Athletes tackled new challenges at this year’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Detroit
by John Groth and Brittany Martin
For years, Marcus Hollis didn’t believe he could do adaptive sports.
Diagnosed in 2016 with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, an autoimmune condition that affects the myelin sheath around his peripheral nerves, he has watched his body deteriorate. The 55-year-old Army veteran developed muscle weakness, gets tired easily, is in a power wheelchair and has spent most of the past decade thinking about his limitations.
But this past year, recreation therapist Audrey Scott introduced him to wheelchair bowling and convinced him to go to his first National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG). After doing ramp bowling with a ball with no holes at July’s 45th NVWG in Detroit, it turned the Memphis resident’s whole mindset around.
“Oh, I’m over-the-moon excited. Like, OK, I’m doing better than I thought I can,” says Hollis, a Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Mid-South Chapter member who served in communications and won a gold medal in the Ramp Powerchair Hand-Control Novice III Division. “Well, I can actually do something instead of being depressed. And it means the world and meeting new people and, you know, just being not at the house.”
Gaining Control
This summer, Detroit became the epicenter of athletic power, spirit, rehabilitation and resilience for veterans with disabilities like Hollis.
Held July 15-21 and cosponsored by PVA and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Games brought together more than 500 competitors from across the country, including over 120 novices, for new athletic challenges and camaraderie at the Huntington Place convention center and surrounding areas.
“Detroit is the city of resilience, and our veterans show that every day in showing up and training and the effort that it takes for most of them to get to this place,” says Jennifer Purser, PVA’s NVWG director and director of sports programs. “Just the travel piece of it and organizing their time and getting off work, and their family, their caregiver support. We felt that Detroit was a great match for the spirit of our athletes, and that’s why we wanted to bring them here.”
Hollis really thought sports were out of the question. But the Games, especially bowling and the fact that he could choose a ball with no holes, use a ramp and compete, showed him they’re not. It was exhilarating, exciting and the hundreds of other athletes competing in more than 20 sports helped, too.
“There’s a group of people. It’s always a team sport or a team around you,” Hollis says. “And then with the tools and the ramp and the bowling ball, it allows me to have my own creativity or control … A moderate amount of control, which is really, really key. Because a lot of times, you’re in the wheelchair, you feel like everything is out of your control. And so, it allows me a moderate amount of control.”
PVA Mid-South Chapter teammate and novice Games athlete Adriane Elliot achieved one pretty cool moment, too.
An Army veteran, Elliot served from 1996 to 2001 as a photojournalist. But on Dec. 5, 2021, she was diagnosed with a level T9 incomplete spinal cord injury from transverse myelitis, a neurological condition and inflammation of the spinal cord that can cause pain, weakness and sensory problems. It came on suddenly.
This year, she finally decided to compete at the Games. Not only did she record her first strike in bowling, but she won a gold medal in the sport’s Manual Novice III Division. Her oldest son, retired Air Force veteran Matt Harriman, took time from his busy family life with four kids to go bowling with her to help her prepare for the Games.
“I remember getting him to all his sporting activities and, you know, trying to impress the importance of organized sports and team play,” Elliot says. “And so, he’s able to do that for me. And I can’t wait to go back and tell him I won a gold in bowling.”
The Rally
Air Force veteran and PVA Buckeye Chapter member Peter Murphy tried out something new, too.
The 31-year-old Cincinnati resident, who served from 2016 to 2020 and sustained a level T4 spinal cord injury (SCI) in a 2018 car accident, tested his trivia skills in The Rally.
Previously called the Motor Rally and open only to power wheelchair users, organizers opened the event to any type of mobility device. Athletes answer questions about the local area and draw playing cards to try to get the best poker hand. This year’s event took place at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich.
Competing in just his second NVWG, Murphy, a manual wheelchair user, says he enjoyed The Rally because it gave him time to relax and have fun without a head-to-head rivalry. As a former plane maintainer, his favorite part of the museum was the airplanes.
“The Rally is awesome because it is a break from the chaos of sports, and it just gives you a moment to explore the area,” Murphy says. “The Games are in these cities that are so amazing, and The Rally gives you a chance to see the bigger picture of the city and get to explore the city.”
Murphy says he didn’t do anything to prepare, minus some last-minute cramming before the competition. But he rolled away with a gold medal in the Open II Division.
“When you have a disability, it is so, so easy to get stuck inside, and games like this just force everybody to get outside of their home, interact with people, have fun and compete,” he says. “Because I think we tell ourselves that, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and this is just a, ‘No, we can do this. We can play. We can compete with each other.’”
Inaugural Titan Tourneys
Other new competitions offered unique twists and family-friendly fun in the form of four Titan Tournaments in archery, pickleball, wheelchair basketball and cornhole.
Army veteran and PVA Southeastern Chapter member Lisa Maddox and Marine Corps veteran and NVWG volunteer Tony Weaver captured the first up/down hybrid (one wheelchair player and one able-bodied player) doubles wheelchair pickleball tournament. They defeated PVA Bay Area & Western Chapter member Austin Parker and his wife, Rachel Parker, 11-7, in the championship match.
“It means a whole lot because he gave up his time to come help us, and then he helped win hybrid,” Maddox says of Weaver.
Meanwhile, Army veteran and PVA Southeastern Chapter member Jalen Davis and his father, Mark Davis, took the Titan cornhole title, as they defeated the husband-and-wife tandem of PVA Southeastern Chapter member and Army veteran Scott Winkler and Brandi Winkler, 17-12.
It was a big moment for Jalen, since it was his first Games and ended up being his first gold medal.
“I’m glad I’m walking away with something,” he says.
In three-on-three wheelchair basketball, Team 3 (Neon Green) emerged as the Titan champion as the group of Jason Rainey, Freddie Smith, Nakia Merritte, Booker T. Foster, Gene Calantoc and Jesse Lind defeated Team 4 (Dark Green), 14-12, for the title.
An Army veteran, Rainey says it was way more intense than just regular five-on-five.
“You’re exposed a lot more because, you know, there’s all that space,” says Rainey, who competed in his first NVWG.
Archery’s Johnny Appleseed Titan Tournament may have stolen the show, though. PVA Florida Gulf Coast Chapter member, Navy veteran and newly selected Team USA para archery member Ryan Lindstrom captured the title.
Lindstrom outlasted the competition and received a small apple-shaped trophy for his sharpshooting.
The 42-year-old Tampa, Fla., resident, who served from 2002 to 2003 and sustained a level C6/C7 SCI in a 2002 car accident, says he wanted to try the Titan format because it was different from his norm.
“It was weird, I had to sight in to 10 [meters]. I don’t ever shoot at 10, like
literally ever,” he says. “I wasn’t sure how quick I could sight in. But it took me three arrows to really get it sighted in, and then I was able to tweak it a little as I shot because the target started pretty big, and at 10 meters, I should never miss.”
He says it felt good to stay consistent.
“It’s something new, something different. It just seemed like a lot of fun,” Lindstrom says.
“Mr. Wheelchair Games” Bids Adieu To NVWG
Speaking of fun, longtime NVWG director for the VA Dave Tostenrude finished off his final Games with some flair.
Dressed as fictional NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby from the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, he announced he was retiring from the Games during the closing ceremony and was also presented with a poster signed by NVWG athletes, volunteers, supporters and staff.
“I can honestly say that being around the Games and you all and so many veterans that have come before have been a very positive influence in my life,” says the 59-year-old.
A recreation therapist, Tostenrude started at the Seattle VA Medical Center in 1990 and later became known as “Mr. Wheelchair Games” there. He met NVWG co-founder Tom Brown in 1996 when Seattle hosted the Games and then became more involved in supporting the NVWG in different events.
Later, when Tostenrude moved into VA administration in 2002, he started working as a consultant at the Games and also served as a Games official. When Brown retired as Games director in 2012, Tostenrude was selected as the director of the Games within the VA.
For Tostenrude, that was one major honor. Brown, a recreation therapist at the VA central office in Washington, D.C., along with VA Chief of Recreation Therapy Muriel Barbour and VA Director of Recreation Therapy Wally Lynch, helped create the Games in 1981.
“As a professional and in this position, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for him,” Tostenrude says about Brown.
He’ll end his 15-year stint with the Games, including the last nine alongside Purser, NVWG director for PVA.
“Your partnership with the PVA has been amazing,” Purser says. “I will tell you he’s been dedicated to spreading the mission of the PVA, the mission of the VA, and I am so proud that I got to spend that time with you.”
Tostenrude won’t be retiring from the VA just yet, though. And he continued to remind veterans that they have an army behind them.
“We are committed at VA and PVA to support your rehabilitation,” Tostenrude says. “There are, like, 100-plus novices in this room. You are part of an amazing community, and we’re there for you from now on. We are there for your health and your lives through this event, and I am blessed to be part of that team.”
For more on this year’s NVWG, read about the Spirit of the Games winner in People on page 44, a meetup for women athletes in In Depth on page 36 or visit pnonline.com.
