Most people saw limits for Frankie Antonelli. Parents Frank
and Debbie saw potential.
Mount Pleasant, S.C. — The dogging question for any athlete
is whether their competitive values mean anything in the real world. Here it
was for Debbie and Frank Antonelli. What were all the sweat-soaked shirts and
the worn-soled sneakers for when their infant son was on oxygen, facing a
lifetime of impairments from slowed motor skills to cognitive deficits?
It was a random error in cell division, the pediatric
specialist said. Down syndrome was an accident, a faulty extra copy of a single
chromosome. “All the rest of them are yours,” he said.
They had counted with an unthinking confidence on having
healthy kids, maybe even a team roster’s worth. She played basketball at North
Carolina State before becoming a sportscaster, and he hit .400 for the Columbia
University baseball team before making a career in elite sports management, and
they hoped to add some quality little strivers to the general population. Their
first child was an easy birth, and they were so confident of their second that
she played nine holes of golf the day he was born. Then he came out scrunched
up with the cord around his neck, and holes in his heart.
To read more on this story, click here: Going on Offense vs. Down Syndrome
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