Dad To Dwarf Paralympic Rivals

A FATHER with dwarfism is taking on Tokyo 2020’s Paralympics.

FOLLOWING over 50 operations to treat his joints – a result of being born with diastrophic dwarfism – Rich Willis found that he was completely reliant on pain medication to get through the day, but one comment from his five-year-old daughter Cherry turned everything around.

Rich says, “I got inspired to do power lifting by my daughter because we were watching the Paralympics in 2016 in Rio. She saw a lady with dwarfism doing power lifting and she says, ‘Daddy, do you think you can do that?’ And at the time I had come out from a lot of surgeries on my legs and I was on a heavy regimen of opiate-based medicines and I thought, ‘Well that’s going to be the kick I need to do something positive.’ So I got in touch with a few gyms and that was it – I’ve been doing it ever since.” Determined to show his daughter that he could achieve anything he set his mind to, the 47-year-old from the UK kicked the pain medication and embarked on his new journey as a power lifter.

Rich says, “I have complicated joints that don’t actually move in the same manner as other people’s do, consequently they tend to rub themselves dry in terms of joint fluid. I also have demosclerosis at the back on my spine. I am not sure bench pressing is the wisest thing to be doing but it seems to be building up the muscles quite nicely to support my frame.”