By Nina Mandell
Penn State senior Rohan Murphy is a better athlete than you. And now he’s a world championship bronze medalist — and don’t you dare say it’s because he’s disabled.
“Rohan may not have legs, “Penn State ability athletics coach Teri Jordan says, “but he is in no way disabled.”
After all, he’s named after his father’s favorite cricket player (first name) and soccer player (middle name), he refuses to be treated as “disabled, “and he needs to win.
“I love competition, “he says. “I think it comes from my family. I just need to compete.”
Murphy learned the nuances of wrestling in the summers after his freshman and sophomore years of high school, when he attended Minnesota wrestling coach J. Robinson’s 28-day wrestling camp. In his senior year of high school, Murphy compiled a 30-3 record at the 125-pound weight class. Although his record hasn’t been as impressive for the Big Ten champion Nittany Lions (he was 3-5 last season), competing on one of the nation’s best teams is a reward in itself. Not to mention his ability to show up his teammates during the team’s workouts.
The story everyone loves to tell when asked about Murphy is about the toughest workout in the varsity Penn State wrestling program — up a local mountain, also known as a ski slope to people who don’t groan at its sight. The wrestlers climb and run up it, and no one is going to argue with Penn State wrestling legend turned coach Troy Sunderland otherwise. Including Murphy, who got up it by climbing with his arms only.
“I was talking with my [strength] coaches and we decided Rohan should go up halfway, “Sunderland says. “But I looked up and there he was going up to the top.”
But according to Jordan, that’s just Rohan being Rohan.
“He won’t give up, “she says. “Most great athletes are usually a little stubborn and [are] going to prove that they’re right. He’s incredibly stubborn.”
Until 18 months ago, Murphy would not have competed in anything with the prefix “para “or the word “special “attached to it. But Jordan, who coached “able-bodied “athletes to world championships in track before working with disabled athletes, heard about Murphy through the athletic department, and after watching him wheel himself into the gym for a grueling wrestling practice — something he once called “the best part of his day “– she knew she had her next champion for a team she was putting together for the Paralympic Games.
Murphy? He wasn’t so sure. After all, he told her, he was a Penn State wrestler.
“He didn’t want to compete in something where everyone gets a medal, “Jordan said. “But he wanted to compete for the U.S. as well as Penn State, and I convinced him that because it was international, he’d have great competition.”
She signed Murphy up for track and rowing, and after a few weeks she entered him in powerlifting at a regional competition.
On his first try, Murphy won that competition, set a national record and qualified for the International Paralympics Powerlifting Championships held in Busan, Korea, in May, against athletes who had been competing in powerlifting for years.
He almost won that, too, placing third with a lift of 281 pounds.
Now Murphy is hooked on powerlifting. “I love to wrestle, “he says. “But I definitely see a future in this.”
Murphy has one year of eligibility left at Penn State but says he’s concentrating on winning the gold in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. For a warmup, you can catch him at the Paralympic Pan American Games in Brazil in 2007.
Jordan says she has no doubts that Murphy is going to take the top prize — after all, he is the kid who climbed a mountain with only his arms.
“I don’t think he’ll be satisfied until he wins a medal, “Jordan says.
As for Murphy, he won’t trash-talk yet.
“Umm, I hope so, “Murphy says when asked about winning. “Yeah, I think I can.”
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