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Hunter Gandee is just days past completing the eighth grade. Already, the Temperanceville, Michigan resident is making headlines, but not about his wrestling ability, but about his recent 40-mile walk while carrying his seven-year-old brother Braden on his back. Gandee was making the walk to Ann Arbor's Bahna Wrestling Complex to raise awareness for his brother's condition, cerebral palsy. The “Cerebral Palsy Swagger” made national headlines and even drew the attention from that “other” wrestling group, the WWE. Gandee talks about how the idea started, the family's interest in wrestling, how much assistance the University of Michigan wrestling program offered and what he hopes to achieve with the Cerebral Palsy Swagger. What is cerebral palsy? According to the Mayo Clinic:
Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture that is caused by an insult to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth. Signs and symptoms appear during infancy or preschool years. In general, cerebral palsy causes impaired movement associated with exaggerated reflexes, floppiness or rigidity of the limbs and trunk, abnormal posture, involuntary movements, unsteadiness of walking, or some combination of these.
People with cerebral palsy may have difficulty with swallowing and commonly have eye muscle imbalance. People with cerebral palsy may have reduced range of motion at various joints of their bodies due to muscle stiffness. The effect of cerebral palsy on functional abilities varies greatly. Some people are able to walk while others aren't able to walk. Some people show normal to near normal intellectual function, but others may have intellectual disabilities. Epilepsy, blindness or deafness also may be present.
People with cerebral palsy often have underlying developmental brain abnormalities.
For more information about Gandee's mission on raising awareness for cerebral palsy, visit:
Short Time also talks about some of the recent coaching changes across college wrestling and the upcoming FILA election.
