ATHOL—Paralympic bronze medal recipient Lo Nigrosh is bringing her story to the Athol Public Library.

Nigrosh, who took home the bronze in the 2004 Athens Paralympics as a member of the women’s sitting volleyball team, is hosting a free event at the library on Monday, Sept. 9, at 5:30 p.m. She will bring memorabilia from the games, including her bronze medal, and teach attendees how to play sitting volleyball.

Nigrosh added, “For me, it’s really about helping people understand how amazing the Paralympics are, and that there is… amazing athletic ability on a world-wide stage, even though the Olympics are over.”

The first time her prosthetist recommended Nigrosh try out for the Paralympics, she dismissed the idea. Nigrosh was born without a left foot due to a congenital condition. Her prosthetist, a doctor who creates prosthetics, knew that Nigrosh was highly athletic, and had another patient on the women’s sitting volleyball team.

“I had no interest, because I… had never used the word ‘disabled’ to refer to myself. I had a lot of misunderstandings about the Paralympics,” Nigrosh said. “I thought, I don’t need to play adaptive sports, I can play able-bodied sports. I don’t think this is for me.”

When Nigrosh came back for another appointment, her doctor brought up the tryouts again, and Nigrosh once more rejected the idea.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘you don’t understand what you’re rejecting,’” she said.

Eventually, Nigrosh agreed to try out and made the American women’s sitting volleyball team.

Sitting volleyball follows many of the same rules of standing volleyball, Nigrosh explained. Eight players face off on each team, with one key difference—players must remain seated.

“The movement is kind of like shuffling on the floor,” Nigrosh explained. “You’re still having to move to get to the ball, but you’re not using your feet to do that—you’re using the rest of your body, including whatever feet someone might have.”

Nigrosh added that players need to have anywhere from their hip to their shoulder maintain contact with the floor.

“The coach at that time said, ‘you are not a volleyball player, but you are an athlete. It’s my job to make you a volleyball player,’” Nigrosh recalled.

After training for two hours, three to four times a day, for several months, she competed in the 2004 Paralympics. Nigrosh’s prosthetist was among the spectators in Athens that year.

Twenty years later, Nigrosh is trying to change the narrative about the Paralympics.

“When I started, you couldn’t even watch [the Paralympics]. They had a one-hour special, after the fact,” Nigrosh said. “And it was more like a humanitarian piece. It wasn’t… an athletic story.”

To register to attend the event, visit https://tinyurl.com/2yymze38.