Shot put, discus, rugby, basketball, baseball and weightlifting. Steve Ferreira has played all these sports — from a chair.

And Steve, born with cerebral palsy, doesn’t just play these sports. He excels at them.

The 20-year-old Rentonite won a bronze medal during last summer’s IWAS Junior World Wheelchair and Amputee Games and will return as a Team USA athlete to the international competition in Switzerland this July. IWAS stands for International Wheelchair & Amputee Sports Federation.

“He’s kind of amazing,” Steve’s mom Mary Ann Ferreira says on a recent day in their Highlands home. “But I don’t want to give him a big head.”

As one of only 23 athletes selected for the U.S. team, Steve might deserve a big head. He’ll compete in shot put and discus this summer, as he did in last summer’s international games. He hopes to improve on last summer’s bronze in shot put and also medal in discus, which is his stronger event.

His discus throw of 8.61 meters during last summer’s international games broke his personal record, but didn’t earn him a medal. His third-place shot-put throw during that competition of 2.67 meters was also his personal best with a 3 kilogram shot put.

Steve also broke three national records during last summer’s National Junior Disability Championships: in discus (6.98 meters), shot put (3.33 meters) and club (17.56 meters). Club is a bowling-pin sized piece of wood the athlete hurls as far as he or she can.

Of Steve’s three field events, shot put is most challenging.

“I tend to drop it a lot and get frustrated,” Steve says of the shot put. “But I keep trying. I keep throwing it farther.”

Keep trying. That’s how Steve lives his life. He was born in Taiwan, an hour after his able-bodied twin sister Emily. Emily had a typical birth, but Steve wasn’t breathing when he was born. His heart was the only thing working, and it was beating very slowly. He lived in an incubator for a week with an IV in his head. Mary Ann and her ex-husband realized their adopted son had cerebral palsy when he was three months old.

Steve started physical therapy at six months old, and continues it now by working out for two to three hours, five days a week, on top of his wheelchair rugby practices two to three times a week. He also sees a variety of specialists and has been on seizure medication for the last 16 years.

Cerebral palsy can’t be cured, but Steve can make his muscles stronger. And he is.

“He’s very dedicated,” Mary Ann says. “That’s why you see his arms are all ripped.”

Steve won the PE Department award when he graduated from Liberty High School in 2007. He also won other awards and scholarships for motivational speaking while at Liberty.

He wrote his first speech for a ninth-grade project, and has since shared his life story with high school students around the area, telling them how it feels to live life as a disabled person.

Steve and his wheelchair are accepted on his sports teams and at Bellevue Community College, where he is working toward becoming a motivational speaker and a personal trainer. But he still gets stares and “cripple” yelled at him when at the mall or other public places.

Steve can’t walk and he talks slowly, but he wants to let the able-bodied know that he’s not so different from them. He delivers that message in his speeches, which he gives about once a month.

In a survey he gives before and after his speeches, Steve asks students in the audience what they think of disabled people. The before and after answers are strikingly different.

“Their minds change and they realize that I’m like anyone else,” Steve says.

Except Steve is probably more active and motivated than the average 20 year old.

He picked up baseball in third grade and hasn’t slowed down since.

“I think I’ve accomplished a lot of my goals, and I’ve done way beyond well,” Steve says.

And he’s not done yet.

After Switzerland this summer, Steve aims to qualify in track and field for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

He plans to keep up track and field for a while, and then maybe pick up rowing and skiing.

“Knowing him, he’ll find some other stuff,” Mary Ann says.

What can Steve say?

“I love doing sports,” he explains.