After accident, Tony Davis is back in the water, trying to make the U.S. Paralympic National rowing team

“One night I layed in bed and asked God for forgiveness and asked him for my legs back,” Davis said. “I started getting out of my wheelchair and started doing things I wasn't supposed to do.”

Davis said he taught himself to walk again by watching his young son learn to walk.

“We learned to walk at the same time,” he said. “I would watch how he would walk and kind of mimic the way he walked.''

Then Davis started competing in sports. Two years ago he attended a winter sports clinic for disabled veterans where he got his first taste of rowing.

There was a competition being held on an indoor rowing machine. The fastest time would win “a nice collared shirt,” Davis said.

Davis wanted the shirt and won it. He also caught the eye of a Paralympic coach who later called him and suggested that he attend a camp where he participated in sitting volleyball, swimming and rowing.

“I got on the water and started rowing and I felt like I was running again,” Davis said. “I felt free. I felt like I could do whatever I want.”

Davis started competing in rowing with immediate success. That led him to Oklahoma City where his is now training full-time.

Matt Musselman, the adaptive rowing coaching, said Davis and Kapinowski have a good shot to make the U.S. Paralympic rowing team to compete in the 2011 world championships.

“They have been putting in 10 to 12 practices a week,” said Matt Musselman, the adaptive rowing coach.

“They are doing physical therapy, doing the weights, doing the rowing, doing everything any able-bodied rower would do.”