High School Runner Pushes Her Brother In A Wheelchair At Cross Country Meets

A 14-year-old Wisconsin runner pushes her disabled 15-year-old brother in a wheelchair during high school cross country races. Jeffrey and Susan Bergeman, are freshmen at Chippewa High School. When Jeffrey was just 22 months old, he experienced cardiac arrest. He was without oxygen to the brain for 20 minutes and as a result, he suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and another disorder that leaves him unable to speak or walk, but he is able to communicate with head movement and “computer-controlled eye gaze movements.”

His mom says he is able to understand much of what is said to him, responds to questions, and is able to express his likes, dislikes, and feelings.” Both mom and dad were avid runners and ran with Jeffery until Susan wanted to take over at age 10. And they’ve been running together since. 

Susan says: “We are currently exhibition, we are not competing at all, there are a lot of rules that are on us like we aren’t suppose to pass people and we are suppose to go slow and let everyone finish first and our results don’t matter and my brother and I are both super competitive so it does kind of annoy us a little bit.” “This first year, it’s ok that it’s kind of just starting to get people aware that this can happen, that the kids can do this safely but beyond that we want them to see they can actually be true competitors and true athletes on the field,” 

Whenever Susan runs into a challenging hill or difficult stretch on the cross-country course, she relies on Jeffrey for motivation.  

“Mentally I just push away the pain and focus on him enjoying it.”