Team Hoyt refers to father Dick Hoyt (June 1, 1940 – March 17, 2021) and his son Rick Hoyt (born January 10, 1962) from

Holland, Massachusetts Holland is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,603 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the town center comprises the census-desig ...

. The Hoyts competed together in various athletic endeavors, including marathons and

Ironman Triathlon An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a swim, a bicycle ride and a marathon run completed in that order, a total of . It is widely consider ...

s. Rick has

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

. During competition, Dick pulled Rick in a special boat as they would swim, carried him in a special seat in the front of a bicycle, and pushed him in a special

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

as they ran. Team Hoyt were inducted to the Ironman Hall of Fame and were recipients of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Jimmy V Award The Jimmy V Award (sometimes called the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance) is awarded as part of the ESPY Awards to "a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination". The award is na ...

Rick Hoyt's birth and early life

Rick Hoyt was diagnosed with

at birth after his umbilical cord became twisted around his neck, which caused the blockage of oxygen flow. As a result, his brain could not properly control his muscles. Many doctors encouraged the Hoyts to institutionalize Rick, informing them that he would be nothing more than a "

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

." His parents held on to the fact that Rick's eyes would follow them around the room, giving them hope that he would somehow be able to communicate someday. The Hoyts took Rick every week to Children's Hospital in Boston, where they met a doctor who encouraged the Hoyts to treat Rick like any other child. Rick's mother Judy spent hours each day teaching Rick the alphabet with sandpaper letters and posting signs on every object in the house. In a short amount of time, Rick learned the alphabet. At the age of 11, after some persistence from his parents, Rick was fitted with a computer that enabled him to communicate, and it became clear that Rick was intelligent. With this communication device, Rick was also able to attend public schools for the first time. Rick went on to graduate from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 1993 with a degree in

special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

. He later worked at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

in a computer lab helping to develop systems to aid in communication and other tasks for people with disabilities.

Team history

Team Hoyt began in 1977 when Rick asked his father if they could run in a race together to benefit a

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player at his school who had become paralyzed. He wanted to prove that life went on no matter your disability. Dick Hoyt, a retired

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in the

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...

, was not a runner and was 36 years old. After their first race Rick said, "Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped." After their initial five mile run, Dick began running every day with a bag of cement in the wheelchair because Rick was at school and studying, unable to train with him. Dick was able to improve his fitness so much that even with pushing his son, he was able to obtain a personal record of a in 17 minutes. Through March 2016, the Hoyts had competed in 1,130 endurance events, including 72 marathons and six

s. They had run the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

32 times. Also adding to their list of achievements, Dick and Rick biked and ran across the U.S. in 1992, completing a full in 45 days. They also competed in triathlons. For the swim portion of a triathlon, Dick used a rope attached to his body to pull Rick sitting in a boat. For the cycle portion, Rick rode on the front of a specially designed tandem bike. For the run portion, Dick pushed Rick in his wheelchair. In the

2013 Boston Marathon The 2013 Boston Marathon was the 117th running of the annual marathon race in Boston, United States, which took place on April 15, 2013. Organized by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.), it hosted the second of the World Marathon Majors to ...

, Team Hoyt had about a mile to go when two bombs exploded near the finish line; they were stopped by officials, along with thousands of other runners still running the race. They were not injured. A bystander with an

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

gave them a ride to the Sheraton hotel, and they were temporarily separated from Rick's wheelchair. On April 21, 2014, Dick and Rick Hoyt completed the

2014 Boston Marathon The 2014 Boston Marathon took place in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday, April 21 (Patriots' Day). It was the 118th edition of the mass-participation marathon. The race is organized by the Boston Athletic Association. On account of the 2013 Bo ...

, having previously announced that it would be their last together. From 2015 through 2019, Rick Hoyt was pushed in the Boston Marathon by Bryan Lyons, a dentist from

Billerica, Massachusetts Billerica (, ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 42,119 according to the 2020 census. It takes its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. History In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian ...

; Lyons died in June 2020, aged 50. Dick Hoyt died in his sleep at his home in

, on March 17, 2021, after experiencing some health problems. He was 80 years old.

Honors

Team Hoyt was inducted to the Ironman Hall of Fame in 2008. On April 8, 2013, a bronze statue in honor of the Hoyts was dedicated near the start of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

honored Team Hoyt with the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the

ESPY Award An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

show on July 17, 2013. Team Hoyt was also featured on inspirational billboards within the U.S.

Racing history

Total events (): 1,130

References

External links

*

at sportsillustrated.cnn.com via

La Marató de TV3
(in

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) via

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