Becoming a Paralympian made this Temple rower proud of who she is: ‘This is part of you’

Before Gemma Wollenschlaeger was born, her mom, Lezanne, was told by doctors that there was a chance her daughter may not be able to walk, run, or play sports.

Wollenschlaeger had a left clubfoot, which is when tendons, including the Achilles tendon, are too short, causing the foot to turn inward. When she was 9 months old, she underwent surgery to release the tendons. It can help relieve tight muscles and allow for more movement.

But complications caused her foot to turn back. Even after a second surgery, the doctors couldn’t reset it. That’s when her parents had to make a decision.

“You can go down the path where you make this a misery for your life. There are a lot of options. You can do a lot of cosmetic surgery,” Lezanne recalled doctors telling her. “Or we can just let her be as much like a normal child as possible.”

It was hard to have a normal upbringing, Wollenschlaeger said. She can walk but can’t jump or run for long periods of time. She had to be careful with her hip alignment because her left leg is shorter than the right by an inch and her left foot is two shoe sizes smaller than the right.

At times, she struggled to fit in, she said. But now, the Temple rower is in Paris to compete in the 2024 Paralympics with Team USA.

Para rowing starts Friday. Wollenschlaeger, 21, is a member of the PR3 mixed four with a coxswain. Last year, she won gold with Team USA in the 2023 Para Rowing Regatta to Paris and took home a silver medal from the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

Temple women’s rowing coach Rebecca Grzybowski introduced Wollenschlaeger to the Paralympics during her freshman year. Competing on the para rowing team was the first time Wollenschlaeger, who’s now a junior, felt proud of who she was.

“In sports, I always kind of brushed over my foot, like, I can work around it, and it shouldn’t be anything that holds me back,” she said. “Finding the para team has actually made me realize that this is part of you. This is a very important part of you, and you need to be open about it.”

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Growing up in Crofton, Md., after spending her early childhood in South Africa, Wollenschlaeger tried a variety of sports — basketball, soccer, swimming, and golf — but there always were limitations, and she felt that coaches sometimes didn’t want to take a chance on her because of them. Despite her love of competing, it left her getting cut from teams.

That made her feel ashamed of her disability.

She also was bullied in middle school because of her foot and ankle deformity, her mom said. It was hard to ignore those remarks, and she started to isolate herself as a teenager.

“Those middle school years are tough as it is,” Lezanne said. “You’ve got the mean girls at school. They go to dances with high heels. She can’t wear heels, so she always had to wear flat shoes. That was all a reality.

“She would come home, have lunch, and disappear into her bedroom and would watch Netflix. That was Gemma for two years. She was lost. She hadn’t found her people and hadn’t found her sport.”

Rowing changed Wollenschlaeger’s life. At the end of her sophomore year at Archbishop Spalding High School, Wollenschlaeger joined Annapolis Junior Rowing. Her sister helped her find the club and encouraged her to try it out.

At first, she never considered the sport, but after she got in a boat, she was reminded of why she loves competing in a team setting. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time. It changed her confidence and her perception of herself.

“Finding rowing and that new group was awesome,” Wollenschlaeger said. “I made some amazing friends from my first rowing experience at Annapolis Juniors. I just kind of felt like I was part of a group, because I definitely knew I was different with my foot, so being on a team, I felt like I belonged.”

Her mom added: “The beauty of this story is that we had nothing to do with it. It was all Gemma from day one. She arranged her session. She arranged her lifts from school to get there. She arranged everything. We just had to pick her up at the end of the day. She would be muddy, exhausted, come home, eat, fall into bed, and that became her life.”

But she kept her clubfoot hidden. As Wollenschlaeger became more committed to rowing, she saw that there was a possibility that she could do it in college.

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Temple’s Grzybowski connected with Wollenschlaeger during her junior year of high school. Although she was fairly new to the sport, Wollenschlaeger emphasized to the coach that she wanted to be better. That personality stuck with Grzybowski.

“She was definitely not our fastest recruit in the class. COVID-19 kind of slowed down their high school process,” Grzybowski said. “But I loved her energy and her attitude. She just stood out. She was always really upbeat, positive, and excited about the opportunity. I knew she would be a great fit.”

But Wollenschlaeger didn’t tell Grzybowski about her disability until after she committed. She wanted to earn her spot at Temple without anything hindering that possibility. Grzybowski, who’s been at the helm since 2012, was open to any modifications Wollenschlaeger needed.

She quickly proved herself with the Owls and moved up to the varsity eight boat as a freshman. She helped Temple’s championship eight boat finish second out of 13 boats at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta during her sophomore year.

Wollenschlaeger hopes her journey of finding para rowing will inspire others who are struggling to find a sport for them.

“There were ups and downs, but I didn’t give up,” she said. “I would tell others who are going through something similar that you have a space in this world, and it’s waiting for you. It’s going to be way bigger and better than you could have ever imagined.”