Forward Movement Magazine Winter Issue 1 2015/2016 | Page 24

ON OCTOBER 17, 2015,
WADE M C CRAE WASHINGTON
MADE HISTORY AS A MEDALIST
IN THE ADAPTIVE CATEGORY AT
THE 2015 FORMULATION ONE
CLASSIC. AS HE ACCEPTED
HIS MEDAL, THERE WAS
THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE.
As Tina Chandler and husband Carl Ducena took to the stage to
tell the story of Wade’s journey to reach that very moment, the
applause rolled into tears of joy, and it wasn’t hard to see why.
Wade’s win represented everything that fitness is about: mental tenacity and determination.
A 43 year old male with loose muscle Chorea Cerebral Palsy
and Scoliosis, the odds were more than against Wade not to be
on that stage, but there he stood—as Wade proudly says— “bent
but not broken.”
After his victory, Forward Movement Mag invited Wade, his
wife BJ, and training managers, Tina and Carl—a dynamic, husband and wife duo and co-owners of “Own the Room Entertainment”—to our office to chat. Our time together including a photoshoot and interview, was only supposed to last an hour, but by
the time we said our last good byes we had hit the five hour mark.
From the moment the foursome entered our office it was simple to see that this group was a family. Wade’s high spirits fed energy into all of us and the laughs and smiles were non-stop. It was
a side you would have never known was there unless you spent
time with him, but as Wade openly admitted, with a sly grin, “I
have a wild side”.
At first it was difficult for us to understand how Wade maintained his constant positivity, but as we spoke to him and he told
us about his beginnings, we started to get it.
Diagnosed at 11 months with Chorea (sudden involuntary move-

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