Athletics As Therapy

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
October 24, 2008
Paralympians help train wounded American, British service members
By Steve Liewer, Staff Writer
BALBOA PARK – It didn't take long after a bomb blast mangled his leg last year for Army Cpl. Saul Bosquez to figure out he wanted to get up out of bed – and the faster, the better.
“At first I felt sorry for myself for a little bit,” said Bosquez, 23, who was wounded in Iraq on Aug. 1, 2007. “But then I'd sit and think: A lot of guys got hit and didn't come back.”
Bosquez, a high school football quarterback who also competed in baseball and swimming, found that sports motivated him after his lower left leg was amputated.
“It's probably the No. 1 thing that got me through this,” he said. “If you've got a bad attitude, the whole process will be a lot harder.”
Bosquez joined about 80 wounded service members from across the United States and Great Britain for a four-day clinic conducted by some members of the U.S. sports elite: American athletes who competed in last month's Paralympic Games in Beijing.
The clinic, sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee, is being held at Bob Wilson Naval Hospital (formerly San Diego Naval Medical Center) and Chula Vista's U.S. Olympic Training Center.
Like their instructors, most of the veterans have lost arms or legs. Some have suffered brain or eye injuries. They are learning the basics of sports such as swimming, rowing, archery, track and field, and wheelchair volleyball.
Although the program organizers are always looking for future elite athletes, the main goal is to help get the veterans back up and competing in sports. Because of the rigors of military life, most already are in good physical shape.
“Our role is to continue the legacy of using sports as rehabilitation,” said John Register, a Gulf War veteran and spokesman for the U.S. Paralympics. “Their injuries turn their lives upside down. (Sports) is one way you can get that warrior spirit back, that esprit de corps.”
This is the third time in four years that the U.S. Olympic Committee has held a sports camp here, Register said. Last year's event was canceled because of the wildfires.
Paralympic swimmers Melissa Stockwell, 28, and Cody Bureau, 20, – both fresh from the Beijing games – taught strokes yesterday in the naval hospital's lap pool.
“It's kind of inspiring, watching these guys come back,” said Bureau, of Latrobe, Pa., who lost his hand in a farming accident 12 years ago. “As they progress, you see how much potential they have.”
Stockwell can claim a number of firsts. She was an Army supply lieutenant when her Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb April 13, 2004, and she lost her left leg above the knee. She became the first female amputee from the Iraq war.
She learned about the Paralympics a few months later and began intense swim training the next year. As a teen, she had been a competitive gymnast and diver.
Stockwell qualified for the Beijing games in three butterfly and freestyle events, one of three Iraq war vets to qualify for the Paralympics. She didn't medal, but she was chosen to carry the flag at the closing ceremonies.
This month, she and the rest of the Olympic and Paralympic teams met the Bush family at the White House. A photo on her blog shows President Bush kissing her on the head.
Resting in a hot tub between clinics with five other amputees yesterday, Stockwell – now retired from the Army – said it felt good to be back with her fellow service members again. “I love this, helping somebody out,” Stockwell said. “To be in the pool with these guys and girls ... I've seen what a positive impact (sports) can have in their lives.”
Bosquez said he has already made up his mind to aim for the next Paralympics games himself – perhaps, like Stockwell, as a swimmer. The process involves qualifying meets and trials, just as it does for Olympic athletes.
“I've done a lot of things I never thought I'd do,” he said. “Whatever it is that'll get me there, I'll do it.”
 
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