In high school, Kaitlin "Kosh" Jasmon won numerous awards for out-swimming everyone else in the pool, but now the Ball State University swimmer has won an award for just being in the pool.
After practice, Jasmon has to be pulled out of the pool by her teammates and wrapped in bags of ice. For the next few hours, Jasmon's muscles are so worn down, she has to use a wheel chair to get around. She suffers from a neromuscular autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis (MG).
"It's a really weird feeling," Jasmon said in a February interview. "You can't move. It's a type of paralysis. It hurts a lot immediately after practice. It feels like I've been beaten with a baseball bat while my muscles are cramping up and they're on fire on top of that."
Jasmon's story caught the attention of Indysportsnation.com, who named her story the "college sports story of the year."
"It was an honor to get this," Jasmon said. "It's really cool how it's on the Web site and I've had a ton of people that wouldn't know about it otherwise come up to me and tell me what an inspiration I am and that's really motivating and helps me get through the bad days."
Since being diagnosed with MG during the summer of 2007, between her freshman and sophomore years, Jasmon has began using her plight as a way to inspire others. She has spoken at numerous events and frequently gives speeches to help inspire the other swimmers on the team. Jasmon said this award has only helped her reach her ultimate goal of getting her story out to the masses.
"I definitely think this is a huge step forward in being able to obtain my goal," Jasmon said. "The entire state of Indiana can see this now and it was even on the news, so even more people that wouldn't normally hear about my story did. Even if it's just a couple of minutes when they see it, maybe they forget about it, maybe they don't, but I inspired them for those few minutes."
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