Getting to Know: Aaron Scheidies Written by Sheena Nguyen Photograph by Marcy Browe
AARON SCHEIDIES’S DLIST DRESS - What do you wear for a night out on the town? I am not a dressed up kind of guy. If I can wear jeans and a T-shirt, I will do that.
DINE - What is your favorite food? I love food. I love a good quality pizza with quality toppings.
Drink - What is your signature drink? Long Islands.
Dance - What is your signature dance move? The skeleton, which is a move that I created. Just let your head and arms droop and be a dangly skeleton.
With sweat dripping from your face and adrenaline rushing through your veins, the feeling of reaching the finish line at the end of a race is like no other. For most people who compete in triathlons, just the sight of that finish line after a long hard swim, bike ride and run provides that last extra push required to reach the end. But imagine if you couldn’t see that line. Imagine if all you had to go off of after being drained from three strenuous segments of a race was the memory and instinct of the course. For world champion triathlete Aaron Scheidies, that’s exactly what he goes through for each and every single one of the triathlons he has competed in. And participating in more than 100 triathlons, having held both the title of National and World Champion in the sport, it’s safe to say that Scheidies has been extremely acquainted with that finish line feeling. Fresh from returning from the ESPY Awards last month, one of sports’ greatest honors and where Scheidies was a finalist for an award in the category of Best Male Athlete with a Disability, he has finally had some time to relax back in Washington after months of whirlwind traveling for competitions around the globe and letting everything sink in. “I was elated and I was shocked when I learned that I was a finalist for an ESPY,” Scheidies said. “It’s like the Academy Awards for sports and being a huge sports fan myself, I get how big it is to be a finalist.” Triathlons are an incredibly grueling sport, with the distances used for the Olympics being a .93 mile swim followed by a 24.8 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run. Scheidies also competes in the Ironman Triathlon which is a 2.4 mile swim grouped with a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. He conquers these distances while living with about 10 percent of the vision of a fully sighted person. Scheidies was born with Stargardt disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration. Although he had full vision at birth, this condition causes progressive loss of vision over time. Now at the age of 29, while doctors say his condition may be stable for the time being, Scheidies is already beyond the legal point of blindness. “I don’t even remember what full vision looks like because it was so long ago,” he commented. “I just see moving blobs.” Around the age of 9 was when Scheidies first started noticing changes in his vision. But it was a mystery to both Scheidies and the many doctors he and his family consulted to figure out the cause. After a visit to the University of Michigan Medical Center, a physician correctly diagnosed Scheidies, but there was nothing that could be done. At that time, growing up with Stargardt’s was seemingly Scheidies’ greatest obstacle. “When I was younger and going through middle school and high school, I was still trying to find myself as a person,” he recalled. “That period was pretty much rock bottom for me when I had everything from OCD to depression.” When he found out that he would be limited in a number of activities, Scheidies’ brother suggested that he try certain sports like swimming, track and cross country. Since then, he doesn’t even consider that the greatest obstacle he’s ever had to overcome. “I’ve accommodated and adapted really well,” Scheidies stated. With his new outlook came a change in wanting to challenge himself instead of waiting for problems to arise. Scheidies finds his biggest obstacle now is the battle the rest of his body is fighting with the constant wear and tear of competing in the sport that saved him. “The repetitive pounding is breaking down my body,” he commented. Although he has tried to increase the amount of swimming and decrease the running time in his training which causes less strain on his body, Scheidies doesn’t see an end to his triathlon career anytime within the foreseeable future. “I’m not going to put a strict end date to my triathlon career,” he said. “It will end only when I stop having fun.” His positive demeanor and infectious attitude have only helped him obtain even greater accolades. Not only does Scheidies hold numerous championship triathlon titles, but he has also been inducted into the Skiing Disability Hall of Fame and has launched the Michigan State Triathlon Club (where he attended college and also had a 4.0 GPA) into one of the top in the nation. Successes in triathlons don’t come easy. They’re long, painful and extremely demanding. For Scheidies, many things run through his mind during these trials, but most importantly, he has an internal motivation and positive energy that keeps him going. “When it hurts really bad I tell myself to smile through the pain and it doesn’t hurt as much,” he said. And that’s pretty much Scheidies; all smiles from start to the finish line.
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