Lessons that come with losing an arm helped mold Arendz’s Paralympic career
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — Mark Arendz was a stubborn child.
So when a grain auger took his left arm at seven years old, the Paralympic biathlete and cross-country skier insisted on teaching himself all the life skills that came with being one-handed.
While his friends were learning to swim and ride bikes, he was mastering the art of buttoning his shirt, cutting his food, and eating cereal without the bowl sliding across the table like a curling stone.
The 28-year-old from Hartsville, P.E.I., raced to his second medal of the Pyeongchang Paralympics on Tuesday, a bronze in biathlon’s 12.5 kilometre event, and moments after he’d picked himself up off the snow and caught his breath, he talked about how all those milestones as a kid made him the athlete and man he is today.