San Jose horse jockey's tragic race track accident turns into mission to serve others

SAN JOSE -- A former San Jose horse jockey has turned a terrible accident on the race track into a lifetime of giving, and now countless others are benefitting from his perseverance and commitment to helping his community. 

Armando Rivera is 62 years old and a paraplegic. But his upper body strength is probably better than most people half his age.

He works out with his 83-year-old father Ramon in the backyard of their San Jose home five days a week.
He's been pushing himself like this for decades.

"Every day, I like to work out, you know. Every day I stay busy," Rivera said.

That's been his lifelong philosophy. But it was all put to the test 44 years ago.

In 1979, Armando was an up-and-coming racehorse jockey when a terrible accident nearly ended his life.

"It was a freak accident. I was working a horse and somehow, we ended up having two horses collide," Rivera said. "I went down and he rolled on top of me. It fractured my spinal cord, a T5."

He was paralyzed from the chest down.

"When you're a jockey, you know those are the risks. You already knew the risks were death, injury. You already knew that. It's nobody's fault."

Rivera was treated at Valley Medical Center's Spinal Cord Rehab center. It was there that he met somebody that changed his life.

The late Gary Kerr was a pioneering paraplegic athlete, famous around the world as the fastest person in a wheelchair. Kerr would often visit and inspire recent accident victims in the hospital. He died in 2012 at the age of 58.

"He ended up being my trainer, you know my coach for wheelchair racing," Rivera said.

Kerr died in 2012. Since then, Rivera has traveled around the country, competing in marathons, half marathons, and 10Ks. All the while, he was raising awareness and money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, which has raised $2.6 million nine years.

These days, Rivera works out with Sebastian McGriff who says Rivera inspired him to become a personal trainer after the two met randomly at the gym.

 
"Working with Armando, I was able to work with other wheelchair clients using the same techniques that he is teaching me. Like how to work with him, his diet and exercise routine," McGriff said.

In July, Armando will be honored by th Valley Health Foundation by leading off their Stars and Strides run at Discovery Meadow.

And the training routine is tough. Rivera is getting ready for it by pushing himself on his wheelchair up the straight and steep incline of Norwood Avenue near his home.

"Just never give up baby. When it gets tougher, you get stronger," he said while straining up the hill.

Rivera says he never felt sorry for himself after the accident. His mindset was to work through it.

"When you do things like this there ain't no room for depression. There ain't no room but going up," he said.

Rivera once raced horses around the track. Today, he is still competing, but under his own power. And as he glides through the senior years of his life, he knows he got there by fighting for every mile.