Don’t ever tell Scott Winkler he can’t do something.

“There’s no difference in an abled body and a disabled body,” says Winkler. “It’s just we do it in a different form.”

Not only is the Augustan the first man injured in the Iraq War to make the United States Paralympic Team, Winkler also holds the U.S. Paralympic Record in shotput. Winkler set the record in 2008, during his 5^th place finish in the Paralympics in Beijing.

But today, Winkler was teaching, coaching, and showing other people like that anything is possible.

“It’s just inspiring people that’s the key thing in life,” Winkler says.

Winkler was a part of the Paralympic Experience, an event hosted by U.S. Paralympics and Champions Made From Adversity.

It gave several people opportunities to learn skills in paralympic sports, such as track and field and sit volleyball.

Winkler says sports helps disabled people in many different ways.

“Mentally, physically, emotionally,” says Winkler. “It gives you another chance to get out and trying new things in life.”

Many at today’s event were children. Winkler says being able to play sports and compete builds their confidence.

“Sports give them that extra edge in life to say, ‘Oh, I can do that. I can accomplish goals just like any other kid,’” Winkler says.

One of the kids participating is Cole Wooten.

Cole attended last year’s Paralympic Experience and began training with Winkler.

Cole says, since then, he’s learned a lot about himself.

“Just to be able to do something that other kids can do,” says Wooten. “I just do it in a different way.”

Cole began competing in March, and in his very first event, he took first place in shotput, discus, and javelin.

He says he hopes to be an inspiration to other kids like himself.

“I’d like to show other kids that even though you’re in a chair, it’s not the end of the world,” Wooten says.

And after his multiple first-place finishes, Cole is aiming to follow in his coach’s footsteps- all the way to the Paralympics.

“That’s probably one of my dreams,” Cole says.

And the competitions aren’t over for Winkler.

Next week, he heads to Guadalajara, Mexico for the 2011 Para Pan Am Games, and then returns to training for the 2012 Paralympics in London.

“I’m sitting 5^th right now,” says Winkler. “I don’t like that. I want to be number one, and bring back all the medals to the U.S.”

“The key is that there are still things to do,” Winkler said from his wheelchair. “I was put in this chair for a reason. I want to inspire people to not give up.”

In Winkler’s case, those “things” include hurling a shot put 11.27 meters to break a Paralympic world record. He also enjoys snowskiing, waterskiing, rockclimbing, hunting and fishing. When he’s not breaking athletic records, he travels the country giving inspiring speeches to teary-eyed listeners.

Winkler, 38, said he was filled with anger and exasperation after becoming paralyzed from the chest down after falling from an ammunition truck in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2003.

At the beginning of his stateside rehabilitation, he spent countless hours hand-swinging his wheelchair through the halls of a Veterans Administration hospital, asking himself: “Why me?”

But eventually he realized that it was time to make lemonade out of lemons. A former sprinter in high school, he went to a sports clinic for wounded soldiers where he learned the shotput. He started training and became one of the first Iraq War veterans to qualify for the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

Along the way, he also got married, got involved in numerous causes and started a foundation, Champions Made From Adversity, which helps advance the lives of those with disabilities through sports and leisure activities.

A Pittsburgh native who currently resides in Georgia, Winkler was in Forest Hills as part of the third annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival. The festival is a six-day event in which movies depicting people with disabilities are shown at venues throughout the New York City area.

On Feb. 8, the Central Queens Y showed “Anita,” a film about a girl with Down syndrome who loses contact with her mother after a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires is bombed, and “Warrior Champions,” a documentary on four Iraqi War veterans, including Winkler, who participate in competitive sports after becoming disabled.

Noting that medicine keeps improving, Winkler was positive about the future for people with disabilities, especially in the athletic realm.

“We’re clearing the path,” he said. “[The next generation is] going to pave it with gold.”

Retired Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey Snover met retired Spc. Scott Winkler at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in 2004 while the pair underwent physical therapy for injuries that left them both wheelchair bound. Now both medically retired, the two joined together and started “Champions Made From Adversity,” a local non-profit with the mission of “advancing the lives of physically disabled persons and their Families through sport and leisure activities.”

CMFA’s objectives are to provide opportunities for the disabled that are similar to the activities of the nondisabled such as individual and team sports, and mentoring programs. They teach life skills through sport and leisure activities so that participants strive to increase their level of independence, earn the respect of the community, and increase leadership skills so they are seen in a positive light. The organization currently provides sports clinics, camps, competitions, and ongoing activities targeting the more than 60,000 physically disabled in the Central Savannah River Area. [read more]

Article written by Capt. Michael Lind
Published July 3, 2009 in The Signal
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