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South Coast Athlete Hasn't Let Cerebral Palsy Slow His Ambition

Cody Jones of Simi valley is one of the best paralympic javelin throwers in America

He’s a student at a South Coast college, and even though it’s summer, he’s working at his job in the student union. The 20 year old senior at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks is ambitious. Cody Jones is a double major, and a student senator. But, he’s also traveled across the country and around the world as one of the best paralympic javelin throwers around, and currently holds the North American record in his classification.

Jones was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological brain malformation or injury which occurs before birth which impacts the ability to control body movement and muscle coordination. The Simi Valley student says having CP didn’t stop him as a kid, and he started playing baseball at the age of four. Because his left side was impacted by CP, he learned how to catch the ball with his right arm, take off his glove, and then throw with his right arm.

He made his high school baseball team and his unique adaptation of playing baseball drew the media’s attention, which opened the door to the Paralympics. Jones learned the discus in high school, and then after enrolling at CLU, discovered the javelin. He’s taken part in a number of national and international competitions, and barely missed a ticket to Rio as a part of the 2016 U.S. Paralympic team.

While the CLU student is missing out on Rio he is already working towards the 2020 games.

Jones says while some people might think he was dealt a bad hand in life because of the CP, he says it is what it is, and it hasn’t stopped him from doing the things he enjoys.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.