livsothebysrealty.com page 6 303.893.3200

OUT to

LUNCH with

Amy Van Dyken-Rouen

By BRITTANNY HAVARD

S ome things are worth skipping lunch for. One of these things include a chance to interview Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, six time Olympic gold medalist and wife of

former Broncos punter Tom Rouen. Even though our interview is over the phone, the enigmatic personality of Van Dyken-Rouen shines through. Van Dyken-Rouen used to spend six hours a day in the pool training for her aqua-Olympic poundings, serving up the butterfly stroke and a mean relay to anyone audacious enough to face the 6-foot, 163-pound powerhouse. Now she spends two hours a day in one, only this time, enduring intense hours of rehabilitation after a fateful ATV accident in July 2014 that severed her spine, and left her with a new-found status as a T-11 vertebra paraplegic. Olympian gold medal winner to paraplegic. It’s a challenging paradigm to swallow. Both types of people swim in circles seldom visited by the average person. Few have experienced what it’s like to be either; Van Dyken-Rouen is both. Her voice is bright and positive, she has a natural, easy going way about her, and our conversation flows as though I am talking to a friend—not conducting a celebrity phone interview. Only, Van Dyken-Rouen does not consider herself a celebrity. Born in Aurora and raised in Englewood, Van Dyken-Rouen is a Colorado girl all the way. She attended the University of Arizona for two years, before transferring to Colorado State. Recently she

visited her alma mater in Fort Collins, where they renamed a street on campus in her honor. “Amy Van Dyken Way,” she says with a chuckle. “I think my name is longer than the street.” She’s proud of her Colorado roots. “My husband and I are huge mountain people, we have a place we go just to get away and we’ve always been in love with this state—well, especially Tom,” said the Colorado native, her voice brightening as she speaks about her husband. The couple met during Rouen’s fourth year playing for the Denver Broncos while dining at the Chop House restaurant in LoDo. “We found out we lived across the street from each other. Totally random, but that’s how it works,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. A true supporter of his wife and her changing self, Rouen has endured some de-cleating hits on the football field, but weathering his greatest storm was watching his wife wheeled into surgery the day an ATV joyride went frightfully wrong. On the way to a casual dinner with friends, his wife’s ATV hit a ditch, rolled on top of her, and changed their lives forever. Doctors told Rouen there was a likely chance she would not survive the emergency surgery, and to say their goodbyes. Rouen told his wife, it was ok to let go, and even though she told her husband he was allowed to date, she quickly revoked her consent. “I took Tom’s words as a personal challenge. I wasn’t ready to go have him dating other women—some blonde!,” she says with an exasperated laugh. Meeting that challenge, Van Dyken-Rouen

AMAZINGAmy,No Limits

livsothebysrealty.com page 7 303.893.3200

survived the surgery, but the accident still left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was given the hard facts—despite her uncompromising will, the odds of regaining any sensation from a T-11 vertebra injury are slim, but not impossible. Besides, she’d already made one comeback. After Van Dyken-Rouen won four gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, she suffered a debilitating shoulder injury in competition and doctors told her she would never compete again. Van Dyken-Rouen proved her doctors wrong. She went on to win another two gold medals at the Sydney games in 2000 in the 4×100 medley relay and the 4×100 freestyle relay. “The comeback was huge,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. “I had two shoulder surgeries. The doctors said it would end my career, but they stuck out the most. And I’m going to be honest with you. I wasn’t a great butterflier, there was someone else that could have won it, but I won it.” Van Dyken-Rouen was the first woman to capture four gold metals, making her the most decorated athlete, male or female, of those games. The challenge facing her now is far greater than that she faced in 2000, however her goal is narrower. Now, she has a simple one—to walk again. And she is already beating the odds. “I’m supposed to have a severed spinal cord. Yet I’m riding a spin bike by myself. I’m able to crawl forward and backward, and can move my hip flexors,” said said Van Dyken-Rouen. Not to mention she drives a Camero SS—a custom job, she insists stands for Super Sexy.

Van Dyken-Rouen is finding her voice out of the pool, and uses her Twitter and Instagram accounts to share her story. “When I was first injured and came out of surgery, Tom was like ‘I have to give her her phone’. I don’t even remember posting the pictures I did, but I did. If you do it with a smile on your face and realize this is your new life, it can still be a fabulous life,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. While Van Dyken-Rouen’s physical body has changed, some things in her life remain delightfully the same. “I go to physical therapy three days a week. I spend two days at my gym, but after that, Tom and I will go grab lunch. Go to dinner. We’re trying to be as normal as possible,” says the vivacious 42-year-old. And some things never change. “Tom played for the Broncos for thirteen seasons. Back then we had orange crush and pizza every single Sunday. We still do,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. An ambassador to the Christopher Reeve foundation and founder of Amy’s Army, a 501c3 that helps provide necessary medical equipment to spinal cord injury patients who can’t afford it themselves, Van Dyken-Rouen is trying to make her new lifestyle about helping others while living as normally as she can, including enjoying the Colorado pastimes she’s always loved. She shares stories of kayaking and sailing adventures-post injury, from this past summer and her thoughts on skiing. “I haven’t skied in a year, but I want to. I just have to ski differently. I can do anything I want to do, it’s just a matter of planning ahead,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. As our conversation comes to a close,

I ask Van Dyken-Rouen whether she feels like more people know her as an Olympic gold medalist, or a T-11 paraplegic? “Interesting,” said Van Dyken-Rouen. “This is more recent. More people know me now, and then they tell me they just learned I was an Olympian, than before when people only knew me as an athlete. If you look at all obstacles you face, you have two choices. You can back away from them or you can go over the hurtles, and learn about yourself. I choose to go over them, and does that make me an inspiration? I don’t know. But I smile, and take it one step at a time. I feel lucky. Now people know me, as me.” Demonstrating remarkable fortitude and serving as an inspiration to countless people, Van Dyken-Rouen is honest, funny, and bold—just as she was before her life-altering accident. As an Olympian, she was known for her physical strength, as a paraplegic, she’s even more powerful. “Thank you,” I say to Van Dyken-Rouen, and hang up the phone.

Brittanny Havard is Editor of LIV Magazine and Public Relations Manager at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. Have a local innovator in mind for ‘Out To Lunch?’ Email brittanny.havard@sothebysrealty.com.

“IF YOU LOOK AT ALL OBSTACLES YOU FACE, YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES. YOU CAN BACK AWAY FROM THEM OR

YOU CAN GO OVER THE HURTLES, AND LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF. I CHOOSE TO GO OVER THEM.”

Amy Van Dyken-Rouen

OUT TO LUNCH