It was one of the mo ???????????????????????????)Q???????????????????????e???????????e??????????????????((