Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
February 6, 2002
Disabled teen volunteer carries torch in Boulder
Determined torchbearer says Olympic flame symbolizes hope
By Alwen Bledsoe
After 25 operations Nicholas Owens was confined to a wheelchair, but that didn't stop him — or the Olympic flame he carried — from bursting over the crest of a Boulder hill Jan. 30.
After nearly an hour of waiting, the crowd erupted into cheers as the Olympic shuttle arrived and lowered the 16-year-old, a parishioner of St. Jude in Lakewood, to the ground on a wheelchair ramp.
Gripping the wheels of his torch-bearing wheelchair, Owens led the cheering crowd uphill to the intersection of Broadway and University.
He passed the flame on to the next torchbearer before disappearing into a congratulatory crowd that momentarily stopped traffic on the busy street.
Audibly sobbing, sister Jacqueline Owens, a freshman at University of Colorado, embraced her brother.
"You're amazing," she cried. "Oh, I love you so much."
With perfect poise Owens greeted reporters and admirers after the event.
"I can't believe it. It was so much fun," he said, later adding, "To see all the people around here today yelling my name, I mean, I was just so overwhelmed."
And so were emotional family members.
"It was unbelievable," said a breathless Marianne Owens, Owens' mother. "We've been waiting for this. We've been counting down the days, and to see him come up that hill and know that he could do it, it was unbelievable."
Family and friends both marvel at Owens' tenacity. And it didn't fail him on the 30th when he refused help conquering the hill until he neared the top.
"I'm going to try and get this on my own," he told supporters.
Owens lifts weights daily, and according to his mother, had been working out harder than ever to prepare for the torch relay.
"I have a lot of strength to get through life," Owens said.
Spina bifida has robbed Owens of the use of his legs. According to the Spina Bifida Association of America, the birth defect, caused by a gap in the spine that damages the central nervous system, affects approximately 1 in 1,000 newborns in the United States.
Owens' friends and family say the disability is a challenge he has more than met.
"He's got a lot of determination and a wonderful personality and a lot of stick-to-itiveness, and that's what's gotten him this far," said grandmother Gina Pavlakovich. "He's been challenged, but he's met the challenge every inch of the way."
Jacqueline said Owens' determination and strength inspire her. When she trains for track season Owens trains with her in a racing bike, always urging her on. When she skis, he skis right alongside her, and when she studies, she thinks of his good grades as a benchmark.
"I think that if anybody deserves (to carry the torch), it's definitely Nicholas," she said, adding that carrying the torch gives a chance for the "everyday heroes" to be a part of the Olympics.
"And he's my hero," the proud sister said with a huge smile.
On top of being a sophomore at Alameda High School, Owens also works with the youth commission at St. Jude Parish to help plan and coordinate the youth group's social life. He also is on the youth advisory boards for March of Dimes and Children's Hospital, is a "ball kid" for the Denver Nuggets and is involved with the National Sports Center for the Disabled at Winter Park. Last year alone Owens raised $10,000 for March of Dimes, said his father, Sherwood Owens.
Owens doesn't know who nominated him to be among the 11,500 torchbearers, who altogether travel more than 13,500 miles through 46 states to bring the Olympic flame lit in Olympia, Greece, to Salt Lake's Olympic Stadium where it will burn during the Winter Games from Feb. 8 to Feb. 24.
When the letter bearing the Olympic symbol marked "Urgent" arrived, Owens found himself disbelieving, he said.
"I was like, `There is no way,'" he remembered with a grin. "I was in shock."
This year's Olympic theme, "Light the fire within," struck home for Owens as he carried the torch, he said.
"It symbolizes a lot of hope," he said of the torch.
Owens has thanked God every day since learning he would carry the torch, he said.
"It's a once in a life-time opportunity," Owens said, still smiling.
Contact Us
