For speed, Maureen McKinnon-Tucker leans as hard as she can to leeward as she and teammate Mark Lewis train with nearly no wind in Duxbury.
    "That which doesn’t kill you can only make you better."
    This quote is not only displayed on Maureen McKinnon-Tucker’s Web site, but also in her heart as she prepares to fight for the one U.S. spot in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
    After a fall during her family vacation, McKinnon-Tucker sustained a spinal cord injury resulting in Paraplegia. McKinnon-Tucker says that her wheelchair does not restrict her; instead, it empowers her to continue doing all the things any able-bodied person can do.
    Prior to her injury, McKinnon-Tucker had been a casual sailor, sailing J-24s with her husband Dan. Afterwards, however, she became discouraged by the lack of competitive sailing boats for the disabled.
    "Most of the boats were made for the purpose of therapy, and that’s not what I was looking for," McKinnon-Tucker said. "I wanted to compete. I wanted to race."
    Not finding what she wanted, McKinnon-Tucker bought a kayak and forgot about sailing.
    Eight years later, she found the answer she had been looking for while attending Marblehead race week. It was there that she was introduced to a Sonar keelboat, a racing boat well suited for handicapped sailing due to its large cockpit.
    Since taking to the water again, McKinnon-Tucker has participated in several regattas and found herself among the team that qualified the U.S. for the 2004 Paralympics in Athens in a three-person keelboat.