Marathoning medical student pushes her way through life’s obstacles

By SUSAN IPAKTCHIAN

A little more than a year ago first-year medical student Cheri Blauwet realized she was a bit bored by short races. Although she had won three medals in the 2002 International Paralympics World Championships in the 100-, 400- and 800-meter wheelchair events, she craved a greater challenge.

Blauwet, 23, turned her attention to marathons. What followed was a breathtaking series of finishes. She won the women’s wheelchair division of both the New York and Los Angeles marathons, took second in the Boston Marathon and set a women’s road course record in the Carlsbad 5000 Invitational Wheelchair race.

Cheri Blauwet is in the tail end of training for her defense of the women’s wheelchair event of the New York Marathon Sunday. The first-year medical student also acts as a spokesperson for the U.S. Paralympics. Photo: Visual Arts Services

For her athletic accomplishments Blauwet was one of 10 finalists — including pro basketball player Lisa Leslie, golfer Annika Sorenstam and tennis player Serena Williams — for the 2003 Individual Sportswoman of the Year award presented by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Although the honor went to swimmer Natalie Coughlin in an Oct. 20 ceremony in New York, Blauwet said she was flattered to be rubbing shoulders with athletes of that caliber. "It’s just amazing," she said.

After she defends her New York marathon title on Sunday, Blauwet will take a much-needed break from the racing circuit, but only for a few months. After that she’ll gear up for the L.A. and Boston marathons and the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece.

"Last year was a really, really good year for me. By switching to the marathon, I was doing something that I had more of a passion for," said Blauwet, who also won the women’s wheelchair division of the Columbus, Ohio, marathon Oct. 19. "But now I need to have a good off-season so that I can have a great season next year."

So how does she juggle the academic demands of medical school and the training regimen of an elite athlete? Blauwet admitted she’s still looking for the right balance.

"I’m figuring out what I want to keep and what I want to let go of," she said. "The quantity of races that I attend has decreased. I’m trying to pick the ones that I think are most important to my racing career."

She is also opting for quality over quantity in her training regimen. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, she gets up before 6 a.m. to complete high-intensity, short workouts before classes begin. Because she doesn’t have classes on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, that’s when she carries out her long "pushes" — two- to three-hours workouts in which she covers up to 25 miles on local roads and paths in her racing chair.

Blauwet is just as committed to her academic pursuits. She was a Rhodes Scholar finalist and as a senior at the University of Arizona majoring in molecular and cellular biology was a member of the USA Today 2002 All-American Academic team.

She said the transition to medical school has been energizing. "You’re starting on a new path and it’s all so positive. Stanford is very supportive and the way they structure things, you have time to develop other areas of your life."

Blauwet hasn’t settled on a specific type of medicine she’d like to practice, but she wants her career to include both patient care and advocacy.

"The original reason I was interested in medicine was that I wanted to work with kids with disabilities," said Blauwet, who was paralyzed from the waist down after being run over by a tractor on her family’s farm in Iowa when she was 16 months old. "I saw that as a way in which I could use what I’ve learned to show kids that they can be independent, productive people and that having disabilities doesn’t necessarily mean that their life can only go in one way."

Medicine also gives her the opportunity to combine her love of science with interpersonal skills. "As I was growing up, I got to see what made a good doctor. It was very, very obvious," she said. "That just further lights the fire in me to want to change things and be a good doctor."

Blauwet is also drawn to health-policy issues and would like to earn a master’s degree in either public health or international policy concurrent with her medical degree. "I’m really interested in how policies and economics affect access to health care," she said. "Doctors need to learn as much as possible about the human body, but if people aren’t getting to the doctor and don’t have transportation or the insurance is so muddled that those who need care can’t get it, then what are we going to do?"

She isn’t waiting to finish medical school to take on an advocacy role. She helped establish a foundation at the University of Arizona that provides scholarships for disabled students from developing countries. She also acts as a spokesperson for the U.S. Paralympics.

"I’m busy, but I’m really enjoying everything," Blauwet said.

Passions pursued under revised medical curriculum (9/10/03)