Perry Archer Returns Home, Meets President after Ninth Place Finish at London Paralympics

BONAIRE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Lee Ford-Faherty was the only woman on this year’s U.S. Paralympic Archery team, and she represented well, finishing ninth in the world in the Recurve Archer Division.

“That was really special,” says Ford-Faherty.  “I felt like I had a lot of responsibility to do well, and kind of be the inspiration and say, ‘Look, if I can do it, you can get out there and you can do something, too.'”

Lee’s success didn’t come without struggle.

“I have Chron’s Disease,” says Ford-Faherty.  “I have Degenerative Disc Disease and Arthritis.  Some days, it’s just so painful just to get out of bed, but if I don’t get out of bed, I don’t get to shoot arrows.”

Lee qualified for the Paralympic Games in London by taking the gold medal in the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.  Her family tagged along with her to London.

“I’m standing there watching her compete, and that’s when it hit me–that she was at the Olympics,” says her older sister and self-proclaimed “biggest fan”, Terry Wietstruk.  “She was at the Paralympics, and she was actually competing at the world level.”

The Paralympian was treated with the ultimate respect by Londoners.  Wietstruk says Lee, who relies on a wheelchair to get around, ran into some problems with some of the older buildings around town that didn’t have elevators.

“We had people grabbing her chair and picking up the chair,” says Wietstruk.  “(We) didn’t even know them and didn’t even have time to say thank you.  They would help us bring it up to the top of the stairway and set it down and take off.”

Upon returning home to the U.S., the gratitude continued–at the White House.

“He (President Obama) was so nice and very tall, and Michelle was very tall and just really nice and so much prettier in person than you would think,” says Ford-Faherty.  “They were just really honest and welcoming and happy to see us and we could tell that.  It felt very genuine.  It’s not every day you get to go to the White House, so it was a lot of fun.”

Ford-Faherty’s ninth place finish in London was enough to move her up to 15th in the worldwide rankings.  She hopes to head back to the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

For more information, visit Team Ford Archery on Facebook.