Posted: January 20, 2005

Athletics: Antarctica Marathon To Host Its First Wheelchair Competitor

KING GEORGE ISLAND, Antarctica (January 18, 2005): As if racing a 26.2-mile marathon on the coldest, windiest, iciest and most remote continent on earth isnt enough of a formidable challenge, one competitor in next month's Antarctica Marathon will scale the courses treacherous rocks, icy streams and ominous glacial slopes from the seat of a retrofitted wheelchair.

William Tan, a 47-year-old paraplegic, will be The Last Continent's first-ever wheelchair athlete. His global goal is to complete a marathon on all seven continents to raise funds for cancer-stricken children. The Antarctica Marathon is scheduled for February 26, 2005.

Tan, a Harvard Fulbright Scholarship recipient and former Oxford scholar, will have to be a quick study when it comes to getting acquainted to the race course. Like many of the competitors, it will be his first Antarctic experience. My only expectation is that it will be a spectacular and chilling challenge, said Tan. "But I always tell myself not to bow down before adversities but to redefine what is humanly possible."

The Antarctica Marathon race course features the best and worst of what the bottom of the world has to offer. The two-loop course, which takes place on King George Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, offers breathtaking scenery as it starts with a half-mile accent up Collins Glacier, followed by a swift and icy descent. A rudimentary dirt, mud and rocky road which winds through though Russian, Chilean, Uruguayan and Chinese scientific research bases, makes up a good portion of the course. Snow cover can vary hourly and the course has never been certified by the Association of International Marathons and Road Races (AIMS) due to its ever-changing glacial shifts and conditions.

The race is an incredible challenge for fit, able-bodied runners, said Thom Gilligan, race director and expedition leader. Williams feat will be a tremendous display of determination of what the human spirit can accomplish. Participants in the marathon and half marathon also encounter penguins, seals and predatory brown skuas who can be a menace during the icy trek.

No stranger to challenges, Tan was paralyzed from the waist down when he contracted polio at age two. His parents, who emigrated from China to Singapore, were unaware of the immunization vaccine that was widely available. Tan never received the vaccine. After having to stay at home so much during Tan's illness, his father lost his job as a clerk and began selling banana fritters out of a wheeled cart. The family was poor and couldn't afford a wheelchair, Tan said, so he crawled around on the floor when he was in the family home and was carried piggyback by a family member when they went outside.

Despite his early and ongoing challenges, Tan has obtained both MD and PhD degrees and is a resident in preventative medicine and public health in Singapore. He has also worked as a neuroscientist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota.

An accomplished and decorated athlete, Tan has competed in the Seoul Paralympics and some 20-plus marathons and ultramarathons. His Antarctic wheelchair will be retrofitted with mountain bike tires and he will use modified crutches to get through some of the more rocky spots on the course.

Getting to the race will also be a challenge. On February 18th, 190 runners will take overnight flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina, then fly to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, the worlds southernmost city. Runners will board a chartered ship for a journey through the Beagle Channel across the turbulent Drake Passage before settling into Antarctica waters.

The Antarctica Marathon and Half Marathon is organized by Marathon Tours and Travel of Boston, Massachusetts. For more information call Marathon Tours and Travel at (617) 242-7845 or log on to www.marathontours.com.