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01/18/2017 07:00 AMAs a young adult with an amputated leg, Branford native Marc Romero made his name as a U.S. Disabled Ski Team racer. Now, he’s telling the stories of the nation’s top adaptive action sports and amazing adaptive athletes with his web series, Adaptive Sports Evolution (ASE).
Marc is building the stories of ASE (visit www.adaptivesportsevolution.com) as an outgrowth of his earlier television production success with Heroes of the Slopes. His 2006-’07 series of video stories on adaptive ski racers, produced for PBS in Marc’s adopted home state of Colorado, has been remastered and can also be viewed at the ASE site.
Marc says the world of all adaptive sports is wide open for viewing, but needs a lens such as his to focus on the compelling stories of its top athletes, teams, and inventors.
“People don’t see the magic of adaptive sports like I’ve seen for 30 years. At the top level of the sport, there’s nothing you can compare it to. I want to promote the stories of these athletes,” says Marc, who recently returned to Branford to visit family in town.
A graduate of Branford High School (BHS) Class of ‘79, Marc didn’t go the route of high school athlete. Instead, his path to becoming a world-class adaptive athlete began after he was badly injured in a head-on motorcycle accident at age 17, just months ahead of graduation. After nearly losing his life, Marc recovered from the accident, although his right leg had to be amputated.
In the following years, Marc, who went on to graduate from UConn with a degree in accounting, took to one-ski slalom water skiing in Branford waters every summer.
“I had my own boat and I water-skied all around the Thimbles [Thimble Islands], and got really good at it,” says Marc.
Then, a friend recommended he look into adaptive downhill skiing options offered through the New England Handicapped Sportsman’s Association (NEHSA). In 1986, Marc signed on to learn on as a “three-track” skier (skiing with outriggers). He also began taking on the mountain for the sheer excitement and joy of one-track free-skiing.
“I started skiing with NEHSA and that changed everything,” says Marc. “As soon as I started skiing, it gave me the ability and a love of the sport. My reason for living became adaptive sports. I found the athlete in me.”
After only a couple of years, Marc followed his passion out to Winter Park, Colorado, to join the program feeding top athletes into the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. Marc made the U.S. Team as a three-track racer within two years of his arrival.
“Our category was the toughest. This was before all of the sit-skis and other tech that came along, so it was a highly competitive field. I got close to making the Paralympics,” says Marc, who was chasing just behind the world’s top 50 three-trackers at the height of his racing career.
At all of his races, Marc especially noticed one thing that seemed to be missing—a wider audience.
“There were all of these incredible athletes, and all of these great races, and no one was watching!” says Marc. “I realized so many people who are these great skiers were in the mountains, and I was right there.”
Being a highly skilled free skier, Marc was able to start tracking the exploits and accomplishments of his peers by taking his video camera to the slopes. From there, Marc’s idea to share the stories of these folks took off and grew.
Now, with ASE, Marc is telling the stories of adaptive athletes achieving incredible results in all arenas, from sled-hockey players to sit-skiers, from snowboarders to one-trackers, from adaptive mountain bikers to cyclers and more. This week, he’s heading to St. Louis, Missouri, to continue following the Colorado Avalanche Sled Hockey team through its incredible winning season.
“Half of the [league] players are all Paralympians, and I’m the only guy covering it. It’s one of the top growing adaptive sports in the country, and this is one of the best teams there is. It’s getting to be as popular as wheelchair basketball,” says Marc, who also covers National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s Denver Rolling Nuggets, another top-ranked team in the country.
“These are the two top [adaptive] sports, and I have the best stories on them,” says Marc.
In the coming weeks, Marc will also be working on his latest one-track piece, which he’s filming with the cooperation and collaborative assistance of one of the nation’s top ski resorts, Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado. With his connections, talent, and track record in the world of adaptive sports, Marc wants to help shine a spotlight on his stories of competitive adaptive sports and the thrilling skill of its athletes, by linking a big-name corporation to ASE.
“It’s very important to me and a lot of people in my stories,” says Marc. “I just need to connect to be able to continue to grow and do well for everybody, and all the sports, and all the athletes. I’m just the story-teller.”
Marc works with a professional staff to produce each piece in the web series. In-between filming and production, he’s making the rounds to companies, looking for that one special group that recognizes the value of tying its brand to the ASE web series. Marc’s not looking for a one-off donation, either. He emphasizes the ASE web series is the tip of the spear in a new media industry that deserves as much sponsorship recognition as any of those tied to other top-level sports.
“It’s inspirational marketing,” says Marc. “These original stories are three to five minutes long and make up a great web series. When I produced Heroes of the Slopes, it was a narrow audience, but it was really popular and got a lot of interest. So say we had 700 viewers who loved it when it ran on a local PBS station. With this web series, we can have seven million viewers who will love these stories. I have athletes who want to do this, and I want to help them. I just need investors and sponsors to get behind us.”
Marc Romero can be contacted at marc.onetrack@gmail.com or visit the ASE website at www.adaptivesportsevolution.com.