Rick van Beek, completed a triathlon Saturday carrying his daughter Madison, who has cerebral palsy. Van Beek, already called the ‘father of the century‘, biked, swam and ran tugging 13-year-old Maddy in Sanford and Sun sprint triathlon at Sanford Lake Park, Michigan.
Maddy can neither walk nor talk, and her dad says he isn’t even sure that she can see. But what van Beek does know is that Maddy loves the outdoors.
“She functions like a 3-month-old, and one of the very few things that we know she enjoys is being outside, being in the water, feeling the breeze in her hair and in her face,” van Beek, 39, told Midland Daily News.
Rick quit smoking and started running so he could be the one pushing Maddy in races. For the past four years the two have run over 70 races including half-marathons and triathlons.
Van Beek is forming a non-profit organization called “Team Maddy” that will raise funds to build equipment and adaptive devices for special needs kids.
via Daily Mail