Amputee Iraq veteran finished triathlon with leg changes

In New York City Triathlon, No Quit or Excuses for Iraq War Veteran
New York Times
By ZACH SCHONBRUN
Published: July 14, 2013

Just beyond the finish line of the New York City Triathlon on Sunday, Thomas Lee Jr. chugged a bottle of cold water and began looking for shade and a chair. He found both, sat down and popped out his prosthetic right leg.

It was 11:04 a.m., more than three hot and humid hours after he began. The 13th annual triathlon’s male and female winners, Jordan Jones of Colorado and Jenna Parker of California, had long since received their medals. Lee had finished 2,094th out of more than 3,400 racers.

But Lee did not really care about that. Six years after a roadside bomb in Iraq caused him to lose his right leg, his goal for his first Olympic-distance triathlon was not to quit.

Lee’s race supporter, Jared Rose, embraced him at the end and handed him a black duffel bag, approximately the size of a small guitar case. Lee, a former staff sergeant with the Army infantry, fished out his walking leg — a carbon-fiber X2 model, with a blue K-Swiss running shoe at the end.
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