Christie Raleigh Crossley, who was once among the fastest swimmers in the nation at Florida State, overcame serious injuries from two automobile-related accidents. Then she overcame a brain condition.
— once among the fastest swimmers in the nation at Florida State until an alleged drunk driver halted her career in 2007 — hobbled on crutches, knee stuffed in a brace, down the aisle of her sister’s graduation at Toms River South in 2008, less than 24 hours after being struck by another car in the school’s parking lot.It would not be the last time Crossley, a 37-year-old single mother of three who had brain surgery in 2019, refused to let adversity derail her plans.
“I was so muscular and I liked ‘boy things’ and I hated dresses. The stereotype of what a girl is in society, I didn’t fit into that.” She suffered herniated disks in her neck and back and was told that her days as an elite swimmer were finished. Her knee was badly bruised and her head was bleeding profusely, so, she thinks, little attention was paid to her foot, which had turned inward and dragged slightly behind her as she entered the hospital, a harbinger of neurological issues to come.
Along the way, however, she also noticed that her left foot occasionally turned inward and her left elbow bowed slightly. She told herself it was likely just a reaction to exhaustion or overworking her muscles. Rolle explained the diagnosis, prognosis, medications, risks, what to expect, and what brain surgery would entail.
“It’s no surprise to me that she’s competing in the Paralympics and that she is still a wonderful mother to her three kids and is still optimistic, bright, and cheerful,” he said. “I’m so proud of her. … I think now she can use her experience — and she is — to be an advocate for others.” “The goal has always been to take what has happened to us and change it,” she said. “This has become a way for me to not only fulfill a childhood dream and do something that I absolutely love, but to create a future for my children.”Dystonia, a movement disorder that causes muscles to contract, exacerbates most often when she exercises. The fingers on her left hand curl painfully into a fist, while her left arm also spasms.
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