Columnist Ron Kantowski: Sam Schmidt ready to fill super shoes

Friday, Oct. 15, 2004 | 9:59 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

For additional information regarding Sam Schmidt Motorsports or the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation on the Internet click on www.samschmidt.org

To most Americans, Christopher Reeve will always be remembered as Superman.

But to Henderson race car team owner Sam Schmidt, the actor turned activist was simply a super man.

If you cannot appreciate the difference between the two roles, consider yourself fortunate. It probably means you aren't confined to a wheelchair as a result of paralysis.

Reeve and Schmidt were both fascinated by horsepower, with the major difference being the former preferred the four-legged kind while the latter liked his with four wheels.

In 1995, Reeve was paralyzed when he fell from a show-jumping horse. Five years later, Schmidt suffered a similar fate as a result of a testing crash just four months removed from his first victory in 27 career Indy Racing League starts, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Reeve spent his remaining days on a life-sustaining ventilator. But rather than wallow in self-pity, he become a courageous activist for embryonic stem cell research. If anything, the tragic turn only seemed to energize him until his unexpected death this week.

On Thursday, as he was traveling to McCarran Airport to catch a flight to Texas for the final race of the Infiniti Pro Series season, his driver Thiago Medeiros having already clinched the championship for budding IRL drivers, Schmidt was still coming to terms with the passing of a man who had been such a source of inspiration and -- even more crucial during the immediate aftermath of his own debilitating accident -- information to him.

"If he hadn't been injured before me, I might be on a ventilator right now," said Schmidt, who is paralyzed from the chest down. "Or I might even be dead.

"I was just a passenger (in the hospital). I was in ICU and didn't know which way was up or down. Because of his injury, people went to his Web site, called his doctors, tried to get information about what should be done."

Reeve and Schmidt shared the same physician, Dr. John McDonald, director of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"No. 1, this is a huge (personal) shock," said Schmidt, who said his cars in Saturday's race at Texas Motor Speedway would carry special decals in memory of Reeve. "But it's a shock to the whole (paralysis) community. It's going to be an extremely difficult gap for us to fill.

"First, there was his undying energy in Washington. Not too many people that I can think of can get in front of Congress as much as he did as an advocate for the research. That's an incredible demand on your time. And the amount of pressure he put on the researchers ... it was just incredible that one man was able to change medical research."

Although President Bush in 2001 decided to allow federal funding of research using existing stem cell lines, he stopped short of permitting federal funding for research using stem cells derived from frozen embryos, about 100,000 of which are said to exist at fertility labs.

Research has indicated that stem cells could help speed cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, leukemia, cancer and diabetes as well as spinal cord injuries such as Schmidt's.

Schmidt said it's frustrating to know the science that could help him walk again exists -- a paraplegic lab rat regained use of his limbs after being injected with stem cells -- but that it can't be advanced because of ethics or morality.

"That was one of the things that would make Chris so mad," Schmidt said. "He would say 'I'm tired of hearing about making rodents be able to walk. I want to walk.' That (Reeve's penchant for speaking his mind) is one of the things we're going to miss."

Schmidt said that while nobody could fill his shoes, it would be an honor to take up the fight for Reeve in whatever capacity is needed.

"It's obvious that although winning the championship was very special and winning races is important, that's not going to get me out of the chair," said Schmidt, who continues to undergo three hours of daily physical therapy to keep his body fit in anticipation of the day there is a breakthrough.

"I'll do whatever it takes. If people start looking at me to testify in front of Congress, although I've never had that following or presence, I'll do whatever they ask me to do if it trickles down to me."

The idea behind forming Sam Schmidt Motorsports, in addition to providing Schmidt with an outlet to stay involved with a sport that he still loves with a passion, was to call attention to paralysis victims and the ongoing fight to advance research.

Schmidt also set up a small volunteer foundation bearing his name. He recently hired his first full-time employee, longtime non-profit activist Ida Cahill, who worked on the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and will serve as CEO of Schmidt's group.

Schmidt and Cahill met through Schmidt's "Day at the Races" program, where the race team entertains patients from local rehab centers at the track. The foundation's primary fund-raiser is the "Racing for Recovery Gala," in conjunction with the Indianapolis 500 each May.

It was there that Schmidt met Reeve, as the actor agreed to be a guest speaker at the 2003 function. The two immediately hit it off although, as Schmidt chuckles, it wasn't because of a shared affinity for auto racing.

"It's funny, because his interests could not have been any farther from motor sports," Schmidt said, recalling their introduction. "When he came out to do our event in 2003, he couldn't believe how big the speedway was. Then when we were sitting there talking, he asked me if the drivers still ran across the track and jumped into their cars.

"His only exposure to motor sports had been what he had seen on TV or in the movies. But we formed a pretty serious bond, just because of our injuries."

Schmidt said he felt honored just to chat with Reeve, which in itself was a major accomplishment for both men, given the catastrophic nature of their injuries.

It has been said that the human body is a wondrous thing. But it's men -- super men -- such as Christopher Reeve and Sam Schmidt who remind us that in comparison to the human spirit, its resiliency will always run a distant second.