The Bucktown native, born without a left arm below the elbow, advanced so quickly that she finished fourth in the track cycling time trials at the Beijing Paralympics last summer.

But ideally, she should have started her training earlier in life.

To produce more great local Paralympians -- and to boost athletic opportunities for kids with physical disabilities -- Mayor Daley on Saturday announced the creation of the Chicago Paralympic Development Program.

The pilot program, to kick off in February, is aimed at identifying at least 200 kids who could become future Paralympians. Funded through $400,000 in private donations, the program will bring in coaches from the U.S. Paralympic team to train coaches here in the intricacies of Paralympic sports. It will also bring in Paralympic athletes to serve as role models, holding clinics to introduce children to the sports.

One former gold medalist, Linda Mastandrea, said training -- and paying -- coaches is key. Before she won gold and silver medals in wheelchair athletics in Atlanta in 1996, her coach was a volunteer at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who taught himself about her sport.

"We'll actually have coaches that are experienced and knowledgeable,'' said Mastandrea, director of Paralympic sport and accessibility for Chicago 2016, which is pushing the city's Olympic bid. She has cerebral palsy and didn't start training until she was in her 20s.

While it's open to all sports, the new program will initially target cycling, judo and boccie -- sports best suited for those with visual impairments or physical disabilities. Other sports, like wheelchair basketball, already have strong athletic networks in place, officials said.

"There is a great lack of athletes in cerebral palsy events and visually impaired events,'' said Charlie Huebner, chief of Paralympics for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

While Huebner said the "dream of all dreams'' would be to find Chicagoans who could compete in the Paralympics in Chicago in 2016 -- if the city is chosen to host -- the hope is also to boost the numbers of disabled children who exercise.

"The reality in the U.S. is there are 2.5 million kids with physical disabilities, and less than 10 percent participate in daily physical activities,'' Huebner said. "We want to have an impact on the bigger picture.''

Neimanas, 20, said the new program is "fantastic'' and that she wishes it had been in place when she was younger. "Chicago has a lot of up-and-coming athletes that need to get discovered or catch a break,'' she said.

She was fortunate that, as an athlete at Whitney Young High School, she got invited by the Paralympic Academy, a national outreach program, to attend the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. Blown away by the track cycling events, she took up the sport. In 2007, she began training full-time at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, placing in the top eight in three cycling events this year in Beijing.

She said she is only getting started.

"I should be ready to peak in 2016,'' she said. "Representing your country is great enough, but representing your country in your hometown in front of all your friends and family would be indescribable.''