Posted on 05/13/2010 3:49:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – An Afghan insurgent's homemade bomb shattered Marc Esposito's lower legs, broke his back and knocked him cold for four days. But the Air Force staff sergeant says the worst part was being torn from his Special Operations teammates who stayed in the field after he was evacuated.
A year later, Esposito says, he's found a new team fighting a different kind of battle — the U.S. military's first Warrior Games for wounded servicemen and women at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
"Just like you would in a wartime scenario or a battlefield, you want to get back into play," Esposito said Wednesday before winning his preliminary heat in the 50-meter freestyle swimming competition. "This is a new battlefield, really. It's a friendly battlefield — no one's getting hurt, no one's in a war, but we're competing with each other."
Esposito, 26, from Cameron, N.C., is among nearly 190 servicemen and women competing in the Warrior Games this week. Some use wheelchairs or artificial legs and others have scars from shrapnel or burns. Some, like Esposito, have suffered traumatic brain injuries. Some have left the military but others are still active-duty.
Coached by trainers from the military and the U.S. Olympic Committee's Paraylmpics division, they're competing in cycling, volleyball, shooting, archery, track and field and basketball as well as swimming.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
more info here..
http://usparalympics.org/usoc-paralympic-military-program/warrior-games-presented-by-deloitte
Follow the Warrior Games on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usparalympics and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/usparalympics.
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