When Angela Madsen decided she was going to row across the Atlantic Ocean, she had trouble getting sponsors.

Rowing across an ocean is not something a lot of people do. But it's a growing sport. One of the first challenges every person who wants to row across an ocean faces is raising enough money. Sponsors are needed.

Angela was rejected by almost all of the sponsors she contacted. And she had difficulty getting media coverage. You see, Angela is paraplegic as a result of a botched back surgery.

“They were afraid I would fail,” Angela recalls. “Or they were afraid I would succeed. It raises the bar.”

Not only was she rejected by mainstream sponsors but she was rejected by the disability community and the veterans' community. Yes, Angela is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. But Angela was determined. So she sold her surfboard (she's a competitive adaptive surfer), she rented out a room in her home, and she found the money to pay her own way.

Her first Atlantic crossing was supposed to be in 2006, but due to circumstances beyond her control, that trip had to be scrapped. Even though she was devastated, she persevered.

At last, she and Franck Festor, a single below-the-knee amputee, entered the pairs class of the Woodvale Challenge 2007 Atlantic Rowing Race. They left the Canary Islands on December 2, 2007 and arrived to Antigua successfully 66 days, 23 hours, and 24 minutes later on February 7, 2008.

That's an unsupported row of 2,552 nautical miles by two individuals with disabilities, competing against a whole bunch of athletes without disabilities. They finished 8th in the pairs class and 10th overall. Not bad.

After a brief side trip rowing in the Paralympics in Beijing last summer, Angela was back to the ocean. She skippered a crew of eight for the Woodvale Challenge 2009 Indian Ocean Row from western Australia to Mauritius, a distance of 3,132 nautical miles. They left Australia on April 28, 2009 and her crew arrived in Mauritius 58 days, 15 hours, and 8 minutes later, a record-setting, fastest-ever crossing of the Indian Ocean by rowing.

By the way, Angela was the oldest member of her crew at 49. She is also has three grandchildren. And she was the only person with a disability on that boat.

Throughout the entire journey, four people were always rowing while four were resting. At first, each person rowed for two hours, then had two hours off. Once they were in the deep water, they each rowed two hours on, two hours off during the day and then four hours on, four hours off at night. So the most sleep anyone got at one time was four hours.

They were knocked over by a wave the third day out and nearly capsized. They lost a seat as a result and Angela had to use a plank of wood for the remainder of the journey. They lost their steering system at another point and had to create a tiller system.

Angela says that once on the boat, everything is the same for her as everyone else despite her paraplegia. She said that she goes through everything that everybody else does.

Noting one difference between rowers with disabilities and rowers without disabilities, she states, “We know how to tolerate pain and suffering better than others do.”

Angela founded and is the director of the California Adaptive Rowing Program in Long Beach, California providing training for competitive and recreational rowing for individuals with physical and developmental disabilities.

To read more, check out www.rowoflife.com <http://www.rowoflife.com> .

Sandy Lahmann, a previous Frisco resident now temporarily lost on the Front Range, can be e-mailed at sandy@wheelsonthesummit.com.