A former Olympic high jumper who was left partially paralysed by a backflip accident, has made good on his promise to walk down the aisle on his wedding day.
Jamie Nieto suffered a spinal cord injury from a in April 2016, leaving doctors unsure that he would ever be able to walk again.
But the 40-year-old was determined to prove them wrong on his wedding day.
Family members and friends cheered as the two-time Olympian managed to walk the roughly 130 steps from the church door to the altar, where he kissed his bride, Olympic hurdler Shevon Stoddart.
The high jumper said that his devotion to the woman he now calls his wife, had been the driving force behind his desire to recover from his injuries.
He said Stoddart had been there for him throughout his recovery, helping with day-to-day tasks like getting dressed.
“As I get better and better, she has to do less and less,” Nieto said. “She’s done so much for me.”
The athlete walked out of the church after exchanging his vows holding only his wife’s hand for support.
The couple met around 2010 at an audition for a TV commercial.
“I just said ‘Hi’,” he said. Stoddart walked away with the part, but both left the audition with a newfound love interest.
The two kept in touch through Facebook and a relationship blossomed after Nieto suggested the two athletes meet for dinner after a track meet.
“We were talking about getting married before the accident," Nieto said. "When I had the accident it was clear to me, ‘What are we waiting on?’ You never know – you could be gone tomorrow,”
“I asked her if she was ready to get married now or wait until I got better.”
He added that “there was never a doubt” in his mind that he would one day make a full recovery.
Stoddart added that will continue to push Nieto to help him through his bid to learn to walk again.
“I keep pushing him forward,” she said, ahead of the wedding. “After he (walks down the aisle), I’m going to be like, ‘OK, now jog. Now run’. I continue to push him so he can be the best he can be.”
