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Local Paralympian sets sights on second medal

A local Paralympian isn't satisfied with one gold medal. He wants to venture out and pursue a second medal---this time in the summer Olympics.

Dan McCoy grew up in Cheswick watching the Penguins play hockey and wanted to be just like them. He tried to join his older brother on the ice, but soon realize his spina bifida would keep him from playing the traditional way. He found a sled hockey team in Pittsburgh and at first was reluctant to enjoy it. McCoy told Channel 11 it didn't feel like real hockey to his younger self. All it took was the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics to change his mind.

"After watching the team win the gold medal, I said, 'Next time it is going to be me,'" McCoy said about the sled hockey team that year.

He worked his way up with the Pittsburgh Mighty Penguins and then made the national team. He made it onto the Sochi team in 2014, and went all the way.

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"Just hearing the national anthem when I get the gold medal put around my neck it was -- really hard even still today to put into words," McCoy said.

McCoy returned to Pittsburgh and got a degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He says the Olympics lit a fire in him and soon he was talking to Dynamic Paddlers about a return to the Olympic arena.

Dynamic Paddlers is a group in Pittsburgh that works with adaptive athletes to help them experience water sports including rowing and kayaking.

McCoy is the first high-performance athlete Dynamic Paddlers is taking on, with hopes of medaling in paracanoe, a new Paralympic sport.

He trains at North Park, and doesn't have much time left before the Tokyo Paralympics.

"It's a little different, having the water be liquid instead of frozen at this point," McCoy said about his new sport.

McCoy is also working on building up his business as a fitness trainer for other adaptive athletes. He says he was inspired by work he saw while in Colorado, training for his first Olympic run.

"In today's day and age the U.S. as well as Canada and a couple of other western European countries really see disabilities as, you know, a positive," McCoy said, "see it as something to be inspired by."