Nothing could slow JP Corman down. Watch video
WASHINGTON TWP. -- Nothing could slow JP Corman down. Not four feet of water, not the oppressive summer sun nor a specialized bicycle far larger than he.
No, none of that -- not even the fact that the 8-year-old Barrington boy is blind -- seemed to slow JP down as he trained for this Saturday's first-ever Challenge Champ Triathlon.
"I just thought, 'What a great opportunity,'" JP's mother, Faye Corman, said Monday at Virtua Health System's fitness center as her son prepared to go take a dip. "He likes to swim. He likes to ride bikes. He likes to run ... He has a lot of energy. I think it's an amazing opportunity -- he's super excited."
Corman heard about the event online and reached out to KidzTri3, the youth multi-sport organization putting on Saturday's triathlon at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology. KidzTri3 then paired JP with Todd and Carson Wiley.
The former is an athletic trainer and race guide for blind athlete Aaron Schiedies, who is on the 2016 USA Paratriathlon Team participating in the Olympic games in Brazil. The latter is his 13-year-old son. Together, they showed JP the ropes -- although it didn't seem like he needed much encouragement to get out there and get things done.
"If you can help out in any way, that's one of the beauties of what we do," said Wiley.
KidzTri3 Founder and CEO Kimberle Levin expects 15 participants for Saturday's event, the first it has ever hosted for handicapped athletes.
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"JP is one of very few youth blind athletes actually competing in a triathlon so we're thrilled to have him and we're thrilled to be doing what we're doing," Levin said.
Virtua, which teamed up with KidzTri3 to put on this Saturday's event, was more than happy to provide JP with the venue he needed to ready himself.
"It's hard not to smile when you see people like that and children especially being able to perform, eliminating boundaries and just letting kids be kids. I think that's an awesome experience," said Paul Kasper, Virtua's director of sports medicine.
And what was JP's favorite part of the day?
"Biking," he said, hair still wet from the pool and fresh off a jog across the parking lot.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.