Ruth Seager Article

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http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/20 ... afnes.html

Neither deafness nor being female has kept Seeger away from sports

From the day she was born, Ruth Seeger could not hear. Fate forced her to live her life without ever experiencing a sense most humans take for granted.

If someone speaks to her, she can't hear a word.

To hold a conversation with someone who isn't deaf, Seeger needs an interpreter who uses sign language to help her communicate.

Never has she been able to turn on a radio and listen. Never has she been able to appreciate music. Never has she been able to hear birds chirping.

That's been her plight for 81 years now.

But on Friday, Seeger looked like the happiest woman on earth. That smile on her face after she competed in another event at the 2005 Summer National Senior Games was priceless.

There she was, standing proudly on the top step of the awards podium at the Carnegie-Mellon University track and field complex, having a gold medal placed around her neck for winning the discus championship in the women's 80-84 age group. Her throw of 45 feet, 83/4 inches beat out 21 other women in her division.

"I loved sports all my life," said Seeger, who's barely able to speak, through her god-daughter and interpreter, Ferri Lou Redden of Austin, Texas.

As a child growing up in Sleepy Eye, Minn., Seeger loved sports so much that she played football, baseball and ice hockey with the neighborhood boys. She used to pole vault while wearing a dress.

"I was a tomboy," she said.

Seeger's mother, however, despised her daughter's tomboy image and forced her to take up sewing with her girlfriends.

"I hate those sewing classes," she said.

So when she started taking classes at Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf in Washington, D.C., Seeger decided sports would be her life's work. She majored in physical education and then taught P.E. for 36 years at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. She moved to Texas right after receiving her degree from Gallaudet.

"One day after we graduated, I married this Texas boy," Seeger said. "We drove to Texas and we've been there ever since."

In the early 1950s when Seeger started teaching at the Texas School for the Deaf, the institution didn't have any sports programs for girls. So, one by one, she formed and began coaching the volleyball, softball, swimming and track & field teams. Her teams won national deaf high school championships four straight years in 1969-1973. She was named the national deaf track and field coach of the year four times. She also took her track teams to the World Games for the Deaf eight times.

"My girls won 34 medals (at the World Games). I am so proud of them," said Seeger, who was honored several years ago when the Texas School for the Deaf named its gymnasium after her.

Seeger has also won her share of medals as a competitor as well. The gold medal she won by winning the discus at the Senior Olympics was the 303rd she's won in various competitions over the years. So far in Pittsburgh, she's won four medals.

Before winning gold in the discus Friday, she won the silver for finishing second in the high jump with a leap of 3 feet, 5 inches. On Thursday, she won the gold in the long jump (7 feet, 10 3/4 inches) and the bronze in the shot put (18 feet, 7 1/2 inches).

Today, she'll try for yet another medal when she competes in her favorite event, the javelin.

When asked what's the secret to her success as an athlete and coach, Seeger said, "Practice and determination.

"When I was young," she added, "I always admired Babe Didrickson. She was my idol."

Babe Didrickson Zaharias was a native of Beaumont, Texas, who's arguably the greatest woman athlete ever. An All-American basketball player who once hit five home runs in a single baseball game, Didrickson won two gold medals in the 1932 Summer Olympics before going on to win 82 professional golf tournaments.

Nowadays, Seeger's idol now is her 83-year-old husband Julius, who was also born deaf. Recently, he suffered a heart attack and has since been forced to enter a nursing home.

"He's a wonderful man. He always encourages me," Seeger said. "We call him after every one of my events."

Seeger will probably call her husband today with more good news. She expects to win the javelin.