The Home Depot Makes Athletic Competition Possible

By Joan Leotta

Marlon Shirley, a competitor who uses a prosthetic leg, wins gold at the 100 meter track event. Marlon Shirley, Gold medal winner in the 100 meter

Among the athletes whose zest for life and sport were on display at the Athens Paralympic Games in September were a group whose dreams of Olympic excellence were substantially aided by the U.S. Olympic Job Opportunities Program. Created by the United States Olympic Committee, the OJOP recruits companies to offer eligible athletes full-time pay for part-time work schedules that allot time for training toward participation in the Olympics and Paralympics. Of all the US employers participating in the OJOP, The Home Depot is the largest.

“The Home Depot’s support of the Olympic Job Opportunities Program is a model for how corporate America has supported the dreams of aspiring elite-level athletes,” said former US Olympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackmun. His comments in a press release still hold true. [View press release] Blackmun stated, “Through The Home Depot’s commitment to OJOP, the corporation has directly impacted the chances for success of many of America’s finest Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls as they continue to work for their dream of competing for the United States in international competition.”

Since 1992, The Home Depot has recognized that its own corporate ideals of “perseverance, hard work, and a commitment to excellence” are the same as those intrinsic to the success of top-level athletes. For this reason, the home improvement giant has provided individual athletes the opportunity to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics through OJOP. Today, many Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico don the company’s orange apron during work hours so that they can spend more off hours training at an international level.

Olympics for All...

Bryan Kirkland, bronze medal winner in the wheelchair rugby event. Bryan Kirkland took home the Bronze for Wheelchair Rugby

Since the first 400-plus Paralympic athletes competed in Rome in 1960, the games have grown tenfold. Both the number of participants and the impact of the games on society have enjoyed a steady increase. Immediately following the 2004 Summer Olympics, more than 4,000 athletes vied for medals in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. Their world-class efforts were on display in 19 sports, (18 that U.S. athletes competed in) —including shooting, swimming, rowing, wrestling, and field hockey.

The Home Depot associates, as in past years, represented the US in numerous team and individual events in the 2004 games in Athens. Before this year’s events, Home Depot OJOP athletes, in both the Olympics and Paralympics had racked up a total of 157 medals. The 2004 summer games added many more. The Home Depot’s 17 US Paralympians upped that number by 14, (three gold, five silver, six bronze). And, with The Home Depot’s commitment to OJOP through 2008, more U.S., Canadian, and Puerto Rican athletes will be able to achieve their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.

...One Athlete at a Time

Becoming a Paralympic Athlete

Eligibility standards in Paralympics sports are established through an international Paralympic Committee. Competitors with disabilities represented in the Paralympics include blind athletes, amputees, and athletes with cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, or other conditions such as multiple sclerosis or dwarfism.

The US Paralympics, a division of the US Olympic Committee, was founded in May 2001 to focus efforts on enhancing programs, funding, and opportunities for people with physical disabilities to participate in Paralympic sports. To find out how you could become a member of a Paralympic team, go to the US Paralympics home page and follow links to Paralympic academy, disabled sports organizations, or other sections of the site to find the best fit for you, your age, and your sport. Those athletes who meet national and elite Paralympic standards can be considered for the OJOP.

Carrie Willoughby, Norman Lyduch, and Dan Jordan all have The Home Depot to thank for their opportunities to earn a full-time salary while investing long hours in athletic training. Willoughby, a 27-year old swimmer who is legally blind due to albinism, works in the blinds department of the Birmingham, Alabama Home Depot. She began participating in Home Depot’s OJOP two years ago. Willoughby tells SMG that the program “has given me the power and initiative to make things work and never be afraid to think outside the box.”

“OJOP has allowed me to pursue my athletic dreams and better my creative skills along the way,” Willoughby continues. “It is a perfect combination of the things that I hold dear—people and their needs.” Although she did not win a medal this year, Willoughby credits The Home Depot’s OJOP with helping her to “always find a solution” and instilling in her “the pride of representing my country.”

Norm Lyduch, a 32-year old wheelchair rugby player, has been in OJOP for the past four years. Before an auto accident in 1989 left him paralyzed from the waist down, Lyduch was active in athletics. He continued to compete from a wheelchair, and by 1996 he had become a Paralympic competitor in track and field. When rugby became a Paralympic event in 2000, Lyduck took up that sport and went on to bring home a bronze medal for the 2004 US Wheelchair Rugby Team in Athens.

When not training, Lyduch helps customers and other associates learn about lawn fertilization in the Austin, Texas Home Depot. He expresses his feelings about OJOP this way: “The Home Depot has given me a chance to compete at the elite level. Without the flexibility of the schedule and the full-time pay, I would not have been in Athens competing.”

Paralympic silver medal winner Dan Jordan is another participant in The Home Depot’s Olympic Job Opportunities Program. Jordan, who hails from Franktown, Colorado, took the second-place prize in the three-position smallbore rifle event at this year’s games. An employee in one of The Home Depot’s call centers, Jordan is a resident athlete at the U. S.Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. Commenting to Sports Features Communications on his finishing seventh in another 2004 Paralympic event, Jordan echoed The Home Depot’s motto of perseverance: “I’m a little disappointed in the results, but I’m extremely happy that I never let down and never gave up.”

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.