Myles Porter Pursues Olympic History

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) - What Myles Porter (Colorado Springs, Colo. / NYAC / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) sees and what he knows are two very different things.

Due to a visual impairment, what he sees when he looks across the mat at his opponent is something like most of us would see from a hundred feet - that'd be enough to stop a lot of people from taking the next step.

But what does Porter know? Why does this 2008 Paralympian take the next step, and the next, and the next?

What Porter knows is that almost anything is possible.

"No matter what, f you just put your mind to it, you can do just about anything," Porter said.

Porter is his own proof. He's been on a rocket ride, not only in Paralympic judo but in able-bodied competition, taking third in October at the 2009 Rendez-Vous Canada in Montreal, an elite, international USA Judo Senior B-Level tournament. 

This a big deal, said Eddie Liddie (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Porter's coach and the USA Judo Director of Athlete Performance. 

"Porter is the second vision-impaired athlete to place at a B-Level event. A lot of ambitious, fully sighted athletes never come close to that," Liddie said.

And Porter isn't stopping there.

Far beyond what he physically sees, and a short stretch beyond what he knows about winning in life, Porter has a goal, a vision of his future. He sees himself headed for London in 2012 to compete at the Olympic Games. 

That's something that no other judoka has ever done, competed in both the Paralympics and the Olympics Games.

"To do it in judo would just be huge," Porter said.

Oh, yeah it would be huge, and not just because Porter has a substantial visual impairment, an ocular albinism that means he lacks pigment in his retina and has difficulty discerning detail. Porter's ascent has been amazingly steep and fast. He first stepped on a mat just four years ago. And it wasn't even a real judo mat, a traditional tatami.  His first club was at the University of Toledo where the team worked out on gymnastic floors.

It was almost by chance that he landed in the university club at all. Porter had dropped a class at the university and needed to fill the gap with an elective so that he could stay in the dorms.

Porter recalls that his advisor gave him three choices: karate, "something like basket weaving," and judo.

He'd seen "The Karate Kid" -- not his favorite movie. He'd been in wrestling for years - his dad coached the sport - and he knew just enough about judo to make that his choice. It wasn't long before he was hooked.

"They taught me how to fall and three throws the first day because I had to catch up," he said.

He quickly jumped into tournaments and learned fast that "on any given day, you can be beaten by someone else," he said.

That's a big part of what Porter likes about the sport - the challenge that comes from that uncertainty.

"You don't know what's going to happen. Every tournament is different ... it's real unpredictable. Some dark horse could come out of nowhere," Porter said. 

Less than a year after he first stepped into a dojo, Porter qualified for his first World Blind Championship Team.  That was also the first time he stepped on a plane, in April 2006, to attend a mandatory judo camp for judokas  who had made the cut. Then he was off to France, on his second plane flight, where he took fifth in paralympic competition in the Judo World Championships.

"I learned how to fly pretty quick," he said. He also tore his medial collateral ligament in his knee which put him on the bench for about six weeks.

Porter's climb has been so fast that he and Olympian Ryan Reser (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) add a little comic routine to just about every judo demonstration they do. Almost invariably someone will ask: "How long have you been doing judo?"

Reser has been at it for 24 years.

"That's always our punch line, because I'm only 24 years old," Porter said. "I always let him answer first."

After a chuckle, Porter credited Reser and Liddie with much of his success.

There are lots of people to thank. His parents instilled in him a sense of self-sufficiency and self-determination, a can-do esteem that he takes everywhere. And his coach at the University of Toledo, Josh White, was great, too, Porter said.

But Liddie and Reser have taken him the distance since to major national and international competitions.

"If it wasn't for Ed and Ryan I pretty much wouldn't be where I am," said Porter, whose training in Colorado Springs is a long way from his small hometown of Fremont, Ohio.

And this is how it goes at the OTC. Again and again, "they put me in situations on the mat that I'm really uncomfortable with," Porter said.

For example, they'll put Porter against a strong, high righty, like Olympian Brian Olson (Longmont, Colo.) who Porter describes as being "just too good, and too fast."

Reno Reser (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center, Ryan's brother and a former World Team member, does it to him, too, Porter said. "Those are the worst practices, when I'm going with Reno." 

Because of Porter's visual impairment, his reaction to that high right is just slightly delayed. So they do it again and again, until there is no delay. 

"If I go through those troubles and hard times in practice, it's going to help me adapt on the mat for competition," he said. 

Porter won his last two events for visually impaired athletes - the Germany and Lithuanian Opens - in January - and is now training for the USA Judo Senior National Championships, May 1-2 in Myrtle Beach. 

In the meantime, Porter will be "dialing the radio," as he put it, fine tuning his eyesight and technique for that moment when takes the next step, and the next, and the next.

 

 

Tags: Eddie Liddie, Myles Porter, Reno Reser, Ryan Reser