Former Survivor star talks about competing with a disability

To view a lot of the photos from the evening, go to the Athletic Banquet page at the WNCC Athletic website at www.wncc.net/orgs/sports/2007athleticbanquet.htm

Former Survivor: Vanuatu contestant Chad Crittenden lost a foot to cancer, but he is determined to keep succeeding now more then ever.

Crittenden, who spoke to students and faculty at Western Nebraska Community College on April 26, and was the guest speaker at the WNCC athletic banquet that evening, told his story.

“Talking to a large crowd is something I have been doing now for a couple of years. Since coming off ‘Survivor,’ I can share what I went through with cancer and amputation with as many people as possible to educate them in some way and gain exposure of what people with those disabilities are capable of. Today, I am active athletically in practically the same capacity before I lost my foot.”

Since losing his foot, Crittenden has competed at the USA National snowboarding competition at a snowboarding camp, he has competed in triathlons, played tennis and he is playing in an indoor premier soccer league. His ultimate goal is to compete in the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii.

Soccer, though, has been his big love since growing up in California.

“Recently I got onto a men’s indoor soccer team and tried out in sweats. They didn’t know I had a prosthetic foot and made the team,” he said. “The first, second and third games they still didn’t know. I was then going to reveal it and luckily I scored in that game and then I had something extra to show for it.”

While some of his teammates know, the rest of the league doesn’t realize that he has a prosthetic foot.

“I haven’t revealed to the rest of the league that I have the fake foot because I don’t want them treating me differently,” he said. “I don’t want them looking at me thinking they will have to go easy on me and let me dribble around them. I would like to get to a point where someday they know without getting them to act different about it.”

And, that, exactly was the moral of his story to the WNCC students, faculty, staff and community members last week – don’t look at someone differently who has a disability, or for those with a disability, keep competing and adjust.

Crittenden said the young students at the school he was teaching had were the most curious about his disability. He said that during recess, he had kids walking with him just looking at his prosthetic foot. And, one boy asked him what happened.

Crittenden looked at the boy and say that he had a tooth missing. He then asked the boy what happened to his tooth. The boy said it fell out and then he put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy came.

Crittenden followed that up and told the little boy that one day his foot just fell off, and he put it under his pillow, too, and the next day he had a big stack of money. The boy laughed.

But, when Crittenden was first diagnosed with Synovial Sarcoma, it wasn’t a laughing matter. He had a choice of just removing the greenish bump on his foot or curing the deadly cancer more permanently with amputation. He chose the amputation just below the knee, realizing he wanted to be around for his young kids.

Nine months after the surgery, he competed in a triathlon and then decided to submit a tape to Survivor. Crittenden lasted until the ninth tribal council before he was voted off the island.

Crittenden lasted until the ninth tribal council on Survivor: Vanuatu. He said that there were some on the show that looked at him as weak.

But, for the first week, no one on the island knew he had an artificial foot. Then, he finally sat down, removed the legs of his pants, finally revealing his prosthetic foot. People were shocked that he could compete as well as he did.

“‘Survivor’ was extremely difficult and it is not as easy as people think,” he said. “They just let you survive with a pot and a machete. They let you go and they film you. You get wet and you can’t dry off, and then the wind picks up at night and it is 50 degrees and you are freezing. You have nothing to drink, nothing to eat, you are uncomfortable, nowhere to get clean.”

But, his love to compete on Survivor started even before his lost his leg. But, his wife said no.

“I read an article even before it aired about the show and I wanted to send in a tape, but I didn’t, because my wife wouldn’t let me do it,” he said. “So we watched every season and finally when I lost my foot and I realized I still could do a lot of athletic stuff, I decided to send in a tape.”

Crittenden said he enjoyed competing on “Survivor: Vanuatu” that he wouldn’t hesitate competing in a “Survivor: All-Star” competition again.

Crittenden said his favorite challenge on the show was when they had to run into the jungle and untie paddles and then run back and assemble an out-rigger canoe. Then, he and John paddled the canoe around this big buoy and won the challenge.

The hardest one was the last challenge he competed in, which he narrowly won.

“We had to hold onto a pole about five inches in circumference. It was me and Twila left and we lasted a long time and finally she won,” he said. “She is a tough, tomboyish women. She is light and strong and I wasn’t quite as light as she was. If I would have won, that would have gotten me immunity, but instead I was voted off that night.”

Crittenden said strategy plays a big part in winning.

“Chris Daugherty from Ohio won ‘Survivor: Vanuatu’ and when we merged, the women had the numbers and they started voting us men off,” Crittenden said. “They voted Sarge off, they voted me off. Chris was the last guy standing, He did what he needed to win. He went and manipulated the women, competing them against each other. They fought against themselves and he came out victorious.”

As for this season’s “Survivor: Fiji,” he likes Yau Man to win.

“I think he is awesome and he is not your typical young, studly dude,” he said. “There have been so many young guys that take it all in the challenges, while women will stay under the radar and start winning challenges at the end, too. He is more of a cerebral thinking man.”