You know what’s fun? Having legs. No really, it is. And you might realize that if you didn’t have any.

Or if you didn’t have any and you wanted to be a wrestler.

Dustin Carter, a freshman at College of Mount St. Joseph, can understand the sentiment, since he had his legs amputated at age 5 after a bout with meningitis and has since become a wrestling champ so inspiring he could take on Mickey Rooney’s epic new Oscar-whisper-inducing character in The Wrestler.

MSNBC reports:

Dustin Carter has proved he doesn’t need legs to be a winner on the wrestling mat.

But now he can stand a little taller.

 

Carter’s legs were amputated when he was 5 after he contracted a bacterial infection. He also lost much of his left arm and his right arm stops just after his elbow.

 

He inspired many a year ago by advancing to Ohio’s state high school wrestling tournament. Last week, Carter got a new pair of prosthetic legs.

 

“They’re going to take some getting used to,“ Carter said. “I’ll probably keep crawling mostly until the end of wrestling season. Crawling helps keep me in shape.“

 

Carter was 40-4 a year ago as a senior at Hillsboro High School before losing in the state semifinals. He now wrestles for the College of Mount St. Joseph, a Division III school.

Now, Carter has received some new legs for the new year, getting a new set of prosthetic legs on December 31.

Though he has lost his first six matches this season, he is optimistic that next year his results will improve, telling MSNBC, “It’s been pretty rough. I’ve got a lot of weight to gain. Usually, it used to be that I was one of the strongest wrestlers, but now I’m the weakest one. I’ll be all right next year when I get bigger… Everybody is fast, everybody is strong, everybody knows their technique. If you want to be good in college, you really have to work.”

 OTR wishes Carter good luck on the rest of his season.