Draft:Anthony Ferraro

Ferraro was born in Spring Lake, New Jersey. He was born with a degenerative eye condition called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a rare genetic condition causing progressive vision loss.^[3]

He attended the Saint Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments in Philadelphia until 6th grade. He entered H. W Mountz Elementary School where he first transitioned into mainstream education. Anthony attended Saint John Vianney High School in Holmdel, New Jersey, where he began wrestling competitively against sighted athletes.^[4]

Ferraro's senior wrestling season became the focus of the documentary A Shot in the Dark, filmed by his late brother, Oliver Ferraro.^[5]

Ferraro gained national attention as a competitive blind wrestler in high school.^[6] Graduating high school with 122 wins. His matches, training, and pursuit of a state championship were documented in the 2017 documentary film A Shot in the Dark.^[7]

After high school, Ferraro began training with USA Judo. He has competed in national and international tournaments and hopes to eventually represent the United States in the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.^[8][9]

He has shared his experiences with young athletes and sports organizations across the country.^[10]

Ferraro is active within the adaptive skateboarding community. He traveled to the Olympic Games in Paris, France in August 2024 to participate in an adaptive skateboarding demo on the Olympic course. He has participated in Dew Tour & Rockstar Energy Open adaptive events, STU Pro Tour in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 2024, and other skateboarding competitions across the United States.^[11]

He has been a prominent figure in adaptive skateboarding and advocates for the sport's inclusion in the Paralympics.^[12][13]

Ferraro is the subject of the documentary A Shot in the Dark, filmed by his late brother Oliver Ferraro and completed after Oliver’s passing. The film chronicles Anthony’s pursuit of a state wrestling title.^[14] In the winter of 2012, Director Chris Suchorsky received an email from a former teammate and All-American wrestler, Lou Cerchio. He had come across a sizzle reel about a blind high school wrestler named Anthony Ferraro. Ollie, Anthony’s brother, had posted the sizzle with the hope of finding some help. He was looking to make a film about his little brother, who was a star wrestler, but also happened to be blind. Chris reached out to Ollie to discuss the project. To his surprise, he was now living in LA working as an editor for Hulu and had essentially abandoned the idea. A few months later, when he returned home to visit family, we met for lunch and discussed the film. Ollie was interested in making a short, but Chris thought there was potential for a feature film. After meeting with Anthony, we decided we would film him over his senior year of high school and “see what happens”.

A few months later, we were filming. Ollie produced from LA while the crew and Chris followed Anthony and his team throughout the 2012-2013 season. By the end of the year, the film had hit a standstill. Both Ollie and Chris were consumed with other projects. Chris believed there was a story in the can, but knew it was going to be a Herculean task to put a film together. By 2015, Chris decided he wanted to finish the film. Chris had the first 15 minutes edited and had planned to sit down with Ollie to look at what he put together. Sadly, a few days later, Ollie passed away. At his funeral, Chris told Anthony he would finish the film. Two years later, they had a rough cut of the film. The team launched a Kickstarter campaign with the hope of reaching $40,000. They hit that number in four days and raised over $83,000 by the end of the campaign. The film premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and went on to win eight Best Documentary and Audience Awards over the next year on the festival circuit. We received a number offers for the film including Soul Pancake (Rainn Wilson’s company), Chassy Media (Adam Carolla’s company) and Gravitas Ventures. We opted to release the film independently.

Ferraro is widely recognized for his videos about blindness, adaptive sports, accessibility tools, and daily life as a blind parent. His content has gone viral repeatedly, leading to coverage from outlets including People, Today, USA Today, Newsweek, Glamour, and the New York Post.^[15] His storytelling, demonstrations of adaptive techniques, motivational and family-centered content have contributed to his online reach.

Ferraro is a motivational speaker, and regularly speaks at schools, companies, athletic programs, and disability organizations on topics including resilience, accessibility, and inclusion.^[16][17]

He has appeared on CBS Sports’ Beyond Limits, the BBC, FOX affiliates, BuzzFeed, and TPGI’s Real People, Real Stories.^[18]

Ferraro is married to Kelly Anne Walborn Ferraro. The couple gained widespread international media attention in 2021 when Kelly surprised him with a tactile wedding dress designed with textured elements so he could experience the details through touch.^[19][20]

Ferraro and his wife have one daughter, born in 2023. The family resides in Monmouth County, New Jersey, along with his dog, Delta.

• Anthony Ferraro’s official site
• Team USA – Anthony Ferraro