By Rick Reilly in ESPN The Magazine; earlier story from KDKA TV in Pittsburgh:

Lawyer Craig Dietz swam in the Pittsburgh Triathlon recently as part of a three-man relay team he called Bob (at left). He came in 273rd out of 308 swimmers, which meant he beat 35 people who had all their arms and legs.

Dietz was born without limbs as a result of a “genetic fluke,” has great friends and a great sense of humor. An excerpt:

Stare at him if you want. He’s past caring. He’s got too much to do. He works as a lawyer for the city of Pittsburgh. He bowls, skis, hunts (bagged an eight-point buck once), fishes, kicks butt at mini golf, plays volleyball (hits the ball off his head), jams on the drums, has a girlfriend and drives his own van (with a fake license plate that reads, look, mom! no hands!). Mostly, he makes you feel like a worthless, prechewed slab of meat, wasting your able-bodied life eating Cheetos and watching Tila Tequila.

Dietz says he doesn’t want to be anybody’s inspiration.

A video of Dietz can be seen on the KDKA site here.

(Photo from ESPN the Magazine)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under exercise/sports, friendship, law, limb loss, personal stories, success stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.