First Iraq war veteran chosen for Paralympics
Melissa Stockwell, who lost leg to roadside bomb, makes U.S. swim team
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MINNEAPOLIS - As a young gymnast, Melissa Stockwell always dreamed of going to the Olympics.
She never knew that one day she would wind up as a member of Team USA, or that it would be as a trailblazing one-legged swimmer in the Paralympic Games.
“I was very competitive and really into it,” Stockwell said of her days as a gymnast at Eden Prairie High School in suburban Minneapolis. “I remember going out to the Olympic Training Center and hoping to one day be here. Now I have a second chance.”
Stockwell, who lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in Baghdad, was one of 18 women named to the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team on Sunday, becoming the first Iraq war veteran to be selected for the Paralympics.
No Iraq or Afghanistan veterans were among U.S. disabled athletes in Athens in 2004 or Turin in 2006. Stockwell is the first to land on the team headed to Beijing this summer.
“I’m prouder to be a Paralympian,” Stockwell said in a phone interview. “Just because I’m surrounded by so many people who have overcome obstacles. Everyone’s got their own story. They’re all amazing and incredible.”
Julie O’Neill, the head coach of the swimming team, has seen plenty of those inspirational stories of perseverance and resilience in her time working with disabled athletes.
“Absolutely her story is right up there with some of the best,” O’Neill said. “Right up there near the top.”
Next Sunday will be the fourth anniversary of Stockwell’s injury. As a first lieutenant in the Army, she was traveling through Baghdad on April 13, 2004, when a bomb ripped through her Humvee and took part of her left leg with it.
Infection and surgery claimed another significant portion of her leg, leaving her with just a few inches of stump below her hip.
Doctors fitted Stockwell with a titanium prosthesis so she can walk around, but the leg comes off before she takes the starter’s blocks and gets ready to swim.
“I definitely made a decision early on that I was going to put it behind me and move on and try to do something positive,” Stockwell said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I lost my leg. Of course I would like to have my leg, but I have no regrets. It’s opened so many doors for me.”
Being an athlete, and being in the water, is nothing new to Stockwell. Before joining the Army, she competed in gymnastics in high school and rowing and diving at the University of Colorado, a background that O’Neill says has helped her development into a world-class Paralympic swimmer.
“Melissa is just an athletic individual,” O’Neill said. “She is so dedicated and works so hard. She puts every ounce of energy into every workout.”
The real leaps and bounds started coming in January, when Stockwell relocated to Colorado Springs, Colo., to train.
“The improvement from January to now has been phenomenal,” O’Neill said.
In that span, Stockwell went from being ranked No. 20 in the world in her classification of the 400-meter freestyle to No. 4. She set an American record of 5 minutes, 3.08 seconds in the event at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials in Minneapolis on Thursday in a performance that ultimately sealed her invitation to Beijing.
“I did better than I ever imagined I would do,” Stockwell said. “I kept looking up at my times and I couldn’t even believe that it was me who was swimming them. It was one of the greatest weekends of my life.”
O’Neill said Stockwell also likely will compete in the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly.
Her work ethic and fast rise, more than her status as a soldier wounded in active duty, has made the 28-year-old a leader on a close-knit team, the coach said.
“Largely, Melissa is looked up to due to her presence,” O’Neill said. “She’s very mature. She really is looked at as a team leader. Obviously, she’s developed that through her life experiences.”
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