Born Without Legs - Now I'm A Professional Wrestler | BORN DIFFERENT
This determined 22-year-old is continuing to make his mark in the world – despite living with no legs. Zion Clark was born with caudal regression syndrome, a rare disorder that impairs the development of the lower spine. In Zion’s case, he was born missing both of his legs. Residing in Ohio, Zion says that one in every 100,000 children are born with the congenital condition each year – and due to his unfortunate circumstances, Zion ended up in foster care for the first 16 years of his life. Fostered by his now-mother Kimberlli, Zion now has a fantastic support system and has continued to find his strength and passion in the form of WRESTLING. The talented and keen sportsman is bidding to become one of the best freestyle wrestlers in the world.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:01 Being born without legs hadn't stopped me
00:03 from doing the things that I wanna do.
00:05 - Well, people would just, they'd make fun of me
00:06 'cause I didn't have legs.
00:07 - The best way to deal with haters
00:09 is to use the hate to lift yourself up.
00:12 Haters are your biggest fans, so use that to your advantage.
00:15 (upbeat music)
00:19 My name is Zion Clark.
00:25 I was born with a rare condition
00:26 that caused me not to have legs.
00:28 I was born with caudal regression syndrome.
00:30 It is a very rare disease.
00:32 One out of every 100,000 kids are born with it each year.
00:35 Caudal regression syndrome is a rare disease
00:38 that can cause a number of abnormalities in a baby.
00:41 Like, it can be you have a portion of your spine missing,
00:44 or in my case, I was born without legs.
00:48 I lived most of my life through foster care
00:50 up 'til about 16.
00:51 - He came into my life when the caseworkers
00:54 had reached out to me and said that they needed
00:57 a replacement for a young fellow.
00:59 They bring Zion to my home some weeks later.
01:03 Then it came to a point to where I just knew he was mine
01:06 and I just was so in love with him.
01:08 And I approached him one day on the couch,
01:11 and I said, "Zion, I know that I'm not
01:14 "your biological mother."
01:16 And I asked him if I could get to be his mom.
01:20 He said, "Yes, I want you to be my mom."
01:23 I was like, "Well, let's do this.
01:25 "Let's do it."
01:26 (gentle music)
01:29 - The relationship with my mom is fantastic.
01:32 She is the greatest woman I know, you know?
01:34 And she wants what's best for me.
01:38 She wants what's best for me and my sisters.
01:40 She never once was gonna give up on me.
01:43 - I mean, I was a troubled kid during school,
01:46 so I mean, anything, any little thing would make me mad.
01:50 I just got in trouble for punching lockers
01:53 or just back talking to teachers, you know?
01:55 Well, people would just, they'd make fun of me
01:59 'cause I didn't have legs,
02:00 so they'd think I couldn't do something,
02:01 or they'd be talking to me saying I wouldn't do something,
02:05 and in turn, I'd do it and get in trouble.
02:07 But then, after a while, I just got tired of it,
02:10 so I stopped reacting and I just let 'em talk.
02:13 And eventually, they started leaving me alone.
02:16 (gentle music)
02:18 School wasn't the greatest time for me,
02:20 but by the time I was a senior,
02:21 I was able to turn it around
02:22 and get to college and start doing everything I wanted to do.
02:26 - I started wrestling in second grade.
02:29 I could just go wrestle for a couple more hours,
02:31 waste all my energy, and go home and just go to sleep.
02:34 When I was really little, the first few matches,
02:37 I didn't know what to do, and neither did my opponent.
02:40 Some kids were scared to wrestle me.
02:43 I was scared to wrestle them.
02:44 I didn't know what I was doing.
02:46 I adapted my wrestling by a lot of trial and error.
02:51 I spent years figuring out what would work,
02:54 what didn't work, and there's a lot of things
02:56 that don't work, but the things that do work,
02:58 drill 'em over and over and over again
03:00 'til they're completely flawless,
03:02 until somebody might know I'm doing it,
03:04 but I'm gonna do it anyways, whether they want me to or not.
03:07 (gentle music)
03:09 I am feeling great about a match.
03:14 I train about twice a day, every single day,
03:17 about six days a week, and it's an everyday thing.
03:20 It's a grind, it's a lifestyle.
03:22 Zion was a very special athlete
03:24 because he had perseverance,
03:26 and his determination was second to none.
03:28 It was very easy for me to coach him
03:30 with qualities like that.
03:32 Very good takedown.
03:33 Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's get the breakdown.
03:36 He has no legs, so he doesn't have any power
03:38 for the bottom half of his body,
03:40 which puts him at a great disadvantage for wrestling.
03:43 I noticed that because of his willingness
03:46 to do the things that he needs to do to win,
03:48 that I knew that we could come up with something
03:50 to make him successful.
03:52 How proud am I, Zion?
03:54 Give me a Z, Z, you got your Z, you got your Z.
03:58 I am proud, I'm his number one cheerleader.
04:01 I told you, I am the executive director of his fan club.
04:06 I am very proud of him, how at first he was just so angry,
04:11 but how he learned is each time to rout that anger
04:16 and to make it into something positive.
04:19 Being born without legs hasn't stopped me
04:21 from doing the things that I wanna do.
04:23 The best way to deal with haters
04:24 is to use the hate to lift yourself up.
04:28 Haters are your biggest fans,
04:29 so use that to your advantage.
04:31 My dreams and ambitions, one day to make the Olympic team
04:36 be one of the best freestyle wrestlers in the world.
04:38 I wanna be able to go back home,
04:40 tell my mom, like, "Mom, number one, there's nobody better.
04:43 "I'm gonna try to keep getting better from there.
04:45 "I just wanna be the best."
04:47 The biggest lesson I've had to learn
04:49 is that things will not always go your way,
04:50 but you have to work with what you got,
04:53 and once you're able to work with what you have,
04:56 multiple doors will start to open.
04:57 (upbeat music)
05:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]