http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/s...aralympics.html

Fri, Jun. 30, 2006
PARALYMPICS: A RETURN TO COMPETITION

Vet goes up against disabled elite

By MICHELLE HISKEY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/30/06

Kortney Clemons lost most of his right leg serving as an Army medic in Iraq.

This weekend, he'll attempt to represent his country as an athlete, by running the 100-meter dash at the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in Atlanta.
AP
(ENLARGE)
Kortney Clemons


AP
(ENLARGE)
Kortney Clemons, 26, stretching in May after a workout at Penn State University, is the first Iraq war veteran to try to qualify for a Paralympics national championship.


AP
(ENLARGE)
Kortney Clemons lost most of his right leg in February 2005 while serving as an Army medic in Iraq. This weekend, he'll attempt to represent his country as an athlete, by competing in the 100-meter dash at the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in Atlanta.

The war in Iraq is sending home injured soldiers who may represent a future wave of elite disabled athletes. Injured troops are given sports training as soon as possible. The military and medical communities believe sports not only rebuilds confidence, but also pushes injured veterans to re-learn physical skills that war took away from them.

Clemons, 26, is the first Iraq veteran to try to qualify for a Paralympics national championship. He runs with a specially designed prosthetic "sprinter leg" that allows for greater balance and speed.

"I'm definitely going to be competitive," he said. "But it's going to be totally different. I never ran against anyone like this. I ran against able-bodied [runners]. I'm kind of curious, and I would say, I'm sort of like, optimistic. I'm coming to win."

Clemons will compete against other amputees at the meet, scheduled Friday through Sunday at Lakewood Stadium in south Atlanta.

The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Disabled Athletes Fund, established in Atlanta after the 1996 Paralympics here. The USDAF runs the BlazeSports America program that works with injured vets in military rehab hospitals.

World War II beginning

"The times of greatest growth in disability sports have come in connection with war," said Andy Fleming, the leader of the 1996 Paralympics who now heads the USDAF.

To provide injured World War II veterans a way to compete, England staged races that evolved into the Paralympics, a competition patterned after the Olympics, for the world's best disabled athletes.

Vietnam War veterans popularized wheelchair basketball and pushed for lighter wheelchairs.

Today, more war wounded survive than ever, learning to adapt to injuries. In Vietnam and the Gulf War, 24 percent of American troops wounded in combat died. Now, in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is down to less than 10 percent, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Clemons lost his leg Feb. 21, 2005, when a bomb went off while he was trying to help soldiers pinned in an overturned vehicle.

"In the very beginning, you're happy you're still alive, but after that wears off, you hit the period of 'Why me?'" he said. "I had so many plans."

Before the Army, Clemons had been a 5-foot-10 football player who hoped to walk on as a defensive back at a college back home in Mississippi.

"I always loved sports; I always wanted to be part of a team, that's why I joined the Army," he said. "I'm a late bloomer, but serving my country worked in my favor. I kind of got stronger and quicker, and I was looking forward to coming back and at least playing softball and basketball here or there."

Instead, losing his limb introduced him to the possibility of competing internationally. Taking military retirement, he entered Penn State, where he is majoring in therapeutic recreation.

"I try to not make limitations for myself," he said. "I try to concentrate on what I can do, not what I can't.

"What helped me out is that [adapted sports] gave me a goal to shoot for," he said.

To organizers of disabled sports, the more than 300 Iraq war amputees represent the largest number of potential athletes among returning troops. Combat veterans generally have a quicker rehab than a spinal cord injury, for instance.

"In Paralympic sports, amputees are going into running and weightlifting and cycling because they can do that, sometimes right away," said Wendy Gumbert, a former Georgian who develops and manages BlazeSports programs for amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Rehab requires pushing

Clemons is on a much faster track than most, she pointed out. While he has a shot at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, disabled Iraq veterans would most likely vie for medals at the 2012 London Paralympics.

"It's not like they're going to lose a limb and six months later be competing for their country," she said. "They have to get knocked down, get their [backsides] kicked, and then work their way up."

Soldiers typically have the discipline and pain threshold needed to excel in disabled sports, Fleming said.

"If they can't push themselves, they'd be washed out to begin with in the military," he said. "People who are pushing the envelope, generally speaking, are the most successful in their rehab experience. They get right back into sports and active recreation."

Disabled sports programs' focus on helping military hospitals and Department of Veterans Affairs facilities will be a big part of the National Disability Sports Conference at the University of Georgia, scheduled in March.

Clemons, meanwhile, believes his greatest athletic contribution may be setting an example for other injured troops.

"People in Iraq are still getting injured every day, and if I give them something to strive for, that it can be done, give them some type of hope, that would be my greatest accomplishment. They can get back out there."

The national meet this weekend is his next step to competing in the Paralympics in China.

"I want to continue to represent our country," he said. "When I came back from the war, people asked me, 'Are you bitter?' This is a great country. You can go and come as you please. It would be a big accomplishment for me to compete internationally, but I don't want to just make the team. I want to be competitive."