NVWG competitors take on swimming, disc golf, field events
Veteran wheelchair athletes proved their mettle on both land and in the water Sunday during the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG).
Swimming took place at Cross Gates Family Fitness in Slidell, La., and disc golf and field events were contested inside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
Everything for Navy veteran and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Mid-Atlantic Chapter member James Lewis was new.
The 62-year-old Littleton, N.C., resident, who served from 1980 to 1985 and has a level T10 spinal-cord injury (SCI) from anterior cord syndrome sustained during hip surgery in 2021, competed in the Novice Class IV division 50-yard backstroke. It was the first time he’d swam 50 yards since his injury.
“I’ve always loved the water, spent a lot of time in the water growing up and just wanted to compete in it,” Lewis says.
He finished the 50-yard backstroke in 1 minute, 42.42 seconds.
“I wasn’t exactly hoping I’d finish last in my heat, but I’ll tell you at the same time, I was about out of steam about halfway through that second lap,” Lewis says. “I was just trying to finish it. That was kind of my goal was to finish the darn race, and thank goodness that happened.”
He and his wife, Sandra, live on a lake, so he used it to practice swimming 25 yards out and back for two months.
“When I’m out there swimming or floating a little bit, it’s kind of just relaxing,” Lewis says. “You’ve got to keep your head kind of parallel to the water or your mouth is going under. I don’t have any buoyancy below my waist that’s trying to help me stay up. I just like the water around my whole face and I’m just looking up at the sky and time’s just going slow, watching the birds fly by, watching the clouds. And eventually it’s going to be a really good exercise. I’ve got really bad shoulders, so it’ll help me strengthen my shoulders.”
In addition to the 50-yard backstroke and 50-yard breaststroke, Lewis’ schedule included field events, air pistol, 9-ball billiards, disc golf and pickleball.
For 46-year-old Army veteran and PVA Bay Area and Western Chapter member Carlos Santos, competing for just his second year meant going big.
“This year, I signed up for a lot more events,” says Santos, who served from 2001 to 2015 and has a level C4 SCI from degenerative disc disease. “Being a little more seasoned, I knew that I could fill my day and what I was capable of trying to do and that I would stay busy doing events. So, I picked probably four or five more events than I did last year. I took it really easy last year.”
One of those events was disc golf, which included eight par-3 holes set up with New Orleans-style decorations.
Santos says he learned to play through an introductory disc golf course at the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto.
“Disc golf is a hard one because are courses are not flat like this, but you have rocky terrain, so it takes a lot of coordinating because they have to push us up the terrain and stuff,” says the Placerville, Calif., resident.
Because he’s a quadriplegic and right-handed, Santos says the most challenging part for him has been building up the coordination in his right arm to make more accurate shots. Although he didn’t really have a strategy, he thought like he played really well for his first time competing in the event.
“I’m just kind of winging it. I’m just learning along the way on the disc golf right now,” Santos says.
Besides disc golf, Santos competed in air rifle, air pistol, archery, bowling, 9-ball billiards, boccia, swimming and the obstacle course known as “slalom.” He says the Games give him motivation to stay fit and active.
“Once I’d seen everybody in wheelchairs here and they’re all playing games, and it doesn’t really matter if you win or lose,” he says. “I like to do it because it gives you something to look forward to throughout the year.”
Meanwhile, in the field events, Army veteran and PVA Southeastern Chapter member Shawna Nelson just wanted to make improvements from previous years.
The 42-year-old Charlotte, N.C., resident, who served from 2004 to 2012 and has cerebellar ataxia, has been coming to the Games since 2015, minus a couple of years because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. She says she didn’t get a chance to practice throwing the shot put, discus and javelin, but she says she visualized how she’d throw them at the NVWG, sponsored by the VA and PVA.
“It’s muscle memory. I get better each year,” Nelson says. She says the javelin is the most difficult for her.
“You really don’t know … it might land straight. It might land down. It might go far,” Nelson says.
Her disease has affected the muscles and nerves in her right hand, so she had to learn to throw with her left hand.
Nelson’s schedule also included power soccer, wheelchair basketball, bowling and powerlifting, but her favorite sports are power soccer and wheelchair basketball. Her biggest goal in sports is to get recognized as a good player, but her biggest takeaway from the Games is to “get to know everybody, because you don’t know if they’re going to be here next year.”
