Long Island Paralympians: Point Lookout's Lora Webster to compete in Rio 2016 Paralympics

If you thought the Olympics were over, think again! This week, Brazil will host the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Several Long Islanders will be competing. News 12 Long Island's Jamie Stuart

News 12 Staff

Sep 6, 2016, 1:00 AM

Updated 2,953 days ago

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If you thought the Olympics were over, think again! This week, Brazil will host the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Several Long Islanders will be competing. News 12 Long Island's Jamie Stuart tells us the story of Point Lookout's Lora Webster.
This week, Webster will be playing volleyball in her fourth Paralympic Games. She's medaled three times, but has never won the gold.
A gold medal seemed far from Lora's future, when at the age of 11 she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma - a bone cancer.
Webster was given two choices, surgery that would make her an above knee amputee, or undergo rotationplasty. She chose the latter - which gave her use of her leg- with a catch. The rotationplasty took out Lora's tumor. Doctors also removed her knee, then rotated the bottom part of her leg and connected it to the remaining part of her thigh, making her leg a bit shorter, and her foot backward.
"My foot goes backward into my prosthetic, and it's able to control how my leg moves," says Webster.
The surgery allowed Webster to continue to play the sport she loves, with some modifications.
"You have to move with your hands to get to the ball, and you have to use your hands to hit the ball, so the speed is much faster," she says.
Webster says sitting volleyball can be more difficult than traditional volleyball, because the ball comes faster and you can't move as much.
At home, with her husband and three children, the ball doesn't come quite as fast. But Webster continues to inspire.