--- title: Paralyzed College Student Chris Norton Walks On Stage at Graduation description: Doctors gave him a 3 percent chance of regaining movement below his neck canonical: https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-26T21:03:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:20.170Z og:title: This Paralyzed College Student Walked Across Stage at His Graduation og:description: Doctors had given him a 3 percent chance of regaining movement below his neck og:url: https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb322ab2c542b6e5c/698851b6524fc000f1df2cd5/chris-norton1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Chris Norton graduates at Luther College and walks across the stage to receive his diploma with the assistance of his girlfriend and a standing ovation from the crowd. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Paralyzed College Student Walked Across Stage at His Graduation twitter:description: Doctors had given him a 3 percent chance of regaining movement below his neck twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb322ab2c542b6e5c/698851b6524fc000f1df2cd5/chris-norton1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Paralyzed College Student Walked Across Stage at His Graduation by [Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News May 26, 2015 9:03 PM UTC  Chris Norton graduates at Luther College and walks across the stage to receive his diploma with the assistance of his girlfriend and a standing ovation from the crowd. Chris Norton graduates at Luther College and walks across the stage to receive his diploma with the assistance of his girlfriend and a standing ovation from the crowd.Aaron Lurth, Luther College Photo Bureau by [Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News May 26, 2015 9:03 PM UTC An Iowa college student left paralyzed after a sports injury during his freshman year thought he had little chance of ever regaining movement below his neck. Still, 23-year-old Chris Norton set a seemingly impossible goal: to walk across the stage at his graduation. And on Sunday, Norton accomplished that feat after more than four years of physical therapy and some assistance from his fiancée, Emily Summers. “My graduation walk was what I considered my game day or Olympic event,” the Luther College graduate told NBC News on Tuesday. “My full focus was to take the best steps I could possibly…” [_Read the rest from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/paralyzed-college-student-chris-norton-walks-across-stage-graduation-n364741?cid=par-time-article%5F20141002) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/"},"headline":"This Paralyzed College Student Walked Across Stage at His Graduation","datePublished":"2015-05-26T21:03:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:20.170Z","description":"Doctors had given him a 3 percent chance of regaining movement below his neck","url":"https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/","keywords":["Newsfeed","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb322ab2c542b6e5c/698851b6524fc000f1df2cd5/chris-norton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elisha Fieldstadt / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb322ab2c542b6e5c/698851b6524fc000f1df2cd5/chris-norton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chris Norton graduates at Luther College and walks across the stage to receive his diploma with the assistance of his girlfriend and a standing ovation from the crowd.","caption":"Chris Norton graduates at Luther College and walks across the stage to receive his diploma with the assistance of his girlfriend and a standing ovation from the crowd.","creditText":"Aaron Lurth, Luther College Photo Bureau","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3897054/paralyzed-student-graduation-walk/","name":"This Paralyzed College Student Walked Across Stage at His Graduation"}}]}] ```