From a young age, Lee Fredette thrived on the exciting physicality of sports. He played all types of sports and dreamed of one day playing in the National Hockey League. He left his East Moriches, New York, hometown for college in New Hampshire and trained there to become a snowboard instructor. Then, while on a semester-break visit back home, he took his dirt bike out to race and rumble on the backroads.
The bike accident in April 2002 left him with a broken neck. And it sent Fredette reeling. Years of rehabilitation and struggles with depression ensued.
Yet it was that same passion for the physicality of sports that sparked and renewed Fredette’s hope and purpose.
“Wheelchair rugby saved my life and gave me back that athlete identity that I’d felt like I’d lost after my accident,” said Fredette, who graduated from the University of Miami with a B.A. in psychology in 2010. “It made me want to get going again.”
Since he found the sport, Fredette has been going and going. Now for the third time, Fredette will be competing with the Team USA wheelchair rugby squad in the Paralympics, this time in the Paris Games that take place Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
A long road back
After his accident in 2006, Fredette traveled to California for a period of rehabilitation as part of Project Walk. The approach was unorthodox.
“Most rehab is meant to set you up for independence in a wheelchair, but this rehab was trying to bring back function in the limbs that don’t work,” Fredette explained. “Those who have a lot of spasms—a nerve response—have the most success because the nerves can be retaught.”
But Fredette’s injuries were too severe. He returned to the New York area and hired a friend to create a total-gym routine that mimicked the techniques he’d learned.
While in New York, his parents took him into New York City to see “Murderball,” the 2005 documentary about athletes who are physically disabled and play wheelchair rugby.
“I saw that and said: ‘That’s the sport I want to play; I want to be on that team.’ I had a new goal. That saved my life,” Fredette recalled.
He contacted an adaptive athletics coordinator who introduced him to some wheelchair rugby players. But the “team” was just getting together, had no funding, and everything was “pay your own way.” Fredette drove his control-adapted car every week to New Jersey just to practice and competitions were a distance away.
Fredette was excited when he learned about The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, where he would later participate in research studies. He had already gone back to school to earn his associate degree, and he wanted to continue his education. His girlfriend at the time helped him apply to the University.
“I was just trying to figure out what I could do afterward. I studied psychology because I was interested in how the brain and mind works. And I was good at listening to people—I thought I could be a good psychologist,” he explained.
His time at the University was indeed golden.
“It was the time of my life. Miami was amazing, and the school was fabulous—we had an apartment on campus, and it was so accommodating for wheelchair users,” he said. “I had so much fun and still have so many friends from there. My golden retriever, Bailey, came on campus with me all the time and even on stage when I graduated.”
He joined the South Florida Rattlers, the local wheelchair rugby team. The team was even more of a “developmental team.” Fredette explained that wheelchair rugby competition players are classified in terms of their functionality in order to create an equal playing field. Function ranges from 0.5 to 3.5, with 3.5 being the highest you can have to participate.
“As a quadriplegic, my hands don’t work at all. I’m a 1.0. I don’t have full triceps, don’t have full wrists, missing function in some of my arms, don’t have full chest,” he noted.
Lower-point players range from 0.5 to 1.5 and are the ones setting the screens, doing the blocking, occasionally catching an outlet pass. While a 3.5 is super functional—they have core, some have hands, these are usually the ball carriers.
Pursuing his passion
After graduating from the University, Fredette really began to train and improve his wheelchair rugby skills. He heard about “Team Force,” the development team and tried out in 2013 and made it. He got an invite to try out for Team USA but broke his femur jumping a wake while on a sit ski ––“a nasty wipeout”—so he had to wait a year.
“Making Team USA was like a dream come true. I was living the dream at that point, playing a sport I loved and chasing medals and gold,” he said.
This will be his third Paralympics; the team won silver in both the Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
“Tokyo was different because of the pandemic. Rio was incredible—the fans make it so much better. The environment, the atmosphere is electric—when you go into the stadium, they’re all cheering,” he recalled. “If you’re on the sidelines watching, they’ll come running down for selfies—it really gives you a sense of being a celebrity.”
Yet be assured, when Fredette gets to Paris, he’ll have his focus on. The team has been training all year. They’re just back from an intensive training camp, six days a week conditioning for strength, mental preparation, and optimum nutrition. Twelve players have been chosen out of 16 to make the trip.
“The sport is crazy right now. The top seven teams are so good, and any one of those can beat the other on any given day. The USA has a history of making the podium; we’ve medaled in all the Paralympics so far, but it’s been since 2008 since we won gold.
“The team is looking real nice. We’ve got some fresh new lineups and strategies we’re coming out with,” Fredette said. “Everybody wants it, everybody gives it all they got, everyone wants to win.”
