Abigail Gunter gets around Niceville High School on a hoverboard. She climbs in and out of chairs on her own, trains most mornings before school and doesn’t spend much time thinking about what she can’t do.

There’s too much on the schedule for that.

The Niceville junior won four state titles at the FHSAA Class 3A Track and Field State Championships earlier this month at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, taking first in the 100-meter dash (22.56 seconds), 200-meter dash (48.11), shot put (15-9½) and javelin (39.71). The 200 and javelin marks were both personal records. She now owns 11 state medals in her career and still has her entire senior year ahead of her.

She benches over 200 pounds. She’s 11 seconds under the national record in the 50-yard swim. And this summer, she’s heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to compete at nationals in throwing and weightlifting, with the possibility of adding discus to her slate.

Gunter was adopted from Africa at 19 months old by her mother, Debi Cassidy, along with her brothers Datch and Sam. The three came from the same tribe. Cassidy, who was living in Virginia at the time, relocated to the Niceville area after the adoption.

When Cassidy first saw Abigail, she still had her legs. But due to a lack of proper nutrition early in life, Gunter says her legs were severely deformed. Cassidy made the difficult decision to have them amputated so her daughter could have a better quality of life. Because of the way Gunter’s hips are positioned, prosthetics would have required breaking her legs and allowing them to grow back straight, a process the family chose not to pursue.

When asked to describe her mother, Gunter didn’t hesitate.

“She’s selfless,” she said. “She thinks about others before she thinks about herself.”

Growing up hasn’t always been easy. Gunter said everyday tasks most people don’t think about, like reaching the pantry, turning on lights or washing her hands, require creative solutions. Her mom got her a small sink just so she could wash her hands comfortably.

But Gunter said the people around her have made the biggest difference.

• “I think it’s the people that I have,” she said. “When people talk to me, it helps me get my mind off things.”

Gunter’s introduction to athletics came in sixth grade at Ruckel Middle School, when Niceville Athletic Director Daniel Griffin spotted her bounding up the bleachers.

“I’ve always been a weightlifting guy my whole career,” Griffin said. “I look at people’s physical abilities. Looking at her physically, I knew she was an athlete.”

Griffin, a longtime powerlifting coach, started her with weightlifting. As a seventh grader, Gunter benched 185 pounds on pause at a body weight of 132. Her first meet was at Destin Middle School, and Griffin remembers it clearly.

• “She was just shaking to death, nervous and it was only 115 pounds on the bar, and then she took the bar from the rack and did it four times,” Griffin said. “Come to find out, the closest one to her on bench was 110, and that’s what she warmed up with.”

From there, the sports kept coming. Griffin brought the throws coach over to Ruckel to introduce her to track and field. She started with the 100 and shot put as a freshman. When Griffin told her she needed to add a third event, the 200 or wrestling, she chose the 200. Javelin came next.

“Coach Griff showed me that one, too,” Gunter said. “I’ve never been open to sports until he showed me them.”

Of all her events, javelin might be her favorite. “I just go out there and just chuck it,” she said. 

She doesn’t track distances or memorize numbers. Griffin or the coaching staff will set a marker on the field and tell her to beat it.

• “Or I stand there and she tries to throw at me or past me,” Griffin said with a laugh. “She knows where she needs to go.”

This year, Griffin encouraged Gunter to try swimming, a sport the FHSAA only recently opened to athletes with her classification. She wasn’t sold.

“I did not want to go in,” she said. “He had to get in the car and talk me into it.”

Griffin stayed at practice far longer than he planned that first day. Swim coach Kathy Ritacco took it from there.

• “Kathy Ritacco has wonderful mother-like qualities,” Griffin said. “I know that she has Abby’s best interest in mind.”

Gunter admits she dreads parts of practice. There are moments mid-lap where she’s not sure she’ll make it across the pool. But she does…and she keeps pushing.

Griffin sees the value beyond competition. Gunter isn’t an aerobic athlete by nature. She prefers short, explosive efforts. But swimming gives her something the other sports don’t.

“Things we take for granted, she doesn’t get to go on walks,” he said. “Swimming is very great for her heart rate and training her heart. The overall training is ultimately for her longevity and her life.”

Gunter has always loved the water. She does backflips off the rope swing at Vortex Springs and rides jet skis with her family. 

On the racing bike, the apparatus Gunter uses for the 100 and 200, she faces a unique challenge. Unlike many of her competitors who use wheelchairs daily, Gunter chose years ago to navigate life on her hoverboard. A wheelchair has been sitting unused for three years.

• “I’ve only used it once,” she said. “I think they’re just big and bulky. I don’t like them.”

That means every time she gets on the racing bike, she’s adapting to equipment that isn’t part of her everyday routine. Griffin calls it one of the most impressive things about her.

“She is at a disadvantage on the bike because she’s having to learn the bicycle where as they’re all in wheelchairs every day,” he said. “Getting her on the bike was very different and she’s had to adapt to that, which is probably the most impressive thing that I can say about her.”

A pivotal moment came this season when she broke 50 seconds in the 200 for the first time, clocking the 48.11 at state. Griffin said it changed something in her.

“We’ve always known the potential was there,” he said. “I’ve noticed a difference in her training since then. I think she’s realized, ‘Hey, I’m not too far off from this.'”

Away from competition, Gunter is a three-year member of Niceville’s leadership group and will serve as senior class vice president next year. Her brother has been involved in SGA since eighth grade, and the family has helped build the homecoming float every year, winning it each time since her freshman year.

Her favorite subject is math.

Through the leadership program, Gunter visits elementary schools to read with children and help them shop during holiday events. She said it’s not always easy. Younger children sometimes ask about her legs. But she values the connections she builds.

“I like going to read with the children and when we help them shop because I create a relationship with them,” she said. “And they’re very nice, so I like helping people when it comes to that.”

Gunter’s family is large and blended. Her mother adopted Abigail, Datch and Sam from Africa. Debi also has two biological children. Her stepfather, Dan Cassidy, brought his daughter into the family. That’s six kids total.

Dan plays a critical behind-the-scenes role in Gunter’s athletic career. He’s the one who sets up and adjusts her racing bike before meets, a mechanical task Griffin freely admits is beyond him.

• “Dan is our wheel man,” Griffin said. “This does not run without him. I am not mechanically inclined to run that bicycle of hers. Dan’s gotta be there and set up the bike and everything else, and he’s the comic relief too.”

Gunter lit up when talking about her stepfather.

“I love Dan so much,” she said. “He came into my life when I was seven. He does all the behind-the-scenes work. Nobody else sees him, but he’s very helpful. Even though he doesn’t get to make it to some of my meets because of work, I’d say me and him are very close. We also like going on the water together.”

Griffin has been a constant in Gunter’s life since sixth grade. When asked what coaching her has meant to him, he paused.

“I’ll go ahead and be honest with you, and I say this to her mom all the time. She has been more beneficial to me than I probably ever have been to her,” he said.

He’s watched her navigate moments that would rattle anyone. At track meets, Gunter is hypersensitive to how others perceive her. Griffin recalled instances where she heard a giggle from nearby athletes and assumed the worst.

• “She’s actually had two instances in doing track alone where she thought some kids were against her, and she gets into her head mentally,” he said. “And then afterwards, it turns out they weren’t.”

He’s watched her friends drop down to her level in the hallway without being asked.

“Her group of friends naturally gravitate down to her level, and that’s when you know that they’re truly there for her,” he said. “It’s not something she asked for. It’s just something that they want to give her back in respect.”

This summer, Gunter heads to Grand Rapids for nationals. Griffin is targeting a bench press of 225 to 230 pounds by then. There’s talk of adding discus, an event the FHSAA doesn’t currently offer but one where Griffin believes she could challenge the national record right now.

Then there’s her senior year. More training. More state meets. Vice president duties. And whatever else Coach Griffin decides to put in front of her.

• “I get a choice, but I don’t get a choice with him,” Gunter said laughing. “If I’m uncomfortable then he won’t make me do it, but he’s not going to let me not do it either. And I really like that.”

Asked what earning 11 state medals means to her, Gunter was direct.

“It’s what I have. Everyone else, they have their own things, but I feel like the state medals are the only thing that I have earning-wise,” she said. “It takes a lot to go out there and compete and be alone and go against my own time. So it’s very nerve-wracking, but once I get my medals, I know I’m done.”

Griffin, emotional when looking across his desk at Abby, offered the final word.

“The physical growth is terrific. But just the maturity as a young woman, to see her overcome everything that she’s had to do and take things in stride. I still remember that first terrified girl the first time we put her on the bench,” he said. “The physical is one thing. But the mental maturity and the young woman that she’s becoming, I am just to the moon and back about her. Tremendously proud of everything.”