New Delhi: Tracy Otto was eating her lunch when she was surprised by the news that she was selected for the United States archery team for the Paris Paralympics 2024. She will compete in mixed team event with partner Jason Tabansky and in singles she will be in qualification for the W1 open individuals competition.
“They gave Ricky [Riessle], my boyfriend, this box with a hat in it, saying you’re qualified. When he presented it to me I was eating, I had food in my mouth. So I was eating and crying, and there were cameras everywhere” Tracy told BBC Sport.
Otto was attacked at home by her ex-boyfriend in October 2019 and was left paralysed from the chest down. She lost her left eye and also can only make limited use of her arms and hands.
‘My ex-boyfriend told us that he’s going to kill us’: Tracy Otto
She broke up with her ex-boyfriend in September 2019. After a month, he was arrested for attacking her at home in Riverview, Florida. After that, Otto moved on and started dating Ricky. She met with him on 26th September 2019 and went on a couple of dates.
She kicked her ex-boyfriend out of the house and changed all the locks of her house but he attacked her on October 24, 2019, and that incident changed her life completely.
“That night it was 24 October 2019, we had another little date, and we go off to bed. I remember rolling over and getting comfortable in bed and drifting off to sleep. And then all of a sudden, I hear this loud noise and I see a flashlight in my face and I was so confused” she said.
She further added that he parked his car at the front of her house and went around the back of her house and looked through her window. She also said that he purchased a high-power pellet gun a knife and a set of handcuffs. He then came back to her house and woke Otto and her boyfriend by screaming at them.
“He tells us that he’s going to kill us and that if he didn’t kill himself, he was going to call the police. So, he outright told us what he was going to do. This is where everything gets kind of blurry because it happened so quickly. I can tell you what I know happened, I just don’t have it first hand because my brain just kind of blocked everything out” Otto told BBC.
He punches Otto multiple times and shoots Riessle (her current boyfriend) twice in the face and also stabs him in the back, resulting in his lungs collapsing. After that, he Shot Otto in the left eye and stabbed her in the back of the neck which left her paralysed.
“And he ends up calling the police on himself and tells them that ‘this is my name, ‘this is where I’m at’. He calls me his girlfriend, but then later admits to the police that we had broken up. And he was like, ‘I just killed my girlfriend and her new boyfriend’. They show up, he’s sitting in the driveway, and he gets taken away” Otto said.
Her ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty in January 2023 and was sentenced to 40 years in jail. After five years of attack, she is still learning about how her body works. She said that her body can’t regulate its temperature any more and she can’t sweat anymore. Otto also said that she has issues with her bowel and bladder because her brain can’t communicate with the rest of the body.
“If I sit out in the sun, like I do for archery, my body and my internal temperature gets incredibly high, so we have to do everything that we can to make sure I don’t overheat and have a heatstroke” she said.
“I’ve had this feeling that there is a bigger picture about this situation”: Otto
After such a traumatic experience, she was looking to get back to her regular life and picked up a sport that she never tried in her life. She did some research and found an adaptive archery course in her area and a week later she was shooting for the first time.
She has to shoot with a specially designed harness because of her disabilities. Otto used to release the arrows from her right shoulder, but now she uses her mouth.
She took part in qualifying tournaments as the only female American archer in her Paralympic category and had to meet a minimum score – shooting 72 arrows, she needed 520 points from 720.
She confirmed her qualification to Paris in a three-stage series earlier this year which led to a surprise celebration over lunch. Otto said that she always wanted to leave an impact on the world because there is so much darkness and hate.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that is that I worked through it and have learned so much about it along the way. My life is so much better now, much more colourful and full of love and laughter than it was before” Otto added.
Otto was attacked by her ex-boyfriend at home which left her paralysed. He shot her in the left eye and stabbed her in the back of the neck. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
