The 44th National Veterans Wheelchair Games kick off in Minneapolis
Story by John Groth and Brittany Martin
During the 44th National Veterans Wheelchair Games opening ceremony Thursday evening in Minneapolis, top Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) leaders kept the focus on support.
Both VA Secretary Doug Collins and PVA National President Robert Thomas Jr., wanted athletes to lean on each other and remember their organizations are there whenever and however they need them.
A Navy and an Air Force veteran who has served as a chaplain, Collins told more than 500 veteran athletes, their families and caregivers inside the Minneapolis Convention Center that he’s made it his mission to make sure they have what they need.
“And I’m committed to doing exactly that. Because you know what? Your resilience, your toughness, your ability to move through anything that life throws at you is the very thing that our country is raised on, made on,” Collins says.
The Games, co-sponsored by the VA and PVA, returns to the Minneapolis for the first time in 21 years. They opened with a wheelchair rugby clinic, hosted by U.S. wheelchair rugby national members and coaches fresh off their gold-medal winning Wheelchair Rugby Americas Championship win over tournament host Brazil two days prior.
Ax throwing also served as an exhibition sport, with attendees getting their chance to showcase their lumberjack skills, throwing a small ax at a target inside a cage. Additionally, nine ball billiards, archery, billiards and adaptive fitness, along with power soccer and wheelchair basketball clinics, started up competition, with Friday being the first full day of activities.
Now in his third year as PVA National President, Thomas, an Army veteran and PVA Buckeye Chapter member, made sure athletes know how the Games changed his life, giving him confidence and helping him realize life was full of more possibilities and opportunities after he sustained a spinal cord injury during a diving accident in 1991.
“For more than four decades, the Wheelchair Games have been a symbol of what is possible when resilience meets opportunity. What began as a small gathering has grown into the largest annual adaptive sports and rehabilitation event for disabled veterans exclusively with a disability. At the heart of it all are you, the athletes, who redefine strength and determination with every event,” Thomas says. “As president of PVA, I could not be prouder of the role PVA and the VA has played in this extraordinary event. For us, the Games are not just about medals or personal bests. They are about community, confidence and reclaiming independence. They are also about the importance of the adaptive sports and transforming lives and opening doors.”
PVA Minnesota Chapter member Lloyd Jones appreciated the speakers’ sentiments and speeches. A 67-year-old Army veteran, Jones served from 1976 to 1980 as an engineer before being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1981. Their messages made him ready to compete.
“That the PVA and all them, they back us, that they back us. You need that support,” Jones says. “You need that support, the national support, your local support. You need that.”
Jones has attended more than 10 NVWG and was happy to have this year’s close to home. He lives in Lindstrom, Minn., only an hour away from Minneapolis and will be competing in stick bowling, motor slalom, motor rally, boccia and cornhole.
“I’m very competitive,” he says.
Time To Throw Axes
Army veteran Christine Watson held an ax high over her head with both hands, and after taking a moment to focus, she heaved it at a large wooden target 12 feet away. After several attempts, it finally stuck in the 2-point ring.
“It’s much harder than it looks,” says the 66-year-old, who served from 1976 to 2017 and sustained a level L1 burst fracture with damage at the T10 and T11 level in a bad fall during physical training in 2006. “When another guy got it on, like, the third shot, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I can do this.’”
PVA Senior Associate Director of Sports and Recreation Jennifer Purser says ax throwing was a good way to bring some of Minnesota’s outdoors inside.
“We wanted to represent Minnesota,” she says. “Minnesota has such a great outdoor experience for everyone, and we thought this would be the perfect place to bring it in and try it out.”
Watson, who traveled to the NVWG as part of the PVA Puerto Rico Chapter, lives on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, and says the chapter members talked her into joining them for her first Games. She flew to Puerto Rico for 10 practice sessions and coaching.
“I met this team and I’m so, so happy to be with them. They are such energetic, wonderful, warm, lovely people,” Watson says.
She says she wanted to try ax throwing just for the fun of it, but there is a technique to it. She figured it out with some coaching from staff from St. Cloud, Minn.-based Nice Axe.
“Keep your arms straight, don’t toss it,” she says. “I wanted to throw it, and it’s not about throwing. It’s about chopping it into the air.”
Watson is also competing in archery, which is her favorite, as well as boccia, field events, bowling, table tennis and the obstacle course known as slalom.
She says archery is therapeutic for her because of the focus it takes, and she loves it so much that she built her own range in her driveway out of PVC pipe and straw so she could practice.
“I went out there and practiced and practiced and practiced, and the more I practiced, the worse I got. It was terrible,” she says. “But I love it. I still love going home in my driveway and just shooting the archery bow.”
Since it’s her first year, she says she came for the fun and with an open mind.
“I’m not here for the medals, I’m here for the fun,” she says. “I’m learning a lot from the other vets who’ve been in the wheelchair longer than I and do sports. I’ve just been trying to survive. Single mom, raising my kids [31-year-old Matthew and 29-year-old John Paul]. I learned to walk again so I could finish out my career and then getting older and more crippled. I only got this chair in April, so doing the slalom course should be interesting as I crash into things.”