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Built by willpower

A bicyclist was told she would never walk again after a car plowed into her. Saturday she competed as a bodybuilder.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published October 1, 2006

TAMPA - Gone is the shadow of a woman confined to a hospital bed for 12 weeks - a woman so frail and broken that friends had to brush her teeth and hair.

In her place is a star of physical fitness.

Maria Riquet, 54, took the stage at Saturday night's NPC Hurricane Bay Bodybuilding and Figure Championship a transformed woman.

Bronzed and oiled, she wore a sparkling red swimsuit, a tiny belly jewel glinting from her six-pack abs.

Her comeback is little short of miraculous.

Three years ago, she was among a group of 20 bicyclists on 30th Avenue N in St. Petersburg when a car plowed into them.

Fourteen were hurt, but Riquet's injuries were the most severe.

She was launched over the car's hood. She had 13 bone fractures; both arms, her left leg, four ribs, three vertebrae. Her lung collapsed, and she suffered a brain injury.

Doctors said she would never walk again, that her athletic life was over.

She didn't listen. Instead, the 5-1 woman with the cocoa hair and big eyes stood Saturday among the most physically fit people in the bay area, striking confident poses that showed no evidence of the pain she has endured.

"I feel like a star or a champion. I feel on top of the world. I feel proud of myself," Riquet said.

"I had to hope and believe in myself that I wouldn't depend on anybody to live and I wouldn't be living my own tragedy," she said.

She went through surgeries and intense physical therapy. Her skin was peppered with scars.

She sat isolated inside her Largo home, dreaming of how to have a passion again, working up the strength to hit the gym.

Last year, Riquet's personal trainer, Pete Haina, took her to see the same bodybuilding contest she was in Saturday at Gaither High School.

"I told my trainer, 'I will be doing this show next year,' " she said.

Riquet weight-trains five or six days a week for two hours a day. She has a coach who styles her poses, tells her how to stand and shapes her diet.

The bodybuilding has helped her to move on and make peace.

Joseph Pastore, the man behind the wheel of the car that hit Riquet and her friends, was fined $500 and had his driver's license revoked for life. There were no criminal charges.

"I made peace right away," she said. "It was injustice. He didn't get punished. I said that I have to forget it. That really helped me to live my life."

Six months ago, she resumed her job as a massage therapist at Janet Mittendorf's Skin Care in St. Petersburg. She thinks the stretching and upper body exertion needed to give massages has helped her heal.

Riquet got back on a bicycle once, but she had trouble. She had an infection in her leg, making it hard to ride.

She thinks cycling is over.

"I'm very happy with the bodybuilding," she said. "I miss the bike a lot. I miss my friends. They were my family. There was a large group of people that I loved. Right now, I don't have the time."

Riquet's friend Barbie Tuft, who was in the audience in the Gaither auditorium to wave pompons, thinks bodybuilding makes perfect sense for Riquet.

"She can control this," Tuft said. "Nobody can hurt her."

Riquet's son, Ryan Lynch, cared for his mother at her very lowest points. Saturday, he beamed with pride.

"It's very good just seeing her happy with herself," he said.

Riquet went up against four other toned, athletic women in the over 50 age class Saturday. She didn't place in the top three.

Still, she has no worries. It's her first year, and she is ready to get back to the gym on Monday to prepare for next year's competition.

"It was my first competition," she said. "The other girls have been doing that for a long time. You do the best you can and see. I feel like a winner and a star anyway."

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 1, 2006, 06:13:39]