Categorized | Featured, Multi-sport, Sports

Catching up with the Big Isle ESPY winner

Jason Lester is congratulated by coach Dave Ciaverella and Ciaverella's wife, Ann. (Photo courtesy of Ironman)

Jason Lester is congratulated by coach Dave Ciaverella and Ciaverella's wife, Ann. (Photo courtesy of Ironman)

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Three-time Ironman and 2008 Ultraman World Championships finisher Jason Lester has undertaken a journey of a different kind in the last two weeks.

Pausing between pacing a friend at the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run and putting the final touches on his training for the Ultraman Canada Championships, Lester detoured to Los Angeles to pick up an ESPY award and came face to face with himself, once again.

Lester was selected Best Male Athlete with a Disability by fans who voted in ESPN’s 2009 ESPY event, which honors the year’s top athletes, teams and sports moments.

Lester was up against three gold medalists from the 2008 Paralympics Games in Beijing, including world-renowned South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee who took home the gold in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter sprints.

Just being nominated felt like a blessing to Lester. He never thought he had a chance to win.

So when the Best Male Athlete with a Disability category was announced and Lester was named the winner, Lester kept waiting for something else to happen.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” admits Lester, in his frank style.

Lester, 35, competes in triathlon not to win medals and awards.

“I do it because I have a passion for it,” he says. “I wake up every morning and I breathe it. I train every single day as hard as I can. I’m not a gifted athlete. I don’t have a gift to win races, but there’s one thing I have a gift in – I continue to go.”

This gift of tenacity, of grit and determination, has seen Lester through life experiences many of us cannot imagine.

Lester was hit by a car while riding his bike when he was 12 years old. He suffered life-threatening injuries including a punctured lung and 21 broken bones, and left the hospital with a paralyzed right arm.

Soon, Lester received another life-altering blow. Lester was being raised by his father – a single dad. While Lester was still recovering from the bike accident, his father suffered a fatal heart attack.

Lester learned early on that life is a blessing, and it can be incredibly challenging. He has long been determined not to let the challenges he faces stand in the way of his dreams.

Lester fought his way onto sports teams in high school and college. When he fell in love with triathlon in 2004, he decided he would fight his way into multi-sport, learning to swim with one arm as well as most triathletes swim with two.

“I’ve always known that if I can just get a chance to prove myself, I will be as good as the other guys,” he said.

Lester completed the 2007 Ford Ironman Arizona and the 2007 Ironman Western Australia. He won a lottery slot for the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship and completed the swim in 1:35:56, and the race in 13:07:21.

By that time, Lester had teamed up with coach Dave Ciaverella and was preparing for the Ultraman World Championships, a 6.2 mile swim, 260 mile bike and double-marathon run held on the Big Island of Hawaii each November.

Lester became the first physically-challenged athlete to complete the arduous three-day event. He finished 24th overall, out of a field of 33 competitors.

Even though Lester has shown his athletic prowess again and again, he says he feels like he’s been fighting all his life to fit into the world he loves. With each new sport he’s taken on, he’s had a fear that he would not be accepted.

“I feel like I’ve been struggling all my life,” says Lester.

Lester has been going so hard for so long that it took pausing for a moment for the ESPYs to give him a chance to see where he’s landed.

He says when he learned he’d been nominated for the ESPY, and then when he found out he had won, he experienced a lightening of a burden he’s been carrying with him since the bike accident when he was 12.

It felt as if he was relinquishing some of his battle gear.

“I feel like I’m able to breathe now. I feel fresh. It’s sinking in. I tell myself, ‘Jason, you can feel at peace.'”

Lester says he’s grateful for the ESPYs because it gives him a chance to thank the family he’s found in triathlon – a family that has never turned him away or treated him differently.

He says he feels “so much gratitude” for the Ironman and Ultraman organizations. “Everybody [in Ironman and Ultraman] has embraced me with open arms and I’m so thankful.”

Originally immersing himself in triathlon just for the love of the sport, Lester has come to realize that his story, including his struggle, resonates with so many of the triathletes and spectators he meets while training and racing.

Lester explains it simply: “We all have our challenges. Every single one of us. Mine is just visible. I can’t hide my challenge. I’m an open book. When I realized I could inspire others by racing, I said, ‘OK.’ Now I’m an open book.”

From Lester’s perspective, triathletes inspire others all the time, and probably often don’t even realize it.

Instead of crossing the finish line thinking only of a personal best, he encourages athletes to “start racing for others. There are so many people watching you and being inspired by you.”

His win from last week is beginning to sink in, but Lester maintains the award is not his own.

“This ESPY award goes to my friends and family and the fans who have voted for this,” Lester says. “Without them, it’s not possible.”

As he looks forward to a half-year of racing that still includes the Ultraman Canada Championships, the 2009 Ford Ironman World Championship and the 2009 Ultraman World Championships, Lester also thanks his coach and sponsors.

“My team is so solid right now. I feel so blessed. We all have our own visions and focus and goals in life, and it’s so hard to take our eyes off ourselves and concentrate on someone else’s dreams. I feel like my team has focused on making Jason Lester the best athlete he can be. That commitment is what the fans are honoring.”

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