MARTINS CREEK, Pa. - As the Olympic games are underway in Paris, Lehigh Valley athletes of a different kind are showing off some new hardware.
An Easton-area couple are among the seven athletes from Northampton and Lehigh counties who participated in the 2024 Transplant Games of America.
The multi-sport event, hosted in Birmingham, Alabama, this year, is open to organ transplant recipients, living donors, bone marrow recipients, and cornea and tissue transplant recipients from around the country.
Together Al and Vicki Piccotti, of Martins Creek, won 10 gold medals and one silver medal in ballroom dancing, and gold medals in cornhole and pickleball mixed doubles.
Tissue recipient Al Piccotti also won a silver medal in the 5K run. His wife Vicki, a cornea recipient, won a gold medal in the women’s 60+ pickleball competition and a bronze medal in the 5K run.
Vicki has undergone four cornea transplants. Al has had tissue replacement as he had both shoulders reconstructed.
The couple have participated in the bi-annual games since 2018, with ballroom dancing being their main event.
"They performed admirably in a variety of Olympic-style events – not in Paris but in Birmingham, Alabama – as part of Gift of Life Donor Program’s Team Philadelphia."Gift of Life Donor Program
"They performed admirably in a variety of Olympic-style events – not in Paris but in Birmingham, Alabama – as part of Gift of Life Donor Program’s Team Philadelphia," read a statement from Gift of Life Donor Program. "They brought home numerous medals from a range of events, but most importantly, these athletes raised awareness of the life-changing impact of organ and tissue donation in our region and across the country."
Some of the events in the July games include track and field, shot put, bowling, swimming, volleyball, basketball, cornhole, as well as card games that do not require physical activity.
Gift of Life Donor Program sent more than 130 adults and children from eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware to the Transplant Games to represent Team Philly. About 50 of those people were transplant recipients or living donors eligible to compete, according to the organ procurement organization.
Other Lehigh Valley athletes who competed in the 2024 Transplant Games of America:
- Paul Albert, a lung and kidney recipient from North Catasauqua, won a gold medal in golf doubles and a silver medal in golf singles.
- Kevin Schwartz, a kidney and heart recipient from Bangor, won a gold medal in golf doubles.
- Mike Seidick, a kidney recipient from Bethlehem, won a gold medal in golf doubles.
- Phoebe Solano, a kidney recipient from Whitehall, won a gold medal in bowling doubles.
- Mark Payson, a kidney donor from Whitehall, won gold medals in the men’s 4x400 relay, the 800-meter race, the high jump, and pickleball mixed doubles. He won silver medals in the 1500-meter race, the 200-meter race, and the high jump. He also won bronze medals in the 60-meter dash, the 400-meter, race and the 5K run.
