'A very clear reminder of how far I've come': Froedtert holds send-off party for Paralympic curler from Oconomowoc
WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) — An Oconomowoc native is headed to Italy next week for the Paralympic Winter Games, and she's already making history.
Laura Dwyer will represent Team USA with her teammate Steve Emt, from Deforest, in mixed doubles wheelchair curling.
It's Dwyer's first time competing in the Paralympics, and it's the games' debut of the mixed doubles event.
"This is a huge deal," Dwyer told CBS 58. "Very few will have the opportunity to represent like I will do in the weeks ahead."
Her former physical and occupational therapy team from Froedtert hospital held a sendoff celebration on Thursday.
"It's a very clear reminder of how far I've come," Dwyer said.
"She's already won. In my eyes, she's already won," said occupational therapist Toni Gillette. "Laura's journey is huge, it's huge."
"It's a very clear reminder of how far I've come," Dwyer said.
Dwyer began using a wheelchair in 2012. She was working as a landscaper when an accident left her partially paralyzed.
"I sustained a spinal cord injury from a giant tree branch, over a thousand pounds, that broke out of a tree, hit the power line, and then me," she explained.
She spent that summer at Froedtert learning how to use her wheelchair.
Seven years later, Dwyer saw a flyer for an adaptive curling clinic at the Wauwatosa Curling Club.
"I had never done it before, I had never experienced it, and I knew very little, like most people," she said.
She went and got hooked on wheelchair curling - going on to compete in three world championships.
Dwyer and Emt won the 2025 national championship and placed ninth in the world championship, qualifying them for the 2026 Paralympics.
"To be able to throw a stone across the entire sheet of ice into a target of one foot, into the center of that house on the other side, without a sweeper, that's precision," she said of the game.
Dwyer hopes her Paralympic debut inspires other wheelchair users to recognize their strengths as she honors hers.
"I'm going to look into the audience, and I'm going to say, this is how far I've come," Dwyer said. "I'm here. I've earned the right to be here, to show up and do this thing."
Paralympic wheelchair curling begins March 4 with round robin sessions. The mixed doubles medal games are March 10.