38th National Veterans Wheelchair Games

Yesterday at the Ovideo Aquatic Facility the 38th National Veterans Wheelchair Games.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games is co-presented between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America. The Games serve Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Amputations and other central neurological impairments with the goal to increase their independence, healthy activity and quality of life through wheelchair sports and recreation. Veterans are being exposed to wheelchair sports at their home VAMC or PVA Chapters as part of their rehabilitation to improve function, independence and getting them active in their home communities in sport and fitness.

This group is training to be "lifters" to help get the veterans into the pool and out of it.

Oviedo High School Volunteers

This veteran started having trouble...in a blink of an eye, the lifeguards were there to help her!

Inspiring National Veterans Wheelchair Games

National Veterans Wheelchair Games brings adaptive sports to Orlando
Orlando Sentinel
Patrick Connolly
August 1, 2018

Over 650 disabled military veterans, including some from Great Britain and Puerto Rico, are expected to compete in 21 events.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games rolled into Orlando this week, bringing events ranging from wheelchair rugby to archery and table tennis.

The 38th games kicked off at the Orange County Convention Center on Monday with events happening through Saturday. Admission is free except for paid convention center parking.

Josh Burch, a Marine veteran from Virginia, is in his first year of playing wheelchair rugby. Wheelchair rugby isn’t exactly like the rugby other athletes play, he explained.

“It’s not really like rugby at all,” Burch said. “It’s more like basketball and catch.”

For the games, he’s on a team with Mason Symons, an Army veteran from Texas who has dreams of making it to the USA team. He said things can get heated sometimes.

“It’s intense, it’s combative,” Symons said. “It gets pretty brutal.”
read more here

Vietnam Vet says "It's not what you lost but what you have left" at Wheelchair Games in Denver

‘It’s not what you lost’ - Local veterans find fun, camaraderie at Wheelchair Games

LINDSAY FIORI

"There's an old saying that it's not what you lost but what you have left," said Sorenson, who was a specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army while serving in Vietnam. "If you have a disability you can sit at home with a blanket on your lap and look out the window ... or else you can go outside and get on with your life."

Vietnam veteran Gus Sorenson, number 10, participated last week in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Denver. Sorenson, of Sturtevant, took part in bowling, shot put, table tennis, discus and quad rugby, which is shown above. CREDIT: Photo courtesy Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

DENVER - Last week two local veterans took part in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and each of those veterans will return to the Racine area this weekend with eight medals between them, including several golds.

Though both veterans were excited by their winnings, they said the medals aren't the important part of the annual Olympics-style games for wheelchair-bound veterans, which took place last week in Denver with closing ceremonies wrapping up Friday night.

"It's not just a sporting event but a way to get back on track with your life," explained Gus Sorenson, a 62-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Sturtevant who took part in this year's games. "Veterans realize others are living their lives with the same conditions."
read more here
Local veterans find fun camaraderie at Wheelchair Games

3 tour Vietnam Veteran chooses victory over disability

Francisco Lopez-de-Victoria, 63, was forced to use a wheelchair after a 2000 back surgery went awry. The Navy retiree, who, served three tours in Vietnam and in Grenada, recently won two medals at the 28th Wheelchair Veterans Games in Omaha, Neb.

Veteran chooses victory over disability
By Jackie Alexander, Times Staff Writer
In print: Friday, August 29, 2008


Sometimes just getting out the door is hard for Francisco Lopez-de-Victoria. His red wheelchair often gets wedged in the narrow frame of his apartment's front door. • "It's almost like jumping a hurdle every morning," the 63-year-old said.

It's a marked change from his earlier life in which he spent more than 25 years in the Navy and played softball internationally.

A simple back procedure in 2000 left him having to use a wheelchair. Now, grass is treacherous. Curbs are insurmountable.

He spent hours in his native Puerto Rico underneath a mango tree, counting crawling ants and slowly trekking the path toward insanity, said his wife, Nereida.

But then his nephew rescued him by introducing him to the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, Lopez-de-Victoria said.

The first year he took gold in each sport he played: table tennis, bowling, archery, shot put and weightlifting.

"If it wasn't for the games, I don't know," his wife said. "I think the games are what kept him sane."

Lopez-de-Victoria of Clearwater competed in his fifth National Veterans Wheelchair Games in late July, collecting a gold medal in archery and bronze in bowling.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article788791.ece