Paraplegic Is Racing Toward His Athletic Goal

David Cornelsen, 38, is in the process of remaking and redefining himself.

For starters, the well-conditioned Huntington Beach man wants to become a professional athlete even though he is a paraplegic, the result of a head-on automobile collision three years ago in Mexicali, Mexico, that disabled his legs.

“I’d like to make a living being a professional athlete who lectures on handicapped sports, at least for the short term,” said the one-time USC sociology lecturer.

Earlier this year in New York he competed in a 24-hour time-trial ride in his racing tricycle against 82 cyclists and finished 47th.

He was the only handicapped contestant.

In August, Cornelsen set a record by cycling his arm-powered tricycle 2,963 miles from Costa Mesa to New York City in 18 days, 16 hours, 52 minutes.

The old record set by a handicapped bicyclist was 32 days, 11 hours. Regular cyclists can do it in eight days.

“I missed a lot of sleep,” was part of the reason offered by Cornelsen for his success. “I had to. I started out boasting I could do it in 21 days.”

His cross-country ride had more than one objective.

Besides raising money and bringing more awareness to what people can do after a major disability, “I wanted to be taken seriously as an athlete,” he said.

He received pledges for the miles he traveled cross country and raised $20,000 for the American Paralysis Assn., which is researching methods to heal spinal injuries like his.

To prepare himself, the one-time program manager for the disabled at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centers began training in February by cycling 80 miles a day on his tricycle in Huntington Beach and on the Santa Ana River bicycle trail.

“I got a lot of attention,” said the Boston University graduate, who also has master’s degrees from the University of Connecticut and Yale as well as a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.

“You don’t often see a cyclist rowing his way down the street,” he said. He explained that he pushes pedals back and forth at chest level in a rowing fashion to propel the arm-powered machine, steered by leaning one way or the other.

He works the brakes with a finger lever.

Cornelsen said he tape-recorded his adventurous but sometimes boring cycling trip and kept journals from his six-month hospital stay after his accident.

He hopes to include the facts in a book he plans to write.

“During the cross-country trip I talked about what I was experiencing, the highs and the lows, the boredom and the moment of ecstasy when I finished,” he said.

Cornelsen said it stimulated his mind by talking to the recorder and it also helped to “recapture the moment at that time because I knew it would be hard to recall later.”

He also attracted a lot of CB (citizens band) attention from truckers.

“I wish I had (heard) some of the things they were saying about me while I was cycling down the highway,” he said.

Writing, however, is only one of his goals.

“I’ve put a lot of things on hold since my injury,” he said. That includes a career in teaching or in the human services administration field, both earlier goals he hoped to reach with his education.

But for now, “I’m working very hard to strengthen my legs,” he said, much of it on gym equipment in his home.

“There’s a possibility there might be some return to my legs. It’s a slow process.”

Santa Ana resident Emily L. Sodicoff, 48, the mother of five grown children, was named Kiwanian of the Year, the first woman to win the honor in the 70-year history of the Santa Ana Kiwanis Club.

“The message I get from this is that women not only can be part of a male club but can be respected and responded to in a positive way,” said Sodicoff, an insurance agent.

Club officials said she may also be the only woman in the world to get the award from any Kiwanis Club.