17 Hours: Chris Nikic’s Ironman Story | SC Featured

17 hours they're slowing down chris nicki has exactly 17 hours to complete one of the most torturous races in the world an ironman triathlon keep this pace up right like this 17 hours to swim 2.4 miles bike 112 miles and run a full 26.2 mile marathon there are no exceptions to this rule we're almost done not even for the 21 year old who is the first ever iron man competitor with down syndrome [Music] on october 6 1999 chris nickitch became one of about 6 000 babies born in the u.s each year with down syndrome a condition that often results in cognitive impairment developmental disabilities and in some cases heart defects he was born with two holes in his heart and so he had open heart surgery at just under five months so that was his first challenge they have things like small ear uh canals which means the slightest little cold turns into something big and so he's been sick his whole life nothing's gonna hurt sweet pea okay okay heart surgery four major ear surgeries therapy sessions just to learn how to hold a fork nothing has come easy for chris when you have a child with down syndrome you don't fit in they don't get invited to parties they don't get invited to anything i remember one time he said a kid called me stupid and ugly and i said how did that make you feel he looked up and he said it made me feel not happy everything you do is a challenge it's a fight um other fathers don't get to experience that you have to battle everything in order to to to just get them to be included when doctors say i could do anything the first thing came in my mouth don't talk to doctors chris loved basketball and golf but in 2017 chris's dad nick discovered a special olympics triathlon program what happens if i beat you the first step was we said look let's go find something we can do together right because i know he likes to have fun and i know we needed to interact together and it was just the most amazing thing that's ever happened when he first started chris could barely swim the length of a pool or even run a mile you couldn't pedal a bike more than a few yards without falling but he kept practicing the reason it takes kids with down syndrome forever to learn how to bike is they have poor balance and their reaction time is slow come on finish it his first competition out of the 10 athletes in our area he came in dead last and he was happy when he got his award and we praised him because he didn't quit they helped me they closed me and because of all this i'm included come on but nick nickage wanted his son to take the next step in his training he found dan grieb a veteran of 15 iron man triathlons i had never met someone with down syndrome and the first thing he wants to do is give me a hug you know and he says what's up man and he gives me a big hug come on all right you did it in october 2019 nick came up with a life-changing idea for chris i thought what if chris could do something that's never been done what an impact that would have on his life and others like him around the world and i said look what if we just do an iron man he says okay what's that i said it was just a little longer than a sprint and he said okay let's do it dad we're gonna wear the tether or some today but it's not a punishment it's so you and i can get used to it in case we need it okay because in the race i might get tired and i need you to help me or you might get tired and you might need my help okay i thought he was insane even someone without a disability couldn't go from nothing to an ironman without like essentially killing themselves one more time there were other doubters too when grieb sought the advice of his own iron man coach to help create a training plan for chris the coach refused coach says no i'm not designing a plan i said why not he said he's just he can't handle the ocean swim it's too dangerous and and then he's going to fail and then i said um do me a favor let me just answer this question for me i said if chris was a 20 year old without down syndrome would you design a plan for him he says i would i said okay i need you to give my kid the same chance you would give anybody else that's his whole year plan every day he stands up there and writes down what do you achieve for the day here are my three dreams actually to get this house and to get a car in there to marry a smoking hot bronze from chicago and the glory is um iron man in november 7th we have to get one person better every day i came up with this concept called one percent better a way to track progress a little bit at a time not to overwhelm anybody not to make it too big a deal he's not making huge gains but he's building small levels of foundation that over time becomes so strong that they overwhelm and that when he completes this ironman he can complete anything his dreams become possible [Music] chris had 10 months to prepare and train for the event every day is something so he trains 13 out of 14 days minimum three hours a day maximum about seven or eight but just a month before the iron man chris had worked his way up to 18 mile runs all the way keep coming keep coming keep coming all the way i'm so proud of you baby that was the best ever how do you feel baby you need me okay he's got an amazing dad that you can look to him and he's the one that said don't worry he'll pick it up give it a couple more weeks i'll pick it up what time is it it's getting darker are you sure are you ready for iron man you are iron man ready nobody gets in the way of chris nichols's dreams i was nervous because he had never done any of those distances on their own uh and now he's gonna do all three of them at the same time the time limit is 17 hours and we had one goal which is to finish on time [Music] the race they were in my mouth i knew that us to uh calm down to get breath and keep going when we completed the swim we were about 15 minutes ahead of time so i knew that we uh we had a really good chance to finish this race all right chris [Music] he came off the swim fully prepared to tackle the bike hey we fight for the fake pain right yeah we're gonna fight through the fake pain on the bike here yes have fun buddy surprise everybody show what you got we always say in an ironman it's not three events there's four events there's always an additional item that shows up on these races and you never know what that will be everything is going as planned until about 20 miles into the ride you're sorry you're bothering your feet that's when one of those unforeseen moments the feared fourth event happens when chris steps on a hill of fire ants during a nutrition style he had literally hundreds of amp bites when the race was over there was so much poison in his ankle that he had boils this big one two three drops and then about 50 miles into the ride chris begins to accelerate on a steep descent on your brakes so i yelled out chris slow down and he heard me and at the same time he grabbed his right brake he hit a bump and he went into a skid i could hear him make contact with the ground i'm thinking oh my god this cannot be the end of this race this is not how the story ends chris is standing up literally going dan i crashed my bike i crashed my bike and he's all excited he's got a huge smile on his face it really makes you an iron man iron man you're stopping stop it you're stopping it's good the fire ants had cost chris nearly 25 minutes light crash another 15. you did it now it's just a rush a 17-hour finish time was suddenly in jeopardy this is gonna be the best run of your life at the end of this run are your dreams [Music] hey chris we're only 24 miles away from a six-pack of corona he was keeping a pretty good pace up until about mile 10. at mile 10 he had slowed down to almost a crawl fighting exhaustion chris wants to release a tether that connects him to grieve for pacing and safety purposes doing so could end his chances of finishing in under 17 hours i know you're not no you have to run son chris was so bad at that point that i think we need to call in nick come on let's keep walking how's my boy if i didn't go there and help him mentally he would have quit he said dad i don't want to do this anymore i remind him of his dreams he says i don't want my dreams anymore i know it hurts but you are trying to get ready at first i wanted to stop instead i kept pushing through i knew that my dream was coming consumed by fatigue no walking overwhelmed by pain what's hurting chris battles himself and that 17-hour clock it's blisters okay that's okay that's a fake pain it's real as he wills his way through the final half of the marathon your dreams are right here because chris processes patterns easier than mileage to get back on pace grieb tried a new technique when it mattered most we're gonna run for ten cones we're gonna walk for two we actually started running faster miles and mile 20 22 then we ran at nine and [Music] ten as we finished i said chris this is your moment go have it and i let him go ahead of me chris pickage and we heard those famous words [Applause] the greatest thing that chris did by crossing that finish line is he provided hope together when i saw him coming towards the finish line i started first thinking about other parents and their little kids with down syndrome can now look at chris and say our child can accomplish something he's my hero he's always been just so proud sorry so chris when people tell you you can't do something what do you say to them i say i'm gonna prove you wrong [Music] thank you for watching espn on youtube for live streaming sports and premium content subscribe to espn plus

Channel: ESPN

Views: 431,857

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Id: XsqI-BD2GMs

Length: 12min 57sec (777 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021