Invictus Games Showcase Our Warriors

Wounded veterans have already battled for our country. Now they’re battling their own limitations  and testing their strengths — both physical and mental — as they compete against others worldwide in the 2016 Invictus Games, held in Orlando, Florida.

[lz_jwplayer video=”FxssKoun” ads=”true”]

Thousands of people attended the opening ceremony Sunday, which included speeches from first lady Michele Obama and former U.S. President George W. Bush.

Navy corpsman Max Rohn, 28, an Invictus Games athlete, is on a mission to reclaim his discus and shot put title. In 2014’s inaugural Invictus Games, he won two golds and a silver in those events.

He is hoping that “this year I can come out, put together a good performance, and just out-throw the entire competition,” Rohn told Norah O’Donnell, a “CBS This Morning” co-host and Invictus Games ambassador.

Deployed to Iraq in January of 2009, Rohn was seriously wounded by a grenade thrown by an insurgent — just five months after he deployed.

His first thought, he told O’Donnell, was, “‘Is everybody else all right?’ That’s when I looked down at my leg, and I was like, ‘All right, well, I’m not okay, so we should probably fix that.’ The Marines basically saved my life that day.”

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAdhLNHRoOE”]

The next four years included 15 surgeries — the first 14 to save his leg, and the 15th to remove it.

The Invictus Games were begun by Britain’s Prince Harry, who served in the British Army for 10 years. They’re the realization of the prince’s passion for the welfare of wounded military veterans.

“Prince Harry has said that work in the service of military personnel throughout the Commonwealth will be a permanent feature of his royal and charitable duties for the rest of his life,” Kensington Palace said in a statement. That statement came upon his retirement from the British Army with the rank of captain, ending a military career that included two tours of duty on the front lines of Afghanistan.

The 2016 Invictus Games host some 500 competitors from 15 countries who compete in Olympic-style events. Held this year at the ESPN Center in Florida, the competition will continue through the week, with closing events on Thursday. Physical competition, the attainment of personal bests, and some serious brother- and sisterhood take center stage at the games.

“The atmosphere down here is unbelievable,” Chris P. Fields, a Booz Allen Hamilton employee contracted with the U.S. military’s Army Warrior Transition Command, said on Monday.

Booz Allen is a provider of management and technology consulting services to the U.S. government in defense, intelligence, and civil markets.

“It’s not about medals, necessarily. It’s mostly athletes saying to each other, ‘Hey, we’ve been through something similar, and we’re both out here overcoming [it].'”

“The competition is great,” said Fields. “Last night I was at the track taking pictures, and one of the Marine athletes for the U.S. team, Sarah Rudder, was crossing the grass on her way to another part of the track area. The Men’s 1500 race was going on, and a runner from Denmark was in last place, but Rudder suddenly just began cheering him on.”

“That kind of moment tells you what this is all about,” Fields continued. “It’s not about medals, necessarily. It’s mostly athletes saying to each other, ‘Hey, we’ve been through something similar, and we’re both out here overcoming [it].'”

Sarah Rudder, now retired, is a lance corporal from the United States Marine Corps and was awarded the Games’ first gold medal, in Women’s Lightweight Powerlifting. She was among the Marines assigned to search and rescue after American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. While helping with rescue operations, Rudder fractured her left leg. She endured numerous surgeries, and her leg was finally amputated in 2014.

Fields shared another story of comrades from the Invictus track. “Two German competitors were coming down the final straightaway, and one running behind the other started making a surge. As he passed his countryman, he reached out and smacked him on the back as he passed him. They had a laugh together at the finish line.”

Joe Walsh, president of Adaptive Sports New England, understands the importance of the Games. Walsh is a two-time Paralympian in cross-country skiing, and the former managing director of Paralympics for the United States Olympic Committee for five years. Walsh also served on Team USA’s delegation staff at six Paralympic Games, and as Chef de Mission at two Parapan American Games.

[lz_related_box id=”94354″]

“We all know the benefits of sports — uplifting psychologically and emotionally, and they encompasses good teamwork and camaraderie, keeps us engaged and distracted from worry,” he told LifeZette. “Also, the physiological benefits of sports, of course — those benefits are the same for service members who have been injured.”

He continued, “Veterans are used to working in teams. They’re always working together and looking out for their buddies. Having the opportunity to play on a team, whether that’s a local team, a service branch team, or representing America in Paralympic games, the military is really skilled at teamwork. They’re leaders who support each other.”

Veterans who come to this Paralympic competition were, in general, good athletes before they were injured, Walsh explained. They had to be in top shape to perform their job — and they perhaps already had a specific sporting skill prior to their injury.

Adaptive Sports New England formed about two-and-a-half years ago, with the mission to increase the participation in sports by those with physical disabilities or vision impairments.

“Consider high school sports,” Walsh said. “About 50 percent of kids in high school play sports — at least one sport per year. Those with vision impairments or physical challenges participate at a much lower rate, of about 20 to 25 percent a year. We look at solutions to rectify those numbers.”

The Invictus Games showcase athletes who have trained hard for their events.

“It’s eye-opening, the level of athletic skill,” said sportscaster Chris Fowler on ESPN Monday afternoon. “The last thing they [the athletes] want is pity.”

Fowler also said Prince Harry’s big message is that veterans want to be treated like everyone else. The therapy and rehab can be psychologically very difficult, he said, and it seemed as if Prince Harry wanted to “reach through the television last night to people who are watching and haven’t been able to get help.”

Fowler said, too, that the prince will be involved in one of the wheelchair rugby exhibitions later this week.

So far, things are looking good for U.S. competitor Max Rohn: He recorded the top throws in both the discus and the shot put, which launches him into the top nine in those events and advances him to Tuesday’s round.

“I’m a far better person after this life experience,” he told O’Donnell, speaking of the training to compete and of persevering after his injuries. “Things go wrong. Stuff happens … It’s what you do internally to deal with those problems. I’m a stronger person for it, at the end of the day.”