Mobility for a USA Archery Para Archer

Frankie from Florida grew up enjoying the outdoors, participating in baseball, surfing, swimming, running and anything to do with nature. At age 10, everything changed when he received a diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Intermediate B and Centronuclear Myopathy, a progressive form of Muscular Dystrophy. Now age 13, with his mobility severely impacted, he still pursues his outdoor endeavors and focuses on archery with USA Archery, classified at the most severe level (W1) of para archery for competition.

Frankie won Gold at the Florida State Indoor Competition in 2025 and Silver in the 56th USA Archery Indoor Nationals in the W1 (para) Men/Women combined category. USA Archery does not have a youth division, so he competes against adult archers. Frankie’s ultimate dream is to participate in World competitions and one day the Olympics. An obstacle to this dream was the fact that his current wheelchair did not have the ability to navigate through the terrain required to participate in outdoor 3D shoots, which are a must in the world of competitive archery. He also would not be able to fulfill his dream of bow hunting without the access provided by a motorized off-road wheelchair track system.

Heartland DSC has provided Frankie with a Freedom Trax, a portable, motorized track system that transforms his manual wheelchair into a rugged off-road wheelchair so that he can continue to pursue his archery dreams and get him back outdoors as part of his everyday life.

Published October 2025