Mark Zupan (sportsman)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

Mark Zupan

Mark Zupan (born May 20, 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio) is the captain of the United States quadriplegic wheelchair rugby team which competes in the Paralympic Games and the official spokesperson for Team USA. He is best known for his appearance in the 2005 film Murderball.

Mark Zupan was born in Cleveland, Ohio to his parents Thomas and Linda Zupan. He played varsity football and soccer in high school, earning him a scholarship to Florida Atlantic University. After a soccer game on October 14 1993, Zupan got drunk with teammates and then crawled into the bed of his buddy's (Chris Igoe) truck to sleep. A short time later Igoe left the bar and began driving home. The truck was involved in a collision and Zupan was thrown into a canal, where he held onto a branch for 14 hours until being discovered by a passerby [1]. He went into hypothermia and became quadriplegic as a result of the accident.

When asked if he would "turn back the clock on that day", Zupan answered "No, I don't think so. My injury has led me to opportunities and experiences and friendships I would never have had before. And it has taught me about myself. In some ways, it's the best thing that ever happened to me."

After his accident, Zupan graduated from Georgia Tech, became a two time quad rugby national champion, the 2004 quad rugby player of the year, and an Olympic quad rugby bronze medalist. He is a resident of Austin, Texas.

[edit] Zupan in Popular Culture

Zupan was featured as a customer in TLC's Miami Ink, during the first season. Parts of his documentary were shown as background information.

Zupan's autobiography GIMP : When Life Deals You a Crappy Hand, You Can Fold---or You Can Play (ISBN 0-06-112768-X) was published by HarperCollins on October 17th, 2006.

He was depicted in an episode of the claymation series Celebrity Deathmatch in a match against Chris Pontius. He won.

In August '07, Mark's team "Superman's Crip-Tonite" placed second in Red Bull Flugtag Austin. For their efforts they won a $3,000 prize. Zupan's Flugtag adventure was chronicled in an ESPN.com story by writer Mary Buckheit.

He was also in the movie Jackass: Number Two, in a skit called "Lake Jump", where his wheelchair was rigged up with CO2 tanks and pushed off a ramp by Chris Pontius. Before taking off, the tanks triggered, launching him off of the ramp and into the lake.

Zupan was featured on the second episode of season 3 of 30 Days, where former NFL athlete Ray Crockett was confined to a wheelchair for 30 days, and at one point attempted to play wheelchair rugby.