Adaptive waterski competition underway in Polk County

AUBURNDALE, Fla. - Athletes from around the country are in Polk County to compete in the Adaptive Waterski Three Event Nationals. The three-day competition is underway at the Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale.

Athletes with different types of physical disabilities and visual impairments are competing in the events.

"I was diagnosed when I was four years old with my disability, so this is all I’ve ever known," Connor Poggetto said.

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Poggetto is competing in the national championship and attempting to qualify for the U.S. Adaptive Waterski team that will compete at the World Championship next year. He said he learned to waterski when he was six years old.

"This is waterskiing at the end of the day," Poggetto said. "We all just typically sit down or can’t see where we’re going or different things."

Other athletes joined the adaptive waterskiing community after an injury left them with a physical disability.

"I water skied since the age of six," said Bill Furbish, a retired athlete and member of the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) Hall of Fame. "I was paralyzed at the age of 22."

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Athletes said they compete with the same rules as able-bodied athletes, but the events and equipment are adapted to fit each athlete. Some athletes use sit skis and others who are visually impaired use guide skiers to compete in three different events.

"So you have slalom, which is boat’s in a straight line, and you’re cutting around six different buoys," Poggetto said. "You have jump, which we’re hitting the ramp and going for distance. Then you have trick, which is going to be where we have two 20-second passes that we try to do as many tricks perfectly as possible."

The sport is more than a physical feat for these athletes.

"It's life changing, and I see people day in and day out that their attitude changes," Furbish said. "Their mindset changes to, ‘I can do,’ instead of ‘I can't do.'"

Furbish once thought he would never be able to do the sport he loved. He eventually started competing in adaptive waterskiing and competed in the 1988 Paralympics in Seoul in different events.

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Furbish now coaches other adaptive waterskiing athletes.

"It provides that purpose and that makes a huge difference," Furbish said.

In addition to competing on the world stage himself, Poggetto also coaches other athletes.

"You have to accept the fact that you are in a chair now, or you are missing an arm, or something else, or you’re blind, or whatever it is," Poggetto said. "Once you accept those things, the sky’s the limit. You could do whatever you want at that point, because there is nothing that we can’t teach you to do."

Poggetto said he never expected that this sport would bring him to where he is today. 

"I get asked all the time if I would go back and change getting diagnosed with my disability or anything like that," Poggetto said. "I’ve always said no, because I get to do what I do because I’m in a chair."

The national competition ends on Saturday. Athletes are also competing to qualify for the U.S. Adaptive Waterski team that will compete in the World Championship in Australia in November 2025.

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