Team
Hoyt
Overcoming
Adversity
About
Team Hoyt
Dick Hoyt and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from
Massachusetts who together have competed an impressive 224
Triathlons, 65 Marathons (including 25 Boston Marathons) and 6
Ironmans - in addition to numerous other competitions. They have
also climbed mountains and once trekked 3,735 miles across
America in just 45 days.
It’s
a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you
consider that Rick can’t walk or talk.
At
Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck
and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were
told that there would be no hope for their child’s
development. Undaunted, the couple brought their son home
determined to raise him as “normally” as possible.
 After
fighting local school bureaucracies for years, Rick was finally
admitted into a public school in 1975. Two years later, Rick
told his father (via a new computer program designed by Tufts
University) that he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit
run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an
accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to
push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last but they
felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers,
“Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were
competing” and both of their lives were changed forever.
Dick
Hoyt never ran a mile at a time - never mind being asked to run
five miles, but to also push his son and the 50-pound wheelchair
with him. But his son wanted to be a part of this race. A friend
snapped a picture of the father and son as they crossed the
finish line that afternoon. "It's the biggest smile you
ever saw in your life," Dick says of the look on his son's
face. "Rick's still got that picture at home."
That's
how “Team
Hoyt” started
and they have
been competing ever since. For
the past twenty-five years, Mr. Hoyt has pushed and pulled his
son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When
Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that he is pushing. When Dick
cycles, his son is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached
to the front of the bike. During the swimming competition, Rick
is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by
his father.
The
Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace and
inspire others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors
have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination
It
is an amazing testament to the power of love between a parent
and child.
|
Video Samples
Please Click on Camera Images
to View
Team Hoyt
Video
|
Dick
Hoyt Keynote
|
|
“I
am just lending Rick my arms and my legs so that he
can compete.”
Dick
Hoyt
_____________________________________________
A Father-Son Team and Boston Marathon
Inspirations
|
Its
Only a Mountain
Hard
Cover
332 Pages
23 Chapters
|
The
book is personal, emotional,
motivational, uplifting and a must read!
In
Dick Hoyt's world the only difference between and hill
and mountain is something called attitude, and along
with their courage and determination, the Hoyt family
has conquered many mountains the past forty years,
literally and figuratively. They were devastated
when their first son was born with cerebral palsy, a
non-vocal quadriplegic but the accepted the challenge.
Rather than put Rick in and institution and forget him -
as was suggested by the doctors - they gave him a life
unlike any other.
ESPN,
ABC, and NBC brought national attention to Team Hoyt
when they conquered the Ironman Hawaii and again they
traversed the Rocky Mountains on a bicycle. Dick a
novice swimmer tethers himself to a rubber dinghy and
tows his adult son 2.4 miles in the Pacific Ocean.
He straps Rick to a seat on the front of a custom built
bicycle and pedals 112 miles. Together they then
complete the Ironman events by running a marathon 26.2
miles, with Rick seated in a running chair. 'These
are tremendous accomplishments, of course, but they
represent only couple of the rungs in Team Hoyt's
inspirational ladder.
If you
are expecting a simple sports biography, or only a story
about a man competing in triathlons and marathons, you
are in for a pleasant surprise. That is not what
you will din between the covers of this book.
Instead, prepare for and emotional saga about the
tremendous accomplishments of a handicapped person
surrounded by a family motivated by love for one another
and for humanity in general! |
KEYNOTE FEE CATEGORY:
$24,000 - $29,500 *
(depending on event distance from East Coast)
*
Honorarium can vary depending on presentation length,
distance to venue and many other factors.
All fees are plus travel expenses and subject to
confirmation, so please call for an exact quote.
| Adventurers
| Astronauts | Business
| Celebrities | Diversity
|
| Future/Trends
| Health/Fitness/Wellness
| Humor | Inspiration
|
| Law Enforcement | Media
| Motivational | Relationships
I
| Safety/Security
| Sales | Spiritual
| Sports
| Technology | Women
|
| Home
|
To book a speaker, check on speaker availability,
or for additional information, contact us directly at:
Sterling
International Speakers, Inc.
611 North Elmhurst Road
Prospect Heights IL 60070 USA
(Phone) 847.577.5000
(Fax)
847.577.5005
Toll Free in US & Canada:
877.226.1003
 Copyright
© Sterling International Speakers, Inc. 1995 - 2011
http://www.sterlingspeakers.com
|
