Israel Antonio

Israel Antonio is the fifth of six children. His parents and four older sisters were born in Oaxaca, Mexico. Israel and his younger brother were born in Chicago, Illinois. Although always undersized, Israel spent his childhood playing baseball, basketball, football, and other sports with his friends or in park leagues. A week after celebrating his fourteenth birthday, Israel woke up blind having lost his eyesight overnight as a result of experiencing detached retinas in both eyes. He did not experience a blow to the head nor a tramatic experience. It just happened.

Israel spent his youth in Catholic schools even being an alterboy for three years. Now, he had to adust to the social, academic, and sexual pressures of teenage life in a public school setting. He did so at Carl Schurz High School where he graduated with a 3.96 GPA, was voted most talkative by the senior class, spent a year in the drama club while appearing in a production of West Side Story, and spent his senior year lettering in track. According to his teachers, Israel was the first blind/visually impaired student to run track in school history. He was often the only blind/visually impaired runner facing all sighted competition and the best the IHSA had to offer.

As a nineteen year old, Israel co-founded Sports For Mutual Admiration And Respect Amoungst Teens (S.M.A.R.T.) Games. It is an ogranization where abled bodied teenagers would come together with teens who are visually, hearing, mobility, and cognativly impaired to compete with and against each other in sporting events while breaking down sterotypes and barrier.

Israel received a Bachelor’s Of Art in English from Northern Illinois University where he spent every semester on the Dean’s List and four years at WKDI student radio station as the Director Of Sports Operations, Ace reporter, main sports update anchor, and co-host of The Sunday Munch, a weekly sports and entertainment guest intensive show. Guests included; radio personalities, David Kaplan, Mike North, Spike O’Dell, Dan Bernstein and Super Bowl champion/NFL Hall Of Famer, Dan Hampton..

Israel is now a successful playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He spent four years training in KaJuKenBo Karate and is currently training in Kenpo Karate. What Israel lacks in strength and size, he makes up for in sheer speed, heart, and determination. His little leauge manager called Israel the fastest kid he had ever coached after Israel scored all the way from first base on a bloop single which barely landed just beyond the infield. Eventually Israel decided to bulk up like a bodybuilder, but he soon realized in doing so, he lost his trademark speed. He altered his goal so that now, he simply wants to be this generation’s Bruce Lee. Israel Antonio believes training for triathlons will enable him to remain active, stay toned and lean, push his limits, and challenge himself to be the best in the world!