Point Lookout resident wins gold at Paralympics

Lora Webster helps sitting volleyball team defeat China in Rio

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Led by Point Lookout’s Lora Webster, USA’s sitting volleyball team took gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sept. 17, defeating three-time defending Paralympic gold medalists China in a lopsided, three-set final.

The victory marked the fourth Paralympic medal and first gold for Webster, 30, who had a cancerous tumor removed from her tibia when she was 11. Though the operation shortened her limb and rotated her foot 180 degrees — which acts as a “knee” joint in her prosthetic leg — Webster has maintained a relentless athletic lifestyle that reached its peak in the Games’ gold medal match.

Though Team USA dropped a five-set thriller to No. 1-ranked China during pool play just five days earlier, the team made some adjustments, Webster said, including reading the opposing hitter’s shoulder to decide whether to sit tall and block, or drop their hands and let the ball sail out of bounds.

“I’m somebody who gets nervous every time I step on the court, my hands are always shaking, just because I love competing and I always want to do well,” Webster said. “But this game, walking out there I felt completely content, I felt like we had prepared every way possible so there weren’t any nerves left.”

China managed just 12 points in each of the first two sets, and Team USA clinched the third one, 25-18, as the Americans spilled to the center of the court where they joined in jubilation. Webster said she had envisioned that moment for the last year, especially whenever she heard Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” which she said her young son became “obsessed” with.

“Whenever that song would come on, I would think about the pile and us celebrating,” Webster said. “And so to have it happen and be living it, it was exactly how I pictured it. The joy and the release and the passion on everybody’s face, it was just everything that we dreamed that it would be.”

After returning home to Point Lookout last week, Webster was overwhelmed by the welcome she received. A sign on her door read “Congratulations,” and familiar faces as well as random strangers came up to tell her how proud they were.

“When I got home, I stopped and got coffee at our deli and the people that worked there came out, and one of the guys that I talk to everyday was like, ‘I cannot believe you, you come in here and you’re all nice and sweet and friendly, but you completely dominated, you’re so fierce,’” Webster said. “It’s so cool that people are paying attention to the Paralympics now and they actually do take the time to watch it.”