Photo By Michael Bottoms | U.S. Army Maj. Zachery Polega competes in the shotput competition June 28, 2024,...... read more read more
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The Department of Defense Warrior Games took place June 21-30, in Orlando, Florida featuring more than 200 wounded, ill, and injured active-duty and veteran service members competing in adaptive sports.
This year marks the 14th anniversary where athletes from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and U.S. Special Operations Command as well as the Australian Defence Force come to compete in the adaptive sports competition.
The games feature 11 adaptive sports including cycling, archery, air precision shooting, swimming, powerlifting, indoor rowing, swimming, track and field, sitting volleyball and the wheelchair events of rugby and basketball.
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Ivan Morera, injured in 2013 in Afghanistan due to a vehicle rollover, sustained a crushed left hand requiring a field amputation to free him from the vehicle. This is his third year competing in the games.
“We will show what we’re capable of doing, where we focus on what we can do and not focus on what we can’t do,” said Morera of the DoD Warrior Games 2024 Team SOCOM.
The Department of Defense Warrior Games, an annual event first held in 2010, celebrates the resiliency and dedication of wounded, ill, and injured active-duty and veteran U.S. military service members.
“Here when we come together, we become a family, we become brothers and sisters, and we just grow very, very close to each other,” Morera added.
The ten-day event is a great chance to bring the competitors and their families together and build camaraderie and is a place where they can reflect on their service to the country.
“For many of our SOF wounded, ill, and injured, military adaptive sports provide a crucial element in the overall process of recovery and rehabilitation. Participating in adaptive sports produces positive outcomes in overall health and quality of life, but sometimes even more essentially, it provides the social connective tissue back to the SOF family when our brothers and sisters are faced with challenges that change the course of their life,” said H. Kelly Ammerman, Director, USSOCOM Warrior Care Program (Care Coalition).
The DoD Warrior Games provide a venue to showcase the efforts of our SOF adaptive athletes as they pursue a new mission of representing SOCOM, strive to achieve new objectives and personal bests, and overcome obstacles so they can celebrate their victories, big and small, with their teammates and their family members who, in many cases, have traveled this difficult journey with them. As a SOF adaptive athlete noted during one of our camps, ‘Connection is the cure,’ he was spot on,” Ammerman said.
The DoD Warrior Games serves to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded warriors by providing them exposure to adaptive sports. Participation in the Warrior Games represents the culmination of a service member’s involvement in an adaptive sports program and demonstrates the incredible potential of wounded warriors through competitive sports.
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.30.2024 19:56 |
| Story ID: | 475248 |
| Location: | ORLANDO, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 92 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Connection is the cure: USSOCOM competes in the 2024 DoD Warrior Games, by Michael Bottoms, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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