April 23, 2004.
By Vicki Larson,
Special to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Aerial Gilbert had always been a pretty good rower, but she didn't become competitive -- and a winner -- until she lost her sight.
"A lot of rowing is really tactile; you really need to feel what the boat is doing, what the oars are doing," says the 49-year-old Gilbert. "I'm not distracted visually. I'm completely focused on what's happening in the boat, so I'm a better rower." When she rows in a two-person or four-person boat, she rows with a sighted partner. But she's also competed in a one-person boat with a guide rowing alongside her in another one-person boat who either communicates with her by a handset walkie-talkie or the old-fashioned way: yelling.
"Last year at the Gold Rush Race, I had someone in another boat yelling at me. It was pretty funny," she says.
Gilbert was just inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack, N.Y., where a plaque bearing her name will be on display along with such sports stars as former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, former Cleveland Indians third baseman Al Rosen and 2002 Olympic figure skating champion Sarah Hughes. She's the first rower to be inducted.
Gilbert, who lives in Petaluma with her husband of seven years, Larry Lobel, an African gray parrot and Hedda, her 2-year-old seeing-eye dog, is delighted by the honor. But given the way she has faced her challenges, it isn't so surprising.
Her life changed forever 16 years ago when Gilbert, weary from a long shift as a pediatric nurse at Marin General Hospital, used some over-the- counter eye drops.
The drops had been tainted with lye, and Gilbert was blinded, becoming the one-in-10-million random victim of tampering.
"For the first six months, I didn't handle it well," says Gilbert, a life- long athlete and avid rower since college. "I was angry. I was scared. I thought my life was basically over."
But one day she woke up and realized that if she continued to be angry, she would allow her unknown assailant to control her. "I looked at what the rest of my life would look like, and I realized I need to be independent."
So she entered a program at the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, where she learned to read and write in Braille and do simple things others take for granted -- walking, cooking, organizing a closet.
"I regained my self-esteem and self-confidence. I realized no matter what I wanted to accomplish, I could do it," says Gilbert, who is the director of volunteers at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael.
It wasn't until a friend convinced Gilbert to get back into a rowboat that she realized just how much of her life she could regain. Being back in a boat reminded Gilbert of what attracted her to the sport in the first place; the sheer power and beauty of it, and the teamwork.
"Rowing was something I already had in my mind and muscle. It's the only time I'm awake that I can forget I'm blind," she says. Rowing and getting a seeing-eye dog (her first dog, Deanne, had to retire two years ago) were the two things that brought her life around, she says.
In 1998, she was introduced to veteran rower Perry Heffelfinger, who asked Gilbert to compete with her in the annual Catalina Crossing, a grueling six-hour, 32-mile race in the open ocean, in a double rowboat. Gilbert had rowed as a student at Humboldt State University and Mills College, but only recreationally. She had doubts that she had the strength.
But the two practiced together and entered a shorter regatta to test the waters.
When they came in second behind the U.S. Women's National Rowing champions, Gilbert realized that not only could she do it, she could win.
Inspired, Gilbert entered the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Seville, Spain, as part of the first adaptive rowing team. Adaptive rowing is rowing, sculling or crew for people with physical limitations or disabilities as well as for those with special needs.
Their reception by the rest of team was surprising, she says. Not only did the adaptive team, which included another blind rower and two above-the- knee amputees, have to stay in a different hotel far away from the rest of the team, the other athletes dismissed them.
"Most of the team wouldn't talk to us. It was really awkward. In the beginning, they didn't take us seriously," Gilbert recalls, "until they saw us in the water.
"We struggled. It was really tough, but we stuck together as a team."
And it paid off. They took home the bronze medal.
It was very different when her team competed at the same race in Milan the following year.
The other adaptive boat on her team came home with a gold and a silver; Gilbert's crew missed third place by a half of a second.
Now she's looking forward to the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, where adaptive rowing is close to being sanctioned as an official sport.
"This summer will be the deciding factor," Gilbert says. To be sanctioned, 24 countries must make a commitment to participate. "It's a very closed sport ... My purpose in participating is to get rowing as a more recognized sport.
"By getting rowing into the Paralympics, it becomes a more accepted sport, and it will open up boathouses," which are often reluctant to allow blind rowers to participate.
And, she's active in recruiting more blind rowers, especially kids. "Rowing is the only sport I can think of that puts blind people on the same plane (as those with sight)," she says. "You can put a blind kid in a boat with a bunch of other kids and that kid is going to do as well, and be accepted as an athlete."
Gilbert trains 15 hours a week, and is on the water a minimum of four days a week. She does strength training twice a week, and cross training three times a week. She knows that no matter how many years you've been rowing, you can always get better. And there are so many races ahead.
"I like having goals. I like to challenge myself," she says. And, she adds, she also wants to show the world that being blind doesn't mean everything has to end. "There really isn't very much you can't do when you're blind. You just have to come up with creative solutions."
E-mail comments to nbayfriday@sfchronicle.com.
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle.
End of article.
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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