If you talk to almost anyone at this year’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Detroit, the conversation drifts quickly away from brackets and standings and toward something harder to put a medal around: the feeling of being seen again as an athlete, not just a patient.
"I lost my leg in 2013, and it probably wasn't until my first Wheelchair Games in 2019 that I would have said 'I'm an athlete again,'" said Anthony Martinez, a U.S. Army veteran who deadlifted 725 pounds at this year’s event.
Martinez said he didn't know much about adaptive sports following his injury. He continued to work out and lift weights, but there was something missing. He saw other veterans competing in wheelchair softball, basketball, and weightlifting at his first Wheelchair Games, where he had an epiphany.
"It wasn't really until then that I thought, 'I still am an athlete,'" he said.
For many first-timers, the Wheelchair Games mark a turning point. It's often the first time since their injury or diagnosis that they've competed in anything at all. That shift from patient to athlete is, in many ways, the entire point of the event. It is designed to move veterans from a medical mindset centered on recovery toward an athletic one centered on performance and possibility — rehabilitation dressed up as competition.
Rehab for these competitors usually means working with a VA therapist to get acclimated to their new normal, said Dr. Susan Herson, a Navy veteran who volunteered at this year's Wheelchair Games.
"That's very hard for a veteran who's usually quite in shape and then has a catastrophic injury," said Herson, who drove from upstate New York, through Canada, to make it to Detroit. "They're on a team for the first time. They're in their new normal, competing and feeling strong and empowered. And I think that's why I'm here, to support them feeling included."
Officials representing both the VA and PVA describe the Wheelchair Games not as a side project but as core to what recovery can look like. Adaptive sports, they say, restore more than physical function — they restore a sense of purpose. For many veterans, the annual event has become the turning point where they rediscover what they're capable of.
"It's more than just a competition," said Martinez, who competes in adaptive strongman events outside of the Wheelchair Games. "Yes, I want to win, but having fun with friends that I consider part of my extended family is more important. Coming here really opened my eyes to the world of adaptive sports."
Read more about volunteer and sponsorship opportunities at the 2027 Wheelchair Games in Orlando.
