Local News

Local Athlete Hopes To Win Gold At Paralympics In Sochi

February 24, 2014 / 9:30 PM EST / CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Eleven years have passed since we met Dan McCoy and his mom.

The kid in the gold helmet told us he had a dream: to make the US Paralympic team.

The young man from Cheswick is now 20 years old, and his Paralympic dream has come true. He'll join the USA sled hockey team when it opens play March 8 in Sochi, Russia.

"If I was that young, being able to dream up something then," he said, "if I had the motivation then, why not now? Why not keep going for it?"

A double bladed skate and sawed-off hockey sticks, matched with upper body strength and determination, propel him across the ice at Bladerunners Rink in Harmarville.

Angie McCoy is still her son's biggest fan.

"He was born with spina bifuda and hydrocephalus," she said. "And early on, he's had many, many surgeries, about 20 overall."

"He just persevered through everything," she added. "And when he found sled hockey, at the age of five … he realized the freedom he had when he hit that ice."

"I never really got down on myself for having a disability," McCoy said. "I've always been proud of it. I've been able to do things that a lot of people haven't been able to do. Having sled hockey has really been everything to me."

Now that he's made the team, there's still one dream left.

"Being on the stand and hearing the national anthem and having the gold medal around my neck is definitely a dream I haven," he said.

Sochi
Paralympics