Dailymail reports that this
past weekend at the NPC Junior USA Bodybuilding Championship, only one
bodybuilder among hundreds of the men and women competing got a standing
ovation.
Though she
didn't win any major awards, armless bodybuilder Barbie Thomas had the
Charleston, South Carolina crowd cheering and on their feet.
The 37-year-old
mother-of-two lost both her arms during a horrific electrical accident
as a toddler - but that hasn't stopped her from pursuing her
bodybuilding dream.
Thomas says she can do anything an average person can do - except she uses her feet.
That includes
brushing her teeth, making dinner, taking milk out of the fridge,
texting, shopping, putting on makeup and even driving.
The single mom - who has been married three times - began bodybuilding back in 2003.
She said: 'I
used to read about all the fitness competitors in magazines - and I
thought that was the coolest thing ever. I wanted to be like them and do
the things they were doing. I thought it was amazing.'
Thomas decided
to take the plunge into the sport after years of doubting herself and
wondering if she'd even qualify because she didn't have arms to do the
competition mandatories: 'I finally called the locale chairperson and
talked to him about it; and he gave me the green light.
Thomas lost her
arms when she was two years old. She climbed onto an electrical
transformer and grabbed the wires. The electricity entered her hands and
surged through her body - scorching her arms down to the bone and
turning them into something 'like charcoal.'
'The doctor said I wouldn't live - and if I did live, I'd probably be a vegetable,' she said.
'But God had a different plan for me; I'm still here, healthy, and alive and well.'
So what's your excuse? share this amazing story with family and friends across social media by clicking on any of the share buttons below.