Tomelden is STRIDE athlete of the year

— Picture courtesy of Nancy Ota
Proud athlete: Victor Tomelden poses with the award he received for being named STRIDE Adaptive Sports Athlete of the year.

ALTAMONT — Altamont resident Victor Tomelden has been named STRIDE Adaptive Sports Athlete of the year.

Tomelden graduated from Guilderland High School last year and is now a student at Landmark College in Putney, Vermont. He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

“I didn’t know I was getting the award. I felt excited that they picked me for it,” Tomelden said. “It’s been fun for me to do all these years.”

STRIDE — which originally stood for Sports and Therapeutic Recreation Instruction/Development Education — Adaptive Sports is a not-for-profit organization that offers 18 different sports programs at 28 locations in three states to individuals with disabilities. It serves over 2,000 families and provides over 8,000 free lessons per year. It offers more adaptive sports programs than any other similar organization in the country.

“I like it [STRIDE] because I’m around people who have disabilities, like me; I’ve become friends with a lot of them,” Tomelden said.

Tomelden started in 2009 as a young athlete in STRIDE’s bicycle program, where he learned to ride. He has mild cerebral palsy and coordination problems.

“Once he got introduced to STRIDE, he jumped into almost everything else,” said Mary Ellen Whitney, STRIDE’s founder and CEO. “Bowling, tennis, golf, swimming — he became a Special Olympics athlete with swimming. But, as he got older, he wanted to give back and he became a mentor in our camping program, a counselor.

Tomelden’s favorite programs are bowling and sled-hockey.

 

— Picture courtesy of Nancy Ota
Part of the team: “It’s being on a team that I can participate with — I like being on the team and hanging out with people from STRIDE,” said Victor Tomelden, number 25 and looking at the camera.
 

“Sled-hockey, especially,” Tomelden said. “It’s being on a team that I can participate with — I like being on the team and hanging out with people from STRIDE.”

”It’s brought out a lot of his personality — being a competitive athlete,” Whitney said about his participation in sled-hockey.

“He came back and gives back as a volunteer now. That’s really full-circle — when you have an athlete come to us as a young person and then becomes a volunteer with the organization. That’s a shining example of what’s possible … That’s why Victor is the perfect athlete of the year,” Whitney said.  

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