Some of the nation’s top wheelchair jocks — in town for the annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games — laid it out straight for disabled kids Thursday morning: You can be just as active as your able-bodied peers.
“Your first challenge is obviously physical — you’re stuck in a chair,” said Army vet Anthony Radetic, who was injured in a 2004 training accident at Fort Rucker, Ala. “And then you have that second challenge, which is the emotional. You don’t wanna go out in public or anything like that, and so that’s a pretty big hurdle to get over — you start getting involved in sports, and life gets better.”
Radetic’s message echoed across City Park as kids and veterans warmed up for the day’s events in typical military fashion, with a cadence:
“Everywhere we go, people wanna know, who we are, so we tell them, we are athletes, mighty mighty wheelchair athletes,” the kids shouted in time with their adult mentors.
Kids Day is an annual tradition at the national games — a time when the veterans lead by example. Mentors are at each game station — slalom or obstacle course, T-ball and basketball.
On Thursday, the kids were all smiles as the crowd cheered them on while they played side by side with the veterans.
“These kids, oftentimes, never have seen a wheelchair athlete before,” said Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Many of them are born with their disabilities or were disabled early on, and they have never seen a strong adult role model who’s disabled that’s someone who they can think ‘Wow, he’s cool.’ ”
Abby Farrel of Colorado Springs was a first-time Kids Day participant. She popped wheelies in her chair as she moved around the slalom terrain course. She said she hopes to be a Paralympian some day.
“I think I’ve got a pretty good chance,” she said.
It took Radetic three years to find wheelchair sports, and he said competitive swimming, handcycling and slalom have changed his life.
After his first experience as a Kids Day mentor, he said hopes to come back and mentor again.
“Watching them move themselves around in wheelchairs and knowing they’re really struggling to do it, and they’re doing such a great job is awesome,” Radetic said.
Jim Martinson, who was disabled by a land mine in Vietnam, has led a more active lifestyle than most able-bodied people.
He became an innovator in the development of the first adaptive sports wheelchair for basketball and later the monoski. He is the only American male to win gold medals in both the summer and winter Paralympic Games, and he won the Boston Marathon in the men’s wheelchair division in 1981, taking second in the race four times.
Martinson said wheelchair sports improve quality of life by restoring self-confidence and giving people back the ability to work hard to achieve a goal.
“I was just in the X Games at 63 years old, and I broke three bones,” Martinson said during the Kids Day opening ceremonies. “So mom and dad, don’t be afraid if your kids fall down and scrape their knees.”
Tom Brown, director of the National Veterans Wheelchair Games since their beginning, said hearing the success stories and seeing the smiles of athletes trying out wheelchair sports makes everything worth it each year.
“You don’t see them up front, but you see them at the end,” he said. “There is a transformation with the new athletes from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. Any time you can motivate our veterans and show them they can still do things, even though they’re in a chair, that’s a success story for the VA.”
Jimmy May, a Vietnam veteran who was wounded at age 18, has competed in 29 of the 30 Paralympic Games, taking only one year off due to surgery.
May’s advice to other disabled veterans is not to be deterred because of cost. Local Paralyzed Veterans of America chapters assist in sponsoring athletes financially.
“If somebody is down in the dumps in the hospital, then they come to these games and win a medal, whether it’s bronze, silver or gold,” May said, “that’ll do them a world of good.”
