Episode 149 - Independence Day Celebrating American Heroes

Happy Independence day from The Hot Zone!  Let's honor some of those who make America great.

 

It's July 4th and you want to be out spending time with those you love celebrating this great country.  So today's podcast is going to be short, just long enough for you to listen to in the car while you drive to the store for those hot dog buns you forgot or for some extra ice.  

 

On June 21-30th, the U.S. Special Operations Command hosted the 2019 Department of Defense Warrior Games in Tampa Bay, Florida. Approximately 300 wounded service members and veterans took part. The athletes represented the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations Command. There were also Wounded Warrior Athletes from the United Kingdom, Australian Defence Force, Canadian Armed Forces, Armed Forces of the Netherlands, and the Danish Armed Forces. Teams included active military service members and veterans with upper-body, lower-body, and spinal cord injuries; traumatic brain injuries; visual impairment; serious illnesses; and post-traumatic stress. They went head-to-head in 14 sports including, archery, cycling, time-trial cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track, field, wheelchair basketball, indoor rowing, powerlifting, and for the first time in Warrior Games history, golf, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair rugby. 

 

The Warrior Games were established in 2010 as a way to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded warriors and to expose them to adaptive sports. Sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., the inaugural Warrior Games hosted approximately 200 wounded, ill and injured service members. During the following years, the Warrior Games expanded in size and scope.  Listen to some Warrior Athletes talk about the games.