Blind Rower

A California woman is heading to Europe this summer to compete in the World Rowing Championships. Its a competitive sport, even for the most able-bodied athletes, but Aerial Gilbert did it rowing against the current. "I really enjoyed the sport of rowing. It gets in your blood," Gilbert says. It is easy to assume the view of Marins glorious nature is what draws Aerial Gilbert to the bay each morning, but in truth, seagulls and the fingers of fog clinging to the hills mean very little to her. "When Im on the water, its the only time in my waking hours that I can forget that Im blind," she says. There was a time in Gilberts life when this scenery was the backdrop for a normal life, but in 1988, she became the random victim of a cruel crime. "I worked at Marin General, and I came home from working the night shift and my eyes were dry and sore from the air-conditioned environment, so I stopped and bought some over the counter eye drops and unbeknownst to me they had been tampered with and had lye instead of eye drops," Gilbert says. Aerial Gilbert could no longer see. After the incident, Gilbert retreated into her world, thinking there was nothing she could do and no place she could go. "About six months out, a woman who I rowed with in Sausalito came to the house and said, Im taking you rowing. You dont need to see. Im taking you out in a double," Gilbert says. "Im listening, Im listening to the seats that are in front of me and behind me sliding back and forth, and Im listening to the oar locks turning in. The oars turning in the oar locks." Through rowing, Gilbert found her way back to the living. Now, she has a home on the Marin Rowing Team, and a family among her teammates. "She just knows how to follow and swing with the person in front of her, because she just feels what theyre doing," says fellow oarsman Cassandra Cunningham. "One of the drills we do sometimes with the other athletes is to have them to close their eyes. Other coaches have had them use a blindfold, because then you feel so much more of whats going on, instead of using your eyes which really arent that helpful," Gilberts rowing coach Deirdre McLoughlin says. "In some ways I have an advantage in that Im not distracted by the things Im seeing around me," Gilbert says. It would be incorrect to describe Gilbert as blind because she hangs on to a bold vision of the future. This year, she qualified for the U.S. National Adaptive Rowing Team. Next, she hopes to go to the Olympics. "Next year is the first year it will be included as part of the Para-Olympics in Beijing, and my goal all along from 2002 to the present is to make the team that will go next year," she says. Teammates say the most impressive thing about Gilberts rowing isnt her lack of sight. Its that shes in her fifties competing against much younger athletes, but if you ask Gilbert, shed say the most satisfying victory is the battle shes already won. When she isnt rowing, Gilbert runs a business that provides guide dogs for the blind. This month, shell head to Munich, Germany for the World Rowing Championships. Photo Credit: Courtesy: Haddonfield Rowing Organization