thedrifter
09-05-08, 10:39 AM
Marine goes for gold with Team USA
9/5/2008 By Lance Cpl. Stefanie C. Pupkiewicz , III Marine Expeditionary Force
KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, Japan — “He knocked me out of my chair,” the older and more heavily bearded of the two explains while he hoists himself back into his chair.
The younger man is former Marine Carlos Leon current world record holder for the discus in Paralympic sports and the man he playful knocked to the floor is Scott Severn
his teammate on the U.S. Paralympic team and friend.
Leon looks around before buying some chips from a vending machine. He looks around to check to make sure his tyrannical nutritionist is not watching as he starts to consume the forbidden food.
It’s the second bit of junk food he’s had in a while, he said. The first were some cookies on the plane ride to Okinawa to train for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. “They were some damn good cookies,” Leon said.
The chips disappear quickly and licking his fingers he states, “This is the best part.”
He leans forward resting his elbows on his legs and drawing attention to his seat, a wheelchair that seems out of place on such a physically fit man.
Injured on active duty in the Marine Corps, Leon came to Okinawa for a week’s preparation for the Beijing Paralympic games with the U.S. Paralympic team.
As a Marine and now as an athlete, Leon has always relied on hard work to succeed;
something he learned from his family.
His cousins, who he looked at as brothers, were Marines. As physically active and
involved in sports as he was, he could not see doing anything else with his life besides
becoming a Marine, he said.
Just after turning 17, he left for Parris Island, S.C., to join 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Company K.
His recruiter told him he was going to be in Explosive Ordnance Disposal where blowing
stuff up would be his nine-to-five job.
Leon soon learned there were no nine-to-five jobs in the Marine Corps, and blowing stuff up was not his destiny.
He instead got to jump out of airplanes as a parachute rigger.
Attached to a radio reconnaissance unit and having the “time of his life”, Leon deployed with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit to Iraq in December of 2004, he said.
Despite the intense training and anticipation leading up to the deployment, it was a rather
uneventful combat tour he said.
In the post-surge Iraq, the unit did not engage in any significant scuffles, Leon said.
It may not have been what he and the rest of the unit had in mind in the way of a combat tour, however the positive side is that the unit did not lose any Marines or sailors during the deployment, he said.
Ironically, it was after Iraq when Leon’s life changed forever.
Shortly after returning to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, he went to the beach with his friends, he
said. He dove into the water and hit a rock.
The impact broke his neck and rendered him quadriplegic with an incomplete spinal injury.
He still had some sensitivity in his limbs but he had no motor function, Leon said. Leon went from a 20-year-old Marine corporal with control over his life to not even being able to control his own body, he said.
As bad as it seemed, he was not allowed to descend depression and withdrawal, he said. His family and friends would not let him.
The Marine Corps and his unit were hugely supportive, he said.
“I just knew that people loved me,” Leon said.
The nature of his injury allowed for regeneration of some of the nerves through hard work, he said.
“I started working harder than anyone in the hospital,” Leon said. Six hours a day and six days a week, he was either in therapy or in the gym.
The work ethic instilled by his family and his upbringing encouraged by the Marine Corps allowed him to reclaim his life. During his rehabilitation, his therapist encouraged him to participate in a sports camp the
U.S. Paralympics Team was hosting for wounded military service members, he said.
He attended because he was always active in sports prior to the accident and wondered if
it was still possible for him to play again. Prior to that, he did not think sports were even an option to him anymore, he said.
At the camp, he went to the pool. An Iraq veteran was swimming laps, he said. The veteran was an EOD technician and a quadruple amputee.
Leon was motivated by what he saw.
“I want to get into the water,” he said turning to his father.
His father wasn’t sure about it but consented and helped him change and get into the water.
Soon after, Leon was in the pool swimming on his own.
“I can’t believe I can still do this,” Leon remembers thinking.
A demonstration of track and field events later in the camp sparked his interest and obsession and with the shot put and discus. Both events he had never tried before.
He tried the events and was told by the athletic coach that he had a real knack for the discus event, Leon remembers.
“You can really take this to the next level,” the coach told him.
Leon began competing in both events around the country and winning.
In 2007, he qualified for the U.S. team going to the Pan-American Games in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
“A year and a half after I was told I would never do anything, I was putting on a team USA jersey,” Leon said.
In the Pan American games, he took silver in the discus and the bronze in shot put.
Stepping into the circle at the field trials for the Paralympic team in 2008, he threw a
foul followed by a world record throw. The world record was not surprising for Carla Garrett, coach of the national team.
Garrett said Leon has a good chance for gold in his first Paralympic games and will
surprise people in the coming weeks.
Leon has trained for a year and half for just one day of competition at the Paralympics, said Chad James, Leon’s personal coach and assistant track and cross country coach at Samford University, Birmingham, Ala.
“Walking or rolling away from this, it was worth it,” Leon said.
Ellie
9/5/2008 By Lance Cpl. Stefanie C. Pupkiewicz , III Marine Expeditionary Force
KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, Japan — “He knocked me out of my chair,” the older and more heavily bearded of the two explains while he hoists himself back into his chair.
The younger man is former Marine Carlos Leon current world record holder for the discus in Paralympic sports and the man he playful knocked to the floor is Scott Severn
his teammate on the U.S. Paralympic team and friend.
Leon looks around before buying some chips from a vending machine. He looks around to check to make sure his tyrannical nutritionist is not watching as he starts to consume the forbidden food.
It’s the second bit of junk food he’s had in a while, he said. The first were some cookies on the plane ride to Okinawa to train for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. “They were some damn good cookies,” Leon said.
The chips disappear quickly and licking his fingers he states, “This is the best part.”
He leans forward resting his elbows on his legs and drawing attention to his seat, a wheelchair that seems out of place on such a physically fit man.
Injured on active duty in the Marine Corps, Leon came to Okinawa for a week’s preparation for the Beijing Paralympic games with the U.S. Paralympic team.
As a Marine and now as an athlete, Leon has always relied on hard work to succeed;
something he learned from his family.
His cousins, who he looked at as brothers, were Marines. As physically active and
involved in sports as he was, he could not see doing anything else with his life besides
becoming a Marine, he said.
Just after turning 17, he left for Parris Island, S.C., to join 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Company K.
His recruiter told him he was going to be in Explosive Ordnance Disposal where blowing
stuff up would be his nine-to-five job.
Leon soon learned there were no nine-to-five jobs in the Marine Corps, and blowing stuff up was not his destiny.
He instead got to jump out of airplanes as a parachute rigger.
Attached to a radio reconnaissance unit and having the “time of his life”, Leon deployed with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit to Iraq in December of 2004, he said.
Despite the intense training and anticipation leading up to the deployment, it was a rather
uneventful combat tour he said.
In the post-surge Iraq, the unit did not engage in any significant scuffles, Leon said.
It may not have been what he and the rest of the unit had in mind in the way of a combat tour, however the positive side is that the unit did not lose any Marines or sailors during the deployment, he said.
Ironically, it was after Iraq when Leon’s life changed forever.
Shortly after returning to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, he went to the beach with his friends, he
said. He dove into the water and hit a rock.
The impact broke his neck and rendered him quadriplegic with an incomplete spinal injury.
He still had some sensitivity in his limbs but he had no motor function, Leon said. Leon went from a 20-year-old Marine corporal with control over his life to not even being able to control his own body, he said.
As bad as it seemed, he was not allowed to descend depression and withdrawal, he said. His family and friends would not let him.
The Marine Corps and his unit were hugely supportive, he said.
“I just knew that people loved me,” Leon said.
The nature of his injury allowed for regeneration of some of the nerves through hard work, he said.
“I started working harder than anyone in the hospital,” Leon said. Six hours a day and six days a week, he was either in therapy or in the gym.
The work ethic instilled by his family and his upbringing encouraged by the Marine Corps allowed him to reclaim his life. During his rehabilitation, his therapist encouraged him to participate in a sports camp the
U.S. Paralympics Team was hosting for wounded military service members, he said.
He attended because he was always active in sports prior to the accident and wondered if
it was still possible for him to play again. Prior to that, he did not think sports were even an option to him anymore, he said.
At the camp, he went to the pool. An Iraq veteran was swimming laps, he said. The veteran was an EOD technician and a quadruple amputee.
Leon was motivated by what he saw.
“I want to get into the water,” he said turning to his father.
His father wasn’t sure about it but consented and helped him change and get into the water.
Soon after, Leon was in the pool swimming on his own.
“I can’t believe I can still do this,” Leon remembers thinking.
A demonstration of track and field events later in the camp sparked his interest and obsession and with the shot put and discus. Both events he had never tried before.
He tried the events and was told by the athletic coach that he had a real knack for the discus event, Leon remembers.
“You can really take this to the next level,” the coach told him.
Leon began competing in both events around the country and winning.
In 2007, he qualified for the U.S. team going to the Pan-American Games in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
“A year and a half after I was told I would never do anything, I was putting on a team USA jersey,” Leon said.
In the Pan American games, he took silver in the discus and the bronze in shot put.
Stepping into the circle at the field trials for the Paralympic team in 2008, he threw a
foul followed by a world record throw. The world record was not surprising for Carla Garrett, coach of the national team.
Garrett said Leon has a good chance for gold in his first Paralympic games and will
surprise people in the coming weeks.
Leon has trained for a year and half for just one day of competition at the Paralympics, said Chad James, Leon’s personal coach and assistant track and cross country coach at Samford University, Birmingham, Ala.
“Walking or rolling away from this, it was worth it,” Leon said.
Ellie