Photo By Marcy Sanchez | Michael Stephens and Brandi Evans pose in front of the Fort Bliss Warrior Transition...... read more read more
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Two Fort Bliss veterans returned to El Paso after winning several medals at the 2016 Department of Defense Warrior Games, held at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, in mid-June.
Brandi Evans, a retired sergeant and Michael Stephens, a retired specialist, returned with gold, silver and bronze after taking part in the adaptive sports competition last month. For both Evans and Stephens, competing at this year’s Warrior Games proved to be more than just sporting events.
“Some of those Soldiers and athletes are the most encouraging, inspiring, and humbling individuals I’ll ever know,” said Evans, a native of Denver. “Everybody has a different story: they have their loss, they have their tragedies, and their setbacks.”
Evans competed in several sports and placed second in the 100,200,400 and 1500 women’s wheelchair sprints, and placed third in women’s upright cycling, in her respective category.
This year’s games welcomed 45 warrior athletes for Team Army. According to Evans, the games were a demonstration of how resilient the Army and the Armed Forces have become.
“What some of us lack as a whole, one of the other athletes can fill that void,” said Evans, a mother of three. “We may be competing against each other, but it’s not even about that. It’s about the camaraderie that we built together, we’ve formed a family even outside the Army.”
Evans, a former combat medic, is now a training coordinator for the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Bliss. She enjoys her current position at WTB because she gets to work with Soldiers and help them in their adaptive reconditioning, said Evans.
Through the adaptive reconditioning program, Evans worked with Stephens as he prepared to transition out of the Army due to combat injuries.
“It’s a pretty emotional experience for a lot of the athletes, even some of the returning athletes,” said Stephens, a native of Lewisville, Texas, of his first Warrior Games experience. “There was a whole lot of support from all directions. It was evident when we got there that it wasn’t about anything individual.”
On the first day of competition, Stephens suffered an injury while running the 100-meter dash, still managing to finish second. Although he competed in cycling, Stephens was unable to place in the top three due to his bicycle getting a flat tire on the last lap of the race, causing him to finish fourth.
At the completion of the Warrior Games Stephens left with two gold medals in the men’s visually-impaired standing shot put and discus throws and a silver medal in the men’s visually-impaired 100-Meter Dash. Stephens also set records in his category for the shot put and discus throw.
Not letting his injury stop him from participating, any chance he would get he would go and support Team Army members at their events, said Stephens.
“It was a pretty incredible environment, a good experience all around and I want to do it again,” said Stephens, a former combat engineer. “That was one thing in the Games that was awesome, some coaches who were incredible.”
Although Stephens will not cycle in next year’s Warrior Games, due to qualifying for a national-level team, both he and Evans said they wish to try out for next year’s Team Army. They also hope to compete at next year’s Invictus Games, the international-level adaptive sports competition.
Overall, Evans and Stephens came home with seven medals and said the opportunity and games themselves were “beyond words”.
“You’ll never hear a better story than some of those athletes out there,” said Evans. “You’ll be in awe, especially after what they’ve been through and what they can do.”
| Date Taken: | 07.27.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.27.2016 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 205213 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | DENVER, COLORADO, US |
| Hometown: | LEWISVILLE, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 107 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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