内容来源：分享美国 地址链接：http://go.usa.gov/xYeze

布莱克·哈克斯顿(Blake Haxton)在六年前是俄亥俄州哥伦布市(Columbus, Ohio)一个有成就的少年，已经被顶级美国大学运动队录取。然而不久，医生告诉他一个噩耗：他的腿痛是因为患了坏死性筋膜炎，俗称“噬肉菌”病。

这种病几乎夺去他的性命，导致了他双腿截肢。他昏迷了一个月，经历了20次手术，最终才得以遏制住感染。

哈克斯顿以为，他从此不再可能从事划艇运动，因为这项运动需要运动员坐在滑座上，脚踏蹬板用双腿的力量带动全身划桨。

但是家里人不让他放弃。哥哥对他说，“这不是你想要的状况，但这并没有关系”。对哈克斯顿来说，哥哥的这番话成为了一个转折点。他开始试验采用划船器和走展能赛艇之路。他说，这种运动虽然在感觉上完全不同，但令人感觉到一种“自由”。

划艇圈的人也为他给力。在他住院的100天里，前教练、队友、甚至还有2004年美国男子划艇队队员贾森·里德（Jason Read）都来探望他。 

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在大家的支持下，哈克斯顿继续练习，不断提高。如今，他在训练时用的不是8人单桨艇，而是更轻、更快、配浮筒的单人双桨艇，这使他能够在完全凭双臂和上身力量划浆时保持平衡。他在恢复训练后不到12个月便取得参加美国代表队（Team USA）的资格。

显然，他重新找回了在青少年划艇运动中培养的毅力。他说：“几乎各种不顺利的事都会遇到，你总是能够通过用更大努力划而改善局面。你也许没能获胜，你也许没能更快到达终点，但它让你比自己以前更上一层楼。”

2015年，哈克斯顿在世界划艇锦标赛（World Rowing Championships）上获得第五名，而且后来他才知道当时他已经肋骨骨折。

哈克斯顿利用没有训练的时间，于去年在俄亥俄州立大学（Ohio State University）读完了法学学位。每个星期五，他还安排出时间在哥伦布一家公司担任金融分析师。

美国代表队队员之间的友情促使他为参加残奥会刻苦训练。他但愿所有人都能看到他的队友、教练和哥哥给他的支持。他说，“我也许在船上是只身一人，但我有许许多多人为我使劲。”

在里约热内卢，残奥会划艇比赛将于9月7日至18日举行。请在@USRowing和@Paralympics关注哈克斯顿和他的队友。  

Six years ago, Blake Haxton was an accomplished teenage rower in Columbus, Ohio, recruited by the best U.S. college teams. Then doctors told him the soreness in his leg was necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as “flesh-eating disease.”

The disease nearly took his life and led to the amputation of both legs. He spent a month in a coma and endured 20 surgeries before the infection was contained.

Haxton assumed he was done with rowing, a sport in which an athlete’s seat slides, allowing him to push down on footplates and drive the oars through the water using the power of his legs.

But his family didn’t let him give up. “You didn’t choose this,” Haxton recalls his brother saying, “but that doesn’t matter.” For Haxton, his brother’s comment was a turning point. He began experimenting with a rowing machine and para-rowing. It felt like a completely new sport, but it was also “sort of freeing,” he said.

The rowing community also rallied around him. During the 100 days he spent in the hospital, he was visited by former coaches, teammates and even a member of the 2004 U.S. men’s rowing team, Jason Read.  

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With this support behind him, Haxton kept working and kept getting better. Now, instead of an eight-person sweep boat, he trains in a lighter, faster single-person sculling shell, equipped with pontoons to keep him steady as he powers the boat completely with his arms and upper body. He qualified for Team USA less than 12 months after getting back into training.

Clearly, he has rediscovered the grit that the sport of rowing lent him as a teenager: “Just about everything can go wrong, and you can always make the situation better by just pulling harder. You might not win, you might not make the finish line come any quicker, but it will make you better than you were before.”

In 2015, Haxton placed fifth at the World Rowing Championships, before learning he had competed with a broken rib.

In between training, Haxton spent the past year finishing up a law degree at Ohio State University. On Fridays, he found time to work as a financial analyst at a Columbus firm.

The camaraderie of Team USA has motivated him to train hard for the Paralympics. He wishes everyone could see the support that his teammates, coaches and his brother give him. “I may be the only one in this boat, but I got a lot of people pulling for me,” he said.

In Rio, Paralympic rowers will compete September 7-18. Follow Haxton and his teammates @USRowing and @Paralympics.