Matthew Tinsley
Professor Clarey
ENGL 2150
10/18/17
An analysis of ESPN’s “Catching Kayla”
The stories of people with disabilities bring lots of emotions to its listeners. They can make us feel sad for their circumstances, confused as to why things like this happen, and oftentimes inspire us to use the gifts and abilities that we have better. The documentary, “Catching Kayla”, brings to the table a little bit of each of these emotions and sends a few messages about people with disabilities along the way. “Catching Kayla” is about a girl named Kayla from Winston-Salem, North Carolina who is diagnosed with MS; a disabling disease that slowly causes disruption between the communication signals of the brain and the rest of the body. The documentary shares her story of being diagnosed with the disease and shows how she has overcome and become a stronger person because of her condition. Kayla was originally a soccer player before her diagnosis but is now a cross country and track runner because it is easier for her to coordinate the movements involved with running than the ones in soccer. Kayla begins her running career as a pretty bad runner – her coach describes her as “a varsity hopeful by her senior year.” The rest of the documentary follows her journey to becoming a three-time state champion in her effort to make the most out of her legs while she can still use them. The story is called, “Catching Kayla”, because the increase in body temperature caused by running encourages MS symptoms, such as loss of feeling in her legs, to increase. This loss of feeling in her legs while running causes her to not be able to come to a controlled stop after her race, so her coach has to catch her at the finish line. The documentary does a great job portraying her story and the difficulties that have come along her way and sends several different messages about disability and its effect on people. One of the messages that, “Catching Kayla”, seems to deliver is that disability, when combined with a spirit of persevering optimism, can be good for a person’s character and personal success. Some of the ways that the text sends this message is through personal interviews that qualify and establish her personal character, and a juxtaposition of obstacles that Kayla faces with success in her sport.
Throughout the documentary, “Catching Kayla”, the filmmakers take advantage of using personal interviews to help send their message about how disability when combined with persevering optimism can be good for a person’s character and personal success. The main purpose of these interviews is to establish Kayla as a person with perseverance and optimism in the face of the misfortune that accompanies her disease. The people that get interviewed in the documentary are Kayla, Kayla’s parents and Kayla’s coach. Because of their strong involvement in Kayla’s life, these are all people that are credible when it comes to delivering information about Kayla and her character. Kayla’s coach talks about his first interaction with Kayla when she told him that she wanted to start running. He quotes her as saying, “I am not guaranteed the next couple years of running… I want to run fast and I don’t want you to hold back.” This is a great example of persevering optimism because Kayla is expressing a desire to make the most out of her legs since she won’t be able to use them for much longer. Kayla’s perseverance and optimism is something that is also easily portrayed through her interviews because of her attitude when talking about the setbacks she has faced as a runner with MS. At the beginning of the documentary, Kayla says that when she found out about her diagnosis she was very mad and didn’t understand why something like this would happen to her. At the end of the documentary, Kayla says, “when or if I am not able to run at some point down the road at least I can look back and know when I could I gave it my all." This change in attitude from the beginning to the end of the story clearly shows development in her character as a person due to her spirit of persevering optimism. The documentary puts a strong focus on the other setbacks that Kayla faces in addition to her diagnosis such as falling during one of her races and a miscommunication that left her with nobody there to catch her at the finish line. When talking about each of these misfortunes, Kayla always has a smile on her face and says things like, “This would happen, like, how ironic?”, that show that she quickly bounces back from setbacks like these. An article titled, “The Character Code”, by Turhan Canli analyzes the differences in people who are able to bounce back from misfortune quickly and the people who are heavily affected by even small setbacks. The article says this in relation to people’s abilities to bounce back from setbacks, “You are diagnosed with a crippling illness. You lose your job. Someone close to you suddenly dies. Some people recover rapidly from life's calamities and disappointments, whereas others are devastated by minor setbacks, becoming depressed and even suicidal (Canli).” Kayla’s ability to quickly bounce back from these setbacks is yet another example of her perseverance and optimism.
Another technique that the filmmakers of, “Catching Kayla”, use to show how disability when combined with persevering optimism can be a good thing is the juxtaposition of obstacles that Kayla faces and success in her sport. Throughout the film there seems to be a back and forth pattern of obstacle followed by success in her sport. This is done with the intention of showing a direct correlation of misfortune due to her disability followed by success as a runner. This pattern can be observed by looking at the general layout of the plot of the film. First, Kayla is a good soccer player, then she is diagnosed with MS and can’t play anymore, then she starts running and improves a lot, then she has problems with her not being able to feel her legs while running, then her coach starts catching her to solve this problem and she makes it to the state championship, then she trips and falls in the state championship, then gets back up and wins the state championship! This juxtaposition of misfortune associated with MS followed by success sends home the message that disability can be a good thing for a person’s character and success in life. Kayla clearly enjoys the simple joy of running a lot, and she would have never experienced it in the way that she did (and learned a little bit along the way) if it were not for her MS diagnosis that led her to try out the sport. An article titled, “A Few Bumps in the Road”, by Brian Cazeneuve talks about a distance triathlete named Karen Smyers who, like Kayla, has faced many obstacles, including a fallen window that severed her hamstring, getting hit by an 18 wheeler on a bike ride, and a cancer diagnosis. Despite all of these obstacles, Karen has persevered to take the title as the United States’ most decorated women’s distance triathlete and has remained optimistic through it all. Karen writes for a column in a triathlete magazine called, “Laughter is the Best Medicine”, and has joked about how her radioactive iodine treatment has allowed her to read in bed without a night light and says that “the last two years have been pretty good – except for broken bones and cancer (Cazeneuve).” This story, while a little bit different than Kayla’s story, is yet another example of how good can come out of disability and misfortune.
As shown by the evidence analyzed in the documentary, “Catching Kayla”, the filmmakers of the documentary want to send a message by portraying that disability, when combined with perseverance and optimism can bring good for a person’s character and success in life. The personal interviews with Kayla, her parents and her coach helped to qualify Kayla as somebody who has persevering and optimistic character. The juxtaposition of misfortune due to Kayla’s disability followed by her success as a runner support the idea that good can come from bad things like disability if paired with the character of someone like Kayla.
Works Cited
Canli, Turhan. “The Character Code.” Academic Search Complete Database, web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.clemson.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=16&sid=6ea18acc-9c12-4c95-b8ca-87ad61d8c42e%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=#AN=28780844&db=a9h.
Cazeneuve, Brian. “A Few Bumps in the Road.” Acdemic Search Complete Database, web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.clemson.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=09c0d14a-8f3e-43aa-b46a-b47f4cc76582%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=#AN=3030978&db=a9h.