For months after the accident, Steve Emt was lying to people — including himself.
In March 1995, Emt was driving on I-84 northeast of Hartford, Connecticut, when he crashed his car. Emt was driving drunk. Only 25 years old, Emt woke up the next day and was told he would never walk again.
He was paralyzed from the waist down.
“For six months after my crash. I was lying to myself. I told everybody a deer ran out in front of me,” Emt said. “I didn’t want to be a drunk driver. I didn’t want all the kids in my hometown, all the people around the country that love me, I didn’t want them looking at me as a drunk driver. But then I wasn’t healing. I wasn’t moving on because I didn’t accept it.”
Emt had been an athlete all his life. As a senior at RHAM High School, he played basketball and averaged 27 points per game, leading his team to the state semifinals. His exploits caught the attention of the U.S. Military Academy, where he was recruited to hoop.
Emt spent one year at Army before a shocking tragedy set him on a different course. When he was 19, his father died of a sudden heart attack. Distraught, Emt transferred to the University of Connecticut so he could be closer to home.
He eventually walked on to the UConn basketball team, playing for legendary coach Jim Calhoun.
“The first day I'm on campus, [Calhoun] pulled me into his office, and there wasn't a word spoken about basketball,” Emt said. “He said: ‘Steve, I lost my father when I was a young kid. We got that in common. I just want you to know that I'm here for you whatever you need.’”
Emt played in two games for the Huskies during the 1993-94 season. Then, one mistake seemingly ended his athletic career and left Emt in shame.
Nearly half a year after his fateful crash, Emt was approached by a reporter who wanted to tell his real story, a moment that forced him to confront the truth. He agreed to be interviewed, and a weight was lifted off his chest.
Emt came to accept the label of “drunk driver” and put it to good use. He began touring the country, speaking at high schools and warning teenagers about the dangers of the mistake he made.
For most people, this would be the end of the story. An athlete who makes a terrible mistake who then uses that indiscretion to stop other people from repeating his failures.
For Emt, it was only the beginning.
Seventeen years after the crash, Emt, now in a wheelchair, was minding his own business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when he was approached by an older gentleman.
“He's like, ‘Excuse me, are you local?’” Emt recalled. Emt told the older man he lived two hours away in Connecticut and then asked why he wanted to know.
“Well, I train with the Paralympic curling team here in Cape Cod, and I saw you push up the hill back there,” the man said. “And with your build, I can make you with an Olympian in a year.”
The man was Tony Colacchio, a former curler who had been president of the Cape Cod Curling Club. Colacchio was trying to promote the growth of wheelchair curling.
There was only one problem for Emt.
