Merokeans Competing to Meet Apolo Ohno

For Heidi Hecker, a mother's intuition came into play when she saw her son Austin, a senior at Calhoun High School, struggle to breathe in 2010 while crossing the finish line at a cross country meet.

"He was running in divisions for cross country," Heidi Hacker told Patch. "He had a particularly bad episode. We knew it wasn't bronchitis or allergies. I knew something was really wrong."

Heidi took Austin to the doctor, but by the time he was seen, he had recovered. Doctor's gave Austin a rescue inhaler because they were unsure of what caused his breathing problems. Then, during the wrestling season, Austin had another episode at the Spring Gardener Tournament at Mepham High School.

"I said that's it," Heidi said. "I told him that I was taking him to the doctor so they could see him while he was going through this."

Doctors responded by sending Austin to a pulmonologist, and he was diagnosed with exercise-induced bronchospasm. 

Despite that, Austin continues to be active in the Calhoun sports scene. Throughout his four years at Calhoun, he's done wrestling, cross country and track and field. Currently, he's rehabbing from a torn ACL, but Heidi said he should be back soon.

"In about two more weeks, he'll be back on the track," she said.

Austin has set his sights on Stony Brook University for the fall, where he will use his experience and go into pulmonary medicine. He aims to help spread the message that kids can remain active with the condition as long as they understand their limitations.

Recently, the Heckers saw an advertisement for a show called The Doctors, and Apolo Ohno was going to be talking about his illness. If he didn't know he had it, he wouldn't have been able to perform the way he did. It turns out he has the same condition as Austin.

"It's a long process to get to where you have figured it out and can still compete," she added. "They talked about the contest that they were running to raise awareness about it, and we were interested."

For the contest, one winner gets to fly out to Los Angeles and meet Ohno, and Heidi said it would be an experience that Austin would embrace.

"I think it would be very encouraging," she said. "It's a very frustrating road. Sometimes, he's better than others. To see someone who's conquered it is awesome."

Voting ends Friday, and people can vote for Heidi and Austin by clicking here.