Inspirational Story of One-Armed Wrestler

June 3, 2008

In the wrestling world arms are the pillars of the wrestler’s body. They may be the most important attribute of success. Take away those arms — or even just one — and the hope of being a wrestler vanishes. Unless you are Mark Lake who, with only a left arm, is anything but handicapped.
Mark lost his arm at the age of two in the spin cycle of a washing machine. There is only a stub of about seven inches but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming a serious bicyclist, an accomplished photographer, and a triathlete. As a high school student in Orange County, California, Mark was also a talented wrestler!
Mark didn’t want pity. He didn’t want anyone to go easy on him. As a senior he was 11-2 in the 126-pound class for the Saxons who were the favorites to win their eighth straight Empire League Championship. He went on to defeat Jim Valenzuela in the Magnolia Eight-Way Tournament. Valenzuela, who had a 19-4 record himself, said, “Some people go in against him saying ‘Uh-oh, I’m wrestling a guy with one arm!’ But since I had wrestled him before about six years ago, I just treated him like any regular guy.”
Mark wanted it that way. He never wanted anyone to go easy on him. Coach Gary Bowden said Mark was one of the best 126-pounders in the County. Not one of the best one armed wrestlers in his weight, one of the best wrestlers.
Mark got into wrestling, he said, because of his brother Steve, a 145-pounder who wrestled a few years before. “I just wanted to outdo my older brother,” Mark said.
What doesn’t happen to most people is overcoming what Mark overcame. He did everything himself, even to climbing the rope hanging from the ceiling of the wrestling room (a requirement). Nothing was out of his reach. And there was a message on the back of the T-shirt he often wore: “A man is never more a man than when he’s reaching for what is beyond his grasp.”
Here’s what you can do:
1. Concentrate on what you have, not on what you haven’t got — whether it’s a physical limitation, a lack of money, or a limited education. Be a Mark Lake and use what you have to the fullest.
2. Make your own mark, write your own life script, march to the beat of your own music, set your own goals — only YOU can decide to do what you can do, so DO IT!
3. Drop self-pity like a hot potato — its effects are devastating. The benefits of being free of self-pity are joy, hope and goals to achieve.
4. Set some new goals for yourself that will stretch you — beyond your grasp but within your reach. Your potential is unlimited, and you live right now in unlimited times!

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