Rohr Hits Slopes 10 Years After Life-Altering Accident
By: Matthew Tritten
Updated: February 2, 2013
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) Every athlete likes to find a new way to challenge themselves; for Tyler Rohr, his newest hurdle is skiing.
"I was awful the first time," Rohr said. "I couldn't make it from here to that camera without dumping it over."
But Rohr is overcoming obstacles bigger than sports.
On February 1st, 2003, he fell out of a tree while helping his dad cut limbs.
He was paralyzed from the waist down.
"Whenever I fell I never thought I'd be doing stuff like this again," Rohr said. "There was just no way. And nobody ever thinks you can, until you just, day-by-day you go out and give it a shot."
Now a decade later, he's not letting his handicap stop him from living his life.
In the year's since Rohr has taken college classes, works a full-time job and is engaged to be married.
An athlete that played quarterback in high school is now hitting the slopes to stay active.
"I have found a new love for sports again," Rohr said. "Instead of just going and watching, it's fun to actually get out and do it."
"I'm really proud of how far he's come, and all of the stuff that he can do," Tyler's fiancee Chelsea Shepherd said. "He goes hunting all the time and fishing all the time, and just to be able to do a sport with him I think is really cool."
Along with skiing, Rohr was also able to get back on the golf course this summer thanks to a specialized golf cart.
The opportunities are a joint effort between Midwest Adaptive Sports and the Adventure League Adaptive Sports.
"We try to get the word out that we do this," Stan Weston with the Adventure League said. "We say we can adapt it to anybody's needs."
With the help of those around him over the last decade, Tyler's adapted to a different lifestyle.
"Support from friends and family to come out here and tackle each day like it's your last," Rohr said. "I mean that's really all you can do, so I'm just going to keep chugging and we'll just work on tomorrow when it gets here."


