Step by halting step, former Olympic high jumper Jamie Nieto made good on his vow to walk wife Shevon down the aisle after their wedding and out the door to a waiting limousine.
It was about 130 steps, with a stop halfway down the aisle of the small church to kiss his bride for a gaggle of photographers.
No cane, no walker. Just Nieto holding on to his wife’s left hand for support.
Photo: AP
The two-time Olympian fulfilled his vow on Saturday, 15 months after suffering a spinal cord injury on a misjudged backflip that left him partially paralyzed, with no feeling in his hands or feet. Doctors did not know if he would walk again.
Nieto, 40, was determined to defy his doctors and make it all the way down the aisle.
“It’s a monumental day so I think I need to do monumental things,” Nieto said before the ceremony while sitting with his groomsman in the office of Bishop Donnie McGriff just off the sanctuary of the Greater Christ Temple Apostolic Church, east of San Diego.
“I’m definitely blessed and super happy to be here. I’ve worked really hard to get to this point and I think it’s just the first step to many more in my recovery,” he said.
Nieto proposed to the former Shevon Stoddart, a hurdler, while in a wheelchair six months after his injury. The backflip used to be his signature move after big events.
On April 23, last year the maneuver went seriously wrong for Nieto, who cleared 2.3m to finish fourth at the 2004 Olympics. He was coaching some jumpers in the Los Angeles area when he showed them his backflip expertise. His first attempt was a little off so he asked for another try. He pushed off with one foot on the artificial turf and it slipped, forcing him straight back instead of into a somersault. The full weight of his body crashed on his neck.
He was flown by helicopter to a hospital and had surgery to fuse a disk in his neck. When he awoke, he could only shrug his shoulders and flex his quadricep muscles.
The high jumper, who finished sixth at the 2012 London Games, spent 12 days in intensive care and two months at an inpatient rehab facility before returning home.
He has been working hard on his recovery for several months, determined to be able to walk his new wife out of the church.
Before the wedding, Nieto entered the church using a walker. There was a cane on the altar just in case he needed it during the ceremony. He did not.
He did get some help from an usher and McGriff walking to the altar.
After the ceremony, the couple posed for photographs. Nieto then sat on the organ bench for a few minutes and wiped his eyes with a tissue.
When it came time for the walk, groomsman Kevin Henderson helped Nieto to his feet.
Holding his wife’s right arm, they slowly made their way the length of the 15 pews. When they reached the vestibule, someone said, “You’re making that look easy.”
Nieto grabbed a handrail to navigate the five brick steps down to the sidewalk and then it was just a few more steps to the limo.
“It’s amazing,” Henderson said. “He’s been working on it for so long. He set a date as far as when he wanted to walk. That way he knew he could walk down the aisle. He wanted to walk down instead of having to be in a walker or wheelchair. He set a goal and he accomplished it, so that means a lot.”
“It makes me feel very proud,” McGriff said. “I’ve watched him through the years, from him being an Olympic contender and then to see the tragic accident that he had and the miraculous comeback that he had. He was determined to make it. This was his goal, to walk down the aisle during his wedding. He accomplished his goal as well as many others.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB