From the Washington Post:

More than a dozen disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are hoping to qualify to represent the U.S. in this summer’s Paralympic games, a global competition for athletes with disabilities that will take place immediately after the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Melissa Stockwell, an Army first lieutenant whose left leg was blown off by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, is hoping to compete as a swimmer.

Founded after World War II as part of a rehabilitation program for injured veterans, the Paralympics over time came to be populated predominantly by athletes who were born with disabilities or disabled much of their lives. But more than 31,000 service members have been injured in combat in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, invigorating what has proved to be an inextricable relationship.

“It’s really the Paralympic movement going back to its roots,” said John Register, a U.S. Olympic Committee official and himself an amputee.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 7:12 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, exercise/sports, limb loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post