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From Carolina to China: Blind Wake Forest student training to compete in 1,000-meter rowing contest at Paralympics
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Jamie Dean (foreground) rows on Salem Lake with his rowing partner Andy Trafford. Dean, who is legally blind, will be on the rowing team in the Paralympics in Beijing.
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Published: July 14, 2008
Come September, Jamie Dean will be in Beijing rowing in the Paralympics.
Leading up to that, Dean is one incredibly busy man.
He recently completed the third of four years in a program at Wake Forest University that will give him both a law degree and an MBA, and he is working at the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice this summer.
Most weekdays, he trains for two hours after he gets off work. That might be working on a rowing machine at home or going out to Salem Lake with his rowing partner, Andy Trafford. On Wednesdays, though, he has to get up early enough to train before work because he has a 3½-hour class at night.
Come Friday, he is likely to be getting on a plane to someplace such as Philadelphia, Washington or Oklahoma City to spend the weekend training with his teammates.
Oh, yeah. Last month, he married Lauren Brown Dean, a student at Wake Forest's divinity school. So somewhere in there, he has to find some time to spend with his wife.
She has been incredibly supportive, he said. And, in any case, she knew what she was getting into.
"I knew this was what he was aiming for," Lauren Dean said.
His drive is part of what attracted her to him in the first place.
"He is so motivated in everything he does," she said. "He is just very confident in who he is…. He is confident in his own identity. It doesn't bother him that sometimes he gets credit only because he is a blind guy."
Dean, 26, has retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys the retina and optic nerve. He can still perceive light to some degree but he cannot make out objects.
She was also drawn in by the strength of his Christian faith. Dean's father is a minister in the Church of the Nazarene, and Dean sees his drive as integral to his faith.
"I also want to work hard because I think that is a good witness as a Christian," he said.
Working hard is also a way to show others that a physical disability need not disable you mentally, spiritually or emotionally.
"The fact that you are disabled is not a punishment from above," he said.
The Deans met at Wake Forest. Because it is an easy walk to campus, Dean, who went to Wake Forest as an undergraduate, moved into a co-ed divinity school house for his graduate program. When Lauren started divinity school in January 2007, she moved in. They soon discovered that they share similar values and that they enjoy each other's company.
"She is a very gentle spirit," Dean said.
By September 2007, they were engaged, and they married in June. Although Dean competed with the U.S. team at the world championships in England in 2006 and at the world championships in Germany in 2007, it wasn't until June that he knew for sure that he had made the Paralympics team.
Team coach Karen Lewis, who lives in Philadelphia, said that one thing that makes Dean special is his "tenacious desire to win. "He wants it and drives for it," Lewis said.
Personally, she said, he is a pleasure to be around. He is widely read and can carry on an engaging conversation on just about any topic. And he has a great attitude.
"He's always on the bright side of things," she said.
In the Paralympics, Dean will compete in a division in which competitors have use of their arms, trunk and legs. Rules require that he wear a blindfold. His team will be rowing 1,000 meters.
"It's an all-out sprint," he said.
The U.S. team placed fifth in both the 2006 and 2007 world championships so neither Dean nor Lewis predicts a gold medal at the Paralympics. But, if the team does well, a medal is certainly a realistic possibility, both said.
Lauren Dean and his parents will be there to watch. Dean will be with the team from Sept. 1 through 11. Once he is done competing, everyone will take in China as tourists.
Dean isn't sure what will happen with rowing after he returns. He doesn't think that, at age 26, the next Paralympics is a possibility but he might participate in the 2009 world championships in August.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
■ Those who would like to contribute to Dean's Paralympic rowing team can do so through USRowing, the governing body for the sport. The Web site is www.usrowing.org.
For Dean's team to get credit, checks should have "Adaptive 4+" written in the memo space.
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