The Dad Who Ran 1,000 Races Pushing His Disabled Son

When Rick Hoyt was born, doctors did not expect him to ever communicate, learn, or leave a hospital bed. Decades later he had crossed the finish line of 32 Boston Marathons and six Ironman triathlons, carried the entire way by his father.

A Diagnosis That Nearly Wrote Him Off

Rick Hoyt was born on January 10, 1962, in Holland, Massachusetts. His umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck during birth, cutting off oxygen to his brain. He was later diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy, and could not speak or control his limbs. Doctors told his parents, Dick and Judy Hoyt, that the best option was to place Rick in an institution, warning them he would never develop mentally. Dick and Judy refused and raised Rick at home alongside his two younger brothers.

The Machine That Gave Him a Voice

The Hoyts believed Rick understood everything around him, even though he had no way to prove it. In the mid 1970s they brought him to engineers at Tufts University, led by Dr. William Crochetiere, who built an interactive computer Rick could operate by tapping a switch with the side of his head. The device let him spell out words letter by letter for the first time in his life. His first message stunned the family: "Go Bruins," cheering on the Boston Bruins hockey team during a playoff run. It confirmed what his parents already believed. Rick's mind worked just fine.

One Race Changes Everything

In 1977, Rick used his computer to ask his father if they could take part in a five mile charity run for a local athlete who had been paralyzed. Dick, then a 36 year old Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard, had never run a race in his life. He pushed Rick's wheelchair the entire way, and the pair finished second to last. That night Rick typed a sentence that would define the rest of both their lives. "Dad, when I'm running, it feels like I'm not handicapped."

1,000 Races and Counting

Dick began training so he could keep up with what his son wanted to do. Over the next four decades, "Team Hoyt" completed more than 1,000 endurance events, including 72 marathons, 32 of them the Boston Marathon, and six full Ironman triathlons. In the triathlons, Dick towed Rick across the swim leg in a small dinghy attached to a strap around his waist, carried him across the bike leg in a custom seat mounted on the front of his bicycle, and pushed him through the run in a racing wheelchair. Team Hoyt completed their first Ironman-distance race in 1985 and finished the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in 1989.

What Rick Went On to Do

Communicating through his computer opened up far more than racing. Rick attended Boston University, and in 1993, at age 31, he became the first nonspeaking quadriplegic to graduate from the university's School of Education. He later worked at Boston College, helping test assistive technology built for other people with disabilities.

The Legacy of Team Hoyt

Team Hoyt was inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the ESPN Jimmy V Award for perseverance. In 2013, a bronze statue of the two of them, Dick pushing Rick's wheelchair, was unveiled near the start of the Boston Marathon course in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, under the motto "Yes You Can." Dick Hoyt died in 2021 at age 80. Rick Hoyt died in 2023 at age 61. The statue still stands at the starting line, where every runner passes it on the way out of town.