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It wasn’t the double hernia, the separated shoulder, the snapped tendon in a finger, the broken back or even the broken neck.
No, Michael Sappington’s most painful injury has been his right hip, which has been replaced twice.
Pretty soon, his left hip will be redone too.
But none of that mattered yesterday during the Missouri State Senior Games. With a cortisone injection taking away the pain, Sappington, 54, competed in 10 swimming events at Hickman Pool. Walking with a limp, Sappington hopes to make it through the swimming season, which ends in September, before going under the knife for yet another surgery.
When they talk about healthcare, I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it, Sappington said.
It was just another typical meet for Sappington, who lives in Normandy. Already his eighth meet of the year, Sappington says he can’t take time off from swimming and enters as many events as he can at each meet he attends.
Although he played rugby for years and competed in more than 40 powerlifting competitions, Sappington’s only major injury from sports was a separated shoulder - from playing rugby - that was surgically repaired.
For a brief period, Sappington’s body seemed snake-bitten.
In 1974, Sappington was involved in an auto accident in which a car from oncoming traffic crossed the freeway during rush hour and hit him head-on. Sappington went through the windshield and broke his neck. In 1975, while he was in North Dakota, Sappington went to a small rodeo where people could pay to ride a bronco. Sappington was bucked from a horse and flung into a post, breaking his back. Two years later, he was working in a tree nursery and carrying a tree under each arm. He stepped into a 6-inch hole and broke another disk in his back.
But none of those were as painful as when his hip went out in 1994. Although his hip had been on a downward spiral for six years, Sappington couldn’t get a hip replacement. While vacationing in South Padre Island, Sappington got turned over by a wave and smashed his hip into the sea floor.
It progressively got to the point where I didn’t even like to get up out of the chair or even move, Sappington said. My hip just constantly hurt.
While he is still walking wounded, Sappington has turned his competitive nature over to swimming. Sappington got into swimming as an alternate exercise during his training days as a powerlifter. Once he quit powerlifting, he switched to participating in drug-free body-building competitions. While he still does body-building competitions, Sappington’s love for swimming has taken off during the last decade.
In body building, winning is about judging you, Sappington said. Swimming, I like it better because when they fire that gun, the first guy or girl who touches that wall wins. That’s what it’s all about.
Although it may seem like swimming is easier on his body than his other athletic indulgences, Sappington is drained when he finishes in the pool.
It doesn’t seem to make a difference how hard you train or how hard you’ve been working out, Sappington said. After a day of racing, I’m sore.
That drive earned him the swimmer-of-the-year award in 2006 from the Missouri Athletic Club. It’s an honor that is dear to Sappington.
That was probably one of the biggest things that happened to me in many years, Sappington said.
Reach Philip Batson at (573) 815-1780 or pbatson@tribmail.com.
Related: Nick King photo
Additional information:
From www.columbiatribune.com:
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