Born and raised in Seekonk, Massachusetts, he moved to San Diego, California, because of its reputation as a mecca for triathlon. He worked as a special education teacher. On May 2, 2005, at age 33, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or "Lou Gehrig's disease"), a progressive disease in which the nerve cells which control voluntary muscle movement degenerate and die off. He was permitted to enter the 2005 Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, a life-long dream. He is believed to be the first person with ALS to attempt the Hawaii Ironman. As Blais put it, "Finishing the race is huge for me. No one is beating ALS. No one has done anything but walk away and die." With a total time of 16:28:56, more than half an hour before the cutoff, he "log-rolled" across the finish line and is certainly the first person with ALS to finish this race. He died on May 27, 2007.
In our days some international triathletes show their support for the fight against this disease by doing a “Blazeman-Roll” crossing the finish-line.
Here is a quote from a YouTube commenter:
When we think of "tough" we think of Boxing or MMA John Wayne, but the real bad asses are people like Jon Blais who show courage and will in a fight they know they have no chance of winning and there's no trainer or ref to toss in the towel.
No comments:
Post a Comment