The Rio Summer Olympics may have come and gone, but over the next 11 days, the world’s best Paralympic athletes will converge on Brazil in quests for athletic glory.
The United States’ sailing contingent will include a native of South Freeport.
Hugh Freund, a 2011 graduate of Roger Williams College in Rhode Island, will be competing in the Sonar sailing class, along with Brad Kendell and Rick Doerr, according to a report in the Darien (Connecticut) Times.
The Paralympic Games are scheduled to start on Wednesday in Rio and will run through Sept. 18. The sailing competition will start Wednesday.
Freund, who is making his first Paralympic Games appearance, lost a leg to bone cancer while attending Roger Williams College. According to a Massachusetts General Hospital publication, doctors removed his right leg to save him from sarcoma.
After the ensuing drug treatment, Freund has been cancer-free for nearly nine years.
“[Massachusetts General Hospital] gave my life back to me,” Freund said in the Mass General story. “The quality of care was very high at Mass General. Everyone in every unit was attentive and eager to participate in the healing process.”
Freund also was forced to decide whether to have his leg amputated above the ankle and use a prosthetic leg, or to have the tumor taken out and his leg reconstructed. He chose the former as he would have been unable to run, jump or compete in sports on a weaker, reconstructed leg.
He also participates in biking and skiing, along with sailing.
The trio of Freund, Kendell and Doerr have captured seven sailing World Cup medals since 2008. Doerr was a Paralympian in Beijing that year and is a former Disabled World Champion in Sonar racing.
The men also won the Sunbrella Golden Torch Award last year at Sailing World Cup Miami. That honor is presented to the top American performer at North America’s premier Olympic and Paralympic classes regatta.