So many of us spend our lives treading water in a sea of "what ifs."

"What if I had done better on that job interview?"
"What if I had the courage to ask her out on a date?"
"What if I had stayed with those piano lessons?"

The "what ifs" can often become so overwhelming we drown in them.

Amie Stanton, a senior at Warren Township High (Ill.), lives with "what ifs" that loom a hundred times larger than the petty ones most of us obsess over day after day, but the Gurnee, Ill., resident doesn't waste a second of her life worrying about them.

	Amie Stanton, an elite wheelchair racer, is heading to the Paralympics in Sydney, Australia.

She could wonder: What if that elderly driver hadn't lost control of her car on an icy road in Kenosha, Wis., and slammed into the Stanton family car, leaving Amie unable to walk since she was two years old? What if she had been taken to a Chicago hospital after the accident, where some of the best doctors in the country might have helped her to walk again?

Instead, Stanton focuses on her future, which will include an October trip to the Paralympics in Sydney, Australia, and the strong possibility of winning a medal in wheelchair racing.

"I really don't think that way," says Stanton of the "what if" scenarios. "But if I was walking, I couldn't go to the Paralympics, so it's OK."

"Amie never wished for a life other than her own," adds her father, Matthew. "She's comfortable in her own skin. She has no regrets."

It's no wonder she has no regrets. At 17 years of age, Stanton has established herself as a blazing superstar in the sport of wheelchair racing. In 1998, at the World Games in Birmingham, England, she took first place in the 400-meter race, second in the 200 and third in the 100, while competing against women in their 20s and 30s. In the 1999 Junior World Games in Australia, she placed first in all six races - the 100-, 200-, 400-, 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meter events. In June, Stanton qualified for all six wheelchair racing events at the Paralympic Trials in New London, Conn.

"She is a good study; she learns well from observation," says Matthew Stanton, who coaches his daughter. "Her focus is her strong point. When she focuses, she gets what she wants."

What Amie wants most of all is to take her 20-pound, aluminum, three-wheel Soaring Eagle Sportschair across the winner's tapes in the 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meter contests in Sydney - but Stanton keeps the competition in perspective, as befits someone whose life hasn't always gone as planned.

"I'm glad just to be here and compete with the other ladies. Three years ago, I would have never pictured myself here," says Stanton, who won't compete in the sprint events in an effort to focus her energy on the distance races. "I would love to medal, but I'm young. If I don't medal, I can try in the 2004 Games in Greece. Of course, I'm going to give it my best."

Stanton has been able to reach such heights, in part, because of an invaluable team of supporters, starting with her father, mother and four siblings. The family was with Amie during her worst moment (younger sister Katie, then in her mother's womb, and Amie's twin sister, Erica, were injured to a lesser extent in the accident), and they have been there for every moment of glory.

Stanton's support system also includes people like Jean Driscoll, a wheelchair marathoner who has won the Boston Marathon eight times and is training with Stanton for Sydney, and Cindy Housner, director of Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, who introduced Stanton to organized athletics when she was 12.

"You can just tell when someone is athletically inclined, and Amie was," says Housner, recalling Stanton's first visit. "She is a natural. It's been real fun watching her go from the recreational level to the elite Paralympics."

Housner says the younger athletes at Great Lakes Adaptive Sports look up to the local world-class athlete. Being a role model is never easy, especially when you're a teenager, but it's part of the territory, and Stanton handles it well.

"Amie is very approachable. She always has an encouraging word for the younger athletes," says Housner. "She's as down-to-earth as you're going to find."

But opponents should not mistake that happy-go-lucky attitude for a lack of determination.

"She's real pleasant, but when push comes to shove she definitely wants to win," says Housner.

Stanton will attend classes at Warren Township until she leaves for the Paralympics on Oct. 11. Stanton is taking just four classes this semester and has worked out an arrangement with the school to miss about a month. Because she took classes instead of study halls as an underclassman, Stanton will have enough credits to graduate in January.

In the spring, she will take some classes at a community college in order to get a jump on her college career, and next fall, Stanton expects to continue her amazing wheelchair-racing career at either the University of Illinois or the University of Arizona.

"I love this," says Stanton. "If I didn't have this, I don't know what I would be doing. You need to have something to push you."