JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?0?JbsM6idҨ-$)ޜíHfޣRF>P)~jͽ@UOC`DjEۑHz)ROG*EZT^)xQڀV!ZEy.iiBp#+LNVf(6E09EY^F}j i+@H(9ɬ2@ZkjLp)9Hb0A&(+Rڎhy8DgT-UVtʊdi|b.uS./H` x>^Y$l: kgZ\5\4*7.Xn0Y=[p8& 49 x }GP.o;TA'=o;#w~VBgB_,[O i`^l;N?uissOCSH7CNG٬  Ջ]RhUqIZ5K$l-\Fu)X@hW;j1KDsI^)c#mZ6Yye8RWȎ,G5'@uifـ=_q74qȪW~1XSOhLH:` ւ*.̆!j[^8' GaWI{W9G8@7tj-Z2rÜpA3ZIJCnsH32ҝf`Va}[NGμF}jfq@PGR*@"?r}R݆O^%801@UQaCr1R-F63nqL ^DC8ON؊k.{ZR*D:pn+D Fa-&}~u2T?AYXTۚU^PIhm 5XqX"{I:Aʍľoh׊eF)@8F (:f<FE+1Xy4lLcϽ 7^E#QV@E,XrF( sE$GoV"%7H*|EGaRȦHVRORXEqM( W7q5ph'=iQMaEЅM4QM$t&(with a laugh.<br>Christi had fractured her L2 vertebra and dislocated her L3. Doctors were  cautiously optimistic that she would walk again. A week after doctors affixed a temporary rod-and-screw assembly to Christi s spine, she was moved to Our Lady of Lourdes Rehabilitation Hospital. Her gymnastics coach Joanne Thaw was at her bedside.<br> I knew if anyone was going to make it back from this, it would be Christi, says Joanne.  I don t train kids for the Olympics here. I train them for strength, for conditioning, for flexibility to compete. For Christi, I think some of those benefits she got here--the upper body strength, her competitiveness and her ability to focus--helped her to recover. <br>Her early rehab was stoked with an athlete s desire to push herself and was aided by her excellent physical conditioning and strength.<br> The rehab wasn t that much different from gymnastics, says Christi.  It s a win-or-lose situation. If you don t get first place in a gymnastics meet, you come back and you work harder. Every day in rehab, when I couldn t walk and then when I barely could, I reminded myself that I had to work a little harder. If I hadn t had that attitude, things might have turned out differently. <br>Christi broke her back in June, losing all feeling and function from the waist down. By July she was walking with braces and a walker.  I d regained some feeling, she says.  But I couldn t feel the difference between sharp and dull. My legs tingled and sometimes it felt like they d fallen asleep. It was strange to look at your legs and not feel them. <br>Progress was quick. In August she went back to school and reduced her rehab to only three times a week. In November she switched to a sports rehab center in Wichita, about 30 minutes from Hesston. There she began using more weights and was soon able to walk on her own.<br>She returned to school in September for seventh grade, but at first Christi couldn t do any sports. During the spring she went out for track and shot put, and ran the 100-meter for her last meet. She was slow, it was awkward, but she did it.<br>That was the picture when BFS first caught up with Christi five years ago. She was a determined girl fighting the odds, but no one knew if she would make it. Ca