Being able to compete was all she wanted.

So losing her sight bothered Jordan Mouton.

But losing sport bothered her as much – if not more.

Rather than sulk and wonder the infamous "Why me?" Mouton and her parents sought to find a new outlet for the athletic girl with an innate passion for sports.

Select soccer was out. Something – anything – needed to be in.

"It bothered me to the point of the same disappointment of losing my sight," Mouton said. "My parents told me, 'You have to do something.' Their pushing really helped."

Mouton, 19, found a sport that has afforded her the opportunity to compete in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games Sept. 6-17. She will be the only female representing the United States in judo, which became a Paralympic Games event for females in 2004. Men have competed in the sport since the 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games. All of the judo participants are visually impaired and/or blind.

Despite having trained just three years, Mouton, a Cypress Falls graduate and 2007 wrestling state qualifier, has enjoyed quick success in judo.

"Immediately, she got it," said Suzanna Mouton, Jordan's mother and a counselor at Cypress Ridge. "She was very gifted. We were looking for something. We just had to find the right one."

The right one has been judo since summer 2005 when the Moutons traveled to Colorado Springs for a United States Association of Blind Athletes' sports clinic, which was held at the Olympic Training Center.

Mouton was seen wrestling with a boy, and her skills caught the attention of famed judo coach Willy Cahill.

Cahill enrolled Mouton into a judo class in Houston and has helped Mouton get to this level. In late 2005, Cahill invited Mouton to California to train for a week, and Mouton placed first in a tournament there.

"His goal was to train me and get me ready for this team," Mouton said. "I got really lucky to get in good with a person like Willy Cahill. I guess he saw something in me."

What Cahill saw is what has always been in Mouton. Resolve. Passion. Excellence.

In second grade, Mouton noticed her eyes were not seeing the same way they had. She was looking at a yellow piece of paper with blue writing, but could not read it. She did not tell anyone. Her independence would not let her.

Then in third grade, Mouton noticed she could not see the overhead projector. Again, she was not going to say anything, but her best friend at the time told her mom.

"I thought it would just go away," Mouton said. "I didn't want to make it noticeable. I didn't want to make anyone aware until it was something to worry about."

Since Mouton's older brother Hunter, 21, began losing his sight at 5 with a condition called Rod-Cone Dystrophy, Mouton was not surprised that she began to lose her sight with the same condition. It was a bit odd, though, since the doctors told her it would not happen to her.

But rather than focus on the misdiagnosis, Mouton has moved on and credits Hunter with inspiring her. He, too, wrestled for Cy Falls. He is now enrolled at Sam Houston State University.

"He's a big inspiration to me," said Mouton, who will study sports psychology at Texas A&M. "I watched him go through (losing his sight), and I saw him still be active and wrestle. I saw him succeed and win.

"He's happy for me. He told me he had his chance to shine and now I am in the spotlight and I have chosen to do this."

But listening to the Moutons talk, you get a sense that sports chose her.

Watching her young daughter flourish on the soccer field as a forward and be courted by several select teams, Suzanna called it "bittersweet" knowing "one day she was going to have to give it up."

Now, Suzanna says, "I am beyond proud of not only what she is doing, but that she is being successful and she is excelling. Some people question why do we spend the money and the time. They don't understand the drive of an athlete. Nothing will stop her from trying to achieve the pinnacle, which is a gold medal."

As for Mouton, she definitely wants to win. She also wants to impress upon others that she is still an athlete.

At a wrestling tournament in high school, one girl made a comment that another girl must not be up to par since "she lost to a blind girl". The girl who made the comment lost to Mouton later in the tournament.

Mouton has heard of other teams' taunting teammates when they lose to Mouton. Now that Mouton is a member of the USABA, she knows of other athletes with disabilities who perform at a high level, too.

"Some people don't get it and think they shouldn't get beaten by a person with a disability," Mouton said. "We work just as hard. We may put a little more heart into it. For me, I know it means more to get a chance to compete, because I didn't think I'd get another chance. It makes it mean more. But the competition is the same."

Photo courtesy of Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

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