World T.E.A.M. Sports at 20 Years October 2013 | Page 9

with disabilities – undertook the entire challenge. The event was
embraced worldwide, with most American
Ambassadors and many foreign heads of state
greeting the group in their respective countries. The
media was drawn to the event and coverage was
extensive – even through the 4,000 mile trek in
Russia. Russian National Television covered the
event and the team was featured four times to over
50,000,000 households throughout Russia. The
combined media coverage totaled over 300,000,000
impressions. Another highly acclaimed documentary
film was produced, airing twice on CBS, and
narrated by the Emmy-award winning host, Charles
Kuralt. The film, The Possible Dream, was
enthusiastically received and won several national awards.
World T.E.A.M. Sports served as the organizer for the August 1996
NationsBank Paralympic Torch Relay from Washington, D.C. to
Atlanta. For ten days, World T.E.A.M. Sports, in a partnership with the
organizing committee and event sponsors, crisscrossed busy avenues,
back roads, rivers and lakes. President Bill Clinton hosted the
organizers and the first torchbearer on the south lawn of the White
House on the morning of August 6. The final torchbearer was greeted
by 70,000 spectators in Centennial Olympic Stadium for the Opening
Ceremonies of the Paralympic Games. World T.E.A.M. Sports advisory
board member, Mark Wellman, scaled the steep cauldron tower and
ignited the Paralympic Torch.
In February, 1997, an integrated team of six individuals traveled to
Antarctica to compete in one of the most unusual running events in the

world – the Last Marathon. All members of the World T.E.A.M. Sports
team finished the event and were featured in national media stories.
Athletes from the organization participated in the four-day, 300mile Xerox Capital Ride in the Carolinas in September, 1997. World
T.E.A.M. Sports also directed the All Sports Day in Charlotte, North
Carolina in 1997. In this event, Olympic and Paralympic athletes
offered hands-on swimming, running, bicycling, tennis and climbing
clinics to more than 800 participants.
The success of the 1995 AXA World Ride led the organization to
undertake another great challenge: pairing former combatants from
both sides of the Vietnam War to overcome both their disabilities and
prior animosities. Known as the Vietnam Challenge, this January 1998
event paired 70 disabled riders
from the United States and the
former North Vietnam with 20
able-bodied coaches on a 16day, 1,250-mile bicycle
expedition from Hanoi to Ho
Chi Minh City. Participants
ranged in age from 11 to 78,
with three blind cyclists and
eight hand cyclists. Joining the
Riders head south in the Vietnam Challenge.
riders was Tour de France
World T.E.A.M. Sports archive photograph.
winner Greg LeMond and long
distance swimmer Diana Nyad,
both members of the World T.E.A.M. Sports board. Late in the ride, as
the team approached Ho Chi Minh City, honorary chair Senator John
Kerry and U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson joined the team.