Gold medal-winning Paralympic sailor with ALS dies

From The Los Angeles Times. YachtPals.com profiled him in July 2008.

Nick Scandone, a sailor who won a gold medal at the 2008 Paralympic Games in China six years after having been stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, died Jan. 2 at his Fountain Valley, Calif., home. He was 42.

Sailing since he was 8, Mr. Scandone was an All-American yachtsman at the University of California, Irvine, who fell just short of qualifying for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He left competitive sailing until being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2002.

Three years later, Mr. Scandone was named U.S. Sailing's Rolex yachtsman of the year after beating an 88-boat fleet of able-bodied and disabled sailors in the 2.4-meter open world championship regatta off the coast of Italy. He has been nominated for the 2008 award, sailing's highest honor, with the results to be announced later this month.

In September, as skipper of a two-person keelboat, Mr. Scandone and crew member Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, a paraplegic from Marblehead, Mass., (they are both pictured) won the gold medal in the SKUD18 class at the Paralympics regatta in Qingdao, China.

Mr. Scandone's wife, Mary Kate, and his brother, Rocky, accompanied him to China and cheered him on during the international competition for disabled athletes. The U.S. team chose Mr. Scandone as its flag bearer for the opening ceremony at Beijing.

"Nick knew what he wanted to accomplish, and he kept himself alive for the Olympics," Rocky Scandone said Jan. 3. "When he was diagnosed with [ALS], we
thought it would be a couple years. Around the fourth year he had his eyes set on the Olympics, and we all said, well, that's great to have that goal, but no one thought he would be that strong to last two years. He willed himself through it."

An estimated 5,600 Americans annually develop ALS, a degenerative neuromuscular disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Few patients live more than five years after being diagnosed.

"Without sailing, I don't know where I'd be," Mr. Scandone said after winning the gold medal.

A year after a doctor told him that his nagging back pain was caused by ALS, Mr. Scandone quit his job as a restaurant equipment salesman in 2003 and decided to devote the rest of his time to sailing.