Nick Scott Was Paralyzed At The Age Of 16. Now He's A Pro Bodybuilder

As a teenager, Nick Scott had aspirations to play professional football

The story of wheelchair bodybuilder Nick Scott

The story of Nick Scott is one such account. An ordinary teenager, Nick had the usual aspirations of young men of his age: sports and girls. But his life changed on Aug. 17, 1998, when a tire blew out on his Buick Skylark. The car rolled over 5-1/2 times, ejected him, and then hit him in the back as a final indignity.

In his hospital bed, Nick wasn’t certain he’d ever walk again. Paralyzed from the waist down, he fell into a deep depression while his body weight eventually ballooned to more than 300 pounds. Coming back wasn’t easy. But eventually, his resilient character began to fight back.

“What’s the one thing you gain from losing everything?” he asks. “It’s perspective. Because it wasn’t about if my glass was half empty or half full. I was just grateful that I had a glass.”

Things started to change for the better when Nick got into lifting weights while going to the gym with his brother Raymond, and he ended up finding a new sense of purpose by competing in strength events like the bench press. At one point, he was benching 450 pounds.

“If I couldn’t play football, sports, or anything, the one thing I could be was stronger than everybody. And that’s what I did,” he says. “I started doing powerlifting competitions, and I ended up being a two-time world powerlifting champion.”

From there, Nick started taking part in wheelchair bodybuilding competitions, which were few and far between, to begin with. Now, he’s competed in over 200 shows in the States and abroad, including being ranked as the #1 wheelchair bodybuilder in the world in 2014. “One of the highlights of my career was getting wheelchair bodybuilding acknowledged as a professional sport,” he says.

“What I hope to accomplish is showing people it’s about turning disabilities into possibilities,” he says. “Do not compare yourself to others; just live your life, baby steps, keep moving forward. Anything is possible, it’s just figuring out what you’re good at and becoming amazing at it.”

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