Meet Caitlin Sarubbi
"Can't" is a word that doesn't exist to Caitlin Sarubbi.
Born with a rare condition called Ablepharon Macrostomia Syndrome, Sarubbi was born visually impaired and with considerable cranial facial issues. In her mere 19 years on the planet, she's had 58 reconstructive surgeries -- with a 59th on the horizon shortly.
The New York Daily News described her birth conditions as such: "The doctors at Methodist have never seen anything like it. The child has underdeveloped ears and contracted fingers and toes. She has an unusually wide mouth, no sweat glands, thin and transparent skin, and -- perhaps most alarming of all -- no eyelids. The baby's eyes are already damaged; exposure to amniotic fluid in the womb, along with the trauma of birth, has injured her delicate corneas. At best, she will grow up to see everything as if through a foggy window."
Her mom, Cathy Sarubbi, tells us, "At the time, only nine other people were ever diagnosed with Caitlin's condition. It was devastating at first, but from the moment she was born, everything went uphill because we didn't think she was going to make it. Every day, she improved."
And what happens from there is a formidable, inspirational tale about how a scrappy young girl from Brooklyn kicks what's stacked against her in the nuts and accomplishes things most of us only dream of getting to.
After 9/11, Caitlin's dad, John, a firefighter with the FDNY, was offered every trip under the sun and moon, but none interested him except for one.
"We've skied all over Europe and stuff, but life changes after spending so much time in the offices of Park Avenue surgeons. With four kids on a fireman's salary, we didn't get to do that anymore," Cathy tells us. "A telex came in to my husband's firehouse and he told me about this organization that gathered disabled skiers (Disabled Sports USA) for a week at Breckenridge, CO. He was skeptical, looking for the catch and the timeshare spiel. But we went with our kids. Caitlin had her own instructor, and she went down and just loved it. We'd heard about this disabled skiing program in Windham, NY, and it turns out that the person at Breckenridge was the same person who started this organization in Windham. We hooked up and she invited us to Windham. We went up for a weekend and that was it!"
Caitlin fell in love with skiing, and by the time she got to high school, she was trying to balance her passion for the slopes with her aspiration for the Ivy League. She describes this challenge on her website: "With the goal of making the U.S. Adaptive Team and attending a good college in mind, I spent high school balancing a rigorous course load and a highly demanding ski racing schedule. In junior year, I kicked both my academics and skiing into high gear. I started training with the Challenge Aspen Competition Team -- all the while trying to meet the academic qualifications necessary for admission to an Ivy League university."
Today, Caitlin's considered one of the best visually impaired skiers in the country, and is looking forward to competing with the U.S. Paralympic Team. Caitlin skis with a guide, Liz Watkins, and the two are training for the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, following the Olympic Winter Games.
Did I mention she made it into Harvard for premed, and that Harvard is giving her a year off to compete?
"Here's this visually impaired chick, who goes to school all banged up from her surgeries, and she studies," her mom Cathy says with pride. "Then she takes a week off from school and we fly her out to Aspen for a challenge. She's incredible. God gives us gifts, and we focused on hers. She's very much an 'A' personality."
After accomplishing all this, what could possibly be next for Caitlin Sarubbi? "She's going to try and get an internship at the White House," says Cathy, with an audible smile. "My daughter has high hopes."
Want to help send Caitlin to Vancouver? Visit her website or support her through the Adaptive Sports Foundation.