ATHOL – Most area residents may be unaware that Athol is the home of a Paralympic medal winner.

Lo Nigrosh was a member of the U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball National Team that captured the bronze medal in the 2004 Paralympic Games held in Athens, Greece. That was the first year that the U.S. had fielded a women’s team in the sport, 20 years after the men’s national team competed in Lake Placid, New York.

Since that first year of competition, said Nigrosh, the U.S. has become dominant in the sport. She explained that since 2004, the U.S. women’s team has medaled in every Paralympics Games. In addition to the bronze medal win 20 years ago, the team has taken home two silver medals and, in the recent Paris Games, won its third straight gold medal. The men’s team, on the other hand, has never finished better than sixth place and has not qualified to compete in the Paralympics since the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Before discussing her own experiences as a competitor, Nigrosh showed a short video providing a history of the Paralympic movement. The movement, according to the video, began shortly after World War II, stemming from the effort to help servicemen and civilians injured in the conflict. The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960.

“When I was playing 20 years ago, whenever there was a newspaper article or some other kind of report, it was always like ‘isn’t this cute,’” said Nigrosh, who as born without a foot. “Now, there is a huge focus on the athleticism of the competitors, a focus on the athletes, primarily. They are athletes that have disabilities, but you don’t hear the commentators making the disabilities the focus.”

In the summer of 2003, Nigrosh said her prosthetist encouraged her to try out for the women’s national team.

“He had another patient that was in the Paralympics,” she said, “and he knew that I was athletic. He said the team was looking for new players ‘and I think you should try out.’”

At first, Nigrosh was unsure about the idea, and during another visit to her prosthetist, “He said, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing out on. If you don’t like it after you have a tryout, I won’t say anything more.’”

The tryout proved a success and Nigrosh earned a spot as a libero – a player who stays in the back row throughout the match.

After qualifying for the 2004 Paralympics with a win over Brazil, Nigrosh said the U.S. team played a series of “friendlies” against a number of other teams – including the Netherlands, Slovenia and Germany – but didn’t win a single set. “Friendlies” don’t count towards a final score, and the team went on to win the bronze.

“So, we go home,” she said. “We practiced hard and increased our skills. We felt real confident going into the games. But the rest of the world was saying, ‘They’re good. They’re young.’ Most of our players were teenagers. The rest of the world said, ‘They’re not ready this year, but they’ll medal in 2008.’ Well, we won a medal.”

Nigrosh then held up the bronze medal she had worked so hard to win.

At the end of her presentation, Nigrosh invited the attendees to try their hand at sitting volleyball. Parents and kids took seats on the floor of the library’s community room and attempted to mimic the moves of the players they had seen in another video shown by Nigrosh – some with more success than others. Still, the exercise gave the participants a good idea of the challenges faced by the Paralympians on the U.S. Women’s National Sitting Volleyball Team.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.