Gymnast Was Reluctant, but Ideal, Inspiration : Reflection: Ex-Titan, born with one arm, was a winner.

COSTA MESA —  Her 15 minutes of fame stretched about 15 years longer than Carol Johnston ever dreamed it would, with no signs of letting up.

The subject of the former Cal State Fullerton gymnast, who in 1979 was featured in an hour-long Disney film called “Lefty,” comes up when it’s least expected.

Johnston, now 35, defied convention when she took up gymnastics despite being born with one arm. In her home in Costa Mesa, she recently recounted a fulfilling career that started when she was a little girl in Calgary, Canada, and ended with a knee injury in 1980.

“All of the sudden I’ll get a call out of nowhere that someone has seen the movie,” Johnston said in disbelief. “I can’t believe that 15 years later, they’re still showing it two or three times a year. I never thought there would be this kind of feedback.”

At least not for this long.

For instance, last year, Fullerton Coach Lynn Rogers and his team were at the Big West Conference championships in Logan, Utah. For the first time in Rogers’ 17 years at the school, the Titans’ had failed to qualify for regionals.

“Safe to say, I was pretty bummed,” Rogers said. “As I was walking out of the arena, a girl came up to me and said Carol Johnston was her inspiration, and she wanted to know how to get in touch with her. Carol Johnston was the only name that would have made me stop and talk to her that day. It really brought me out of my doldrums.”

Not until 20 minutes into the conversation did Rogers realize the gymnast had a prothesis on her arm. Two months later, Rogers received a stirring three-page letter from the girl’s mother, telling him how much it meant to their daughter to talk to Carol and thanking him for connecting them.

“It’s been 15 years since she has competed, and she’s still touching people to that extent,” he said.

Figure skating was Johnston’s sport of choice until she saw Cathy Rigby at the 1972 Olympics. She never looked back. During her senior year in high school, Rogers was in Canada conducting a seminar, and they were introduced. He told Johnston he had a place in his program if she wanted to come to Fullerton.

Knowing she would have to leave her country if she wanted to compete at a high level, Johnston seized the opportunity. Although she often competed all-around, Johnston’s specialties were floor exercise and balance beam.

“She was world-class on floor and beam,” Rogers said.

In fact, she finished second to Penn State’s Ann Carr in those events the national championships in 1978.

Her goal was to win the individual national title in floor in 1979, but it wasn’t to be. During the filming of the movie, Johnston blew out her knee and was forced to watch from the sideline. The Titans won the national title after third- and second-place finishes her freshman and sophomore years.

After almost a year of rehabilitation, she was ready to compete in her senior year. But she re-injured her knee during the first meet of the season.

“Doctors said I could probably compete again, but if I landed hard and hurt my knee one more time, I might not walk again,” she recalled.

Never one to sit on a couch painting her nails and eating bonbons, Johnston immediately found ways to fill her idle time, then and now.

After her graduation in 1980, Johnston earned her master’s degree and took some courses at UC Irvine. For the last 10 years, she has been the personnel manager at Gemini Industries, a metal-refining company in Santa Ana. She also teaches gymnastics part-time at a non-competitive gymnastics school in Tustin and takes horseback riding and dance lessons.

In addition, she does some public speaking and has started to write her autobiography. In 1992, Johnston was given the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Orange County Committee for Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

Rogers said he has never coached or been associated with anyone quite like her.

“Heavens no. I guess that answers it,” he said. “You have to understand. She could have looked at life like it gave her a black eye. She didn’t feel like she had a black eye. She’s a great role model for all of us.”

Johnston was one of the few people who never believed her potential, especially in gymnastics, was limited because she had one arm.

In the film, Dick Wolfe, then Fullerton men’s coach, heard about Johnston before he saw her. He had his doubts: “My first thought was, a one-armed gymnast? I don’t think so. The thing that was really astounding was that she could do bars.”

Before the sport evolved into what it is today, Johnston estimated she was unable to perform 20% of the moves on bars. Today, she said that percentage would be as high as 90%.

“There were a lot of things I couldn’t do on bars,” said Johnston, who was once ranked 26th in Canada but never made the national team. “I think that’s the reason I was (ranked) so far back.”

When Johnston joined the Titans, Rogers went out of his way to treat her like everyone else. Interestingly, it was baseball Coach Augie Garrido who stopped Rogers in the hallway one afternoon and offered advice on handling the 4-foot-10, 86-pound gymnast.

“He pulled me aside,” Rogers said. “He said, ‘Lynn, about this Carol Johnston kid. I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to treat her like everyone else. I think that’s admirable, that you don’t want to give her special treatment. But she is special. You’ve got to get this story out. She can touch a lot of people.’ That’s when we started making an effort to get her story out.”

Initially, Johnston resented the media attention she generated. When she was approached about the movie, her first reaction was no way, no how, find someone else to exploit. But Johnston talked it over with Rogers, who convinced her it would encourage other athletes and anyone with a disability.

In time, she discovered, people were genuinely curious to hear her story.

“I wanted to be interviewed because I was good, not because I had one arm,” she said. “But during the film, I realized that people just wanted to hear about my experiences. It made realize that, yes, I have one arm, and God has opened doors, but I still had to grit my teeth and work hard. I had to stop and think, what was it that made me be able to do something I shouldn’t be able to do?”

Johnston’s was one of three stories in the educational “Truly Exceptional Series,” that featured a blind mountain climber, two of the deaf Osmond brothers and Johnston.

“They wanted to show kids that disabled people can to anything normal ones can,” Johnston said.

It was one of several valuable lessons Rogers learned during his association with her.

One of Rogers’ favorite stories concerns why he recruited Johnston and how he expected her to fit into his team’s plans, which turned out to be nothing like he had envisioned.

“My assistant coach, a volunteer, didn’t know a lot in those days,” Rogers said. “He didn’t know enough about gymnastics to know there were certain things she couldn’t do.”

Rogers figured they could work on the bars while he worked with the rest of his team.

“Guess what? She learned the trick,” he said. “She learned some pretty difficult tricks, not by design, but because of how good she was. That was a good lesson for me. She wasn’t as fast to put limitations on herself as a lot of other people were, including me. I set limits that shouldn’t have been there.”

Attitudes surrounding the disabled have changed drastically in 35 years, Johnston said. During her motivational talks, she fields questions that touch on many subjects. She especially loves to answer children’s questions. Sometimes, they asked why she doesn’t wear an artificial limb.

“I didn’t know why my parents never got me one, and I never asked,” she said. “At my graduation from college, out of the blue this woman showed me a picture of her granddaughter. She was a beautiful girl, and she had a hook. I finally asked my mom why I never had one.

“My mom said, ‘What was the first thing you noticed about her,’ ” Johnston said. “Her arm, I told her. ‘Exactly,’ my mom said. ‘We wanted everyone to see you first.’ ”

More than a decade after hanging up her leotard and grips, Johnston is pleased to see the strides disabled athletes have made.

“My life has paralleled the real world,” she said. “It’s neat to see things changed.”

Johnston marvels at what New York Yankee pitcher Jim Abbott has accomplished and can’t wait to see more college and professional athletes follow suit.

“He’s doing in baseball what I did 15 years ago in gymnastics,” she said, “and he’s doing it at a higher level. There’s only about 1% that make it to pro ball. He’s worked hard, he’s learned how to move effectively and efficiently. Look at the people he’s affected.”

While she’s looking, Johnston would do well to look in the mirror, 15 years after her 15 minutes of fame.