Local water ski trio qualify for world championships

Next summer, when the United States goes to the 2013 Disabled Water Ski World Championships in Milan, Italy, three Charlotte natives will be there to compete for their country.

At the most recent competition, the U.S. team won its second consecutive gold medal and sixth gold medal overall.

Megan McCauley, Robbie Parks and Eli Hager all traveled to Elk Grove, Calif., to compete in the 22nd National Disabled Water Ski Championship Aug. 24-25, and each came home with a victory of their own. All three skiers also qualified for the 2013 U.S. world team.

This will be Parks’ second appearance on the world team, where he won a gold medal for the United States in 2012.

“My goal is to go after the world record in slalom, and I’m quite certain I can,” Parks said.

If the U.S. wins a gold medal at next year’s competition, it will be the first time in U.S. history that any water skiing team – even including able-bodied skiers – has won a gold medal three years in a row. The world competition is scheduled July 1-7.

During the national championships, each skier competed in three events: slalom, trick and jump. McCauley, 27, won first place in all three events for her category. Parks, who coaches McCauley and Hager while training, won third place in the jump event.

Hager, 14, made his first appearance at nationals, leaving with the recognition of being “one of the best new skiers to watch.”

“It was a little nerve-wracking, but I just tried to think of it as another practice and not a competition,” Hager said of his first appearance at nationals. “I know if I thought about that it would have messed me up.”

All three skiers train at Carolinas Rehabilitation’s Adaptive Sports and Adventures Program, an organization that works to give people with disabilities a chance to participate and compete in activities such as water skiing, hand cycling, soccer, fishing, rugby, kayaking, scouting, tennis, snow skiing, golf and more.

“The adaptive sports program gives the opportunity for anyone to participate in water skiing,” said Jennifer Moore, the coordinator for the program. “It gave our very young, newly injured and older athletes an opportunity to participate.”

While ASAP does not have its own training facility on a lake, the YMCA allows the skiers to train and practice free in its private cove. That gives them more privacy and the ability to take extra precautions with the skiers.

ASAP is the only disability-focused water sports program in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.

The program not only works with competitive skiers like McCauley, Parks and Hager, but also helps those with no experience learn how to ski. ASAP is very proud of the strides these three competitors have taken over the past year, Moore said.

“These three are incredible and have made huge accomplishments this summer,” she said.