Meet the Athletes

Heath Calhoun

• Bristol, TN
• Sport: Alpine Skiing

In 2003, five months after losing his legs in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq, Heath Calhoun tried adaptive skiing for the first time. A native of Tennessee, he’d only skied a few times before his injury.

Since then, he’s worked to win at racing and to support his fellow wounded warriors. In recognition, Calhoun was chosen by his fellow Paralympic athletes to carry the flag in the Opening Ceremonies at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

“I think there are a lot of similarities between my military service and ski racing,” Calhoun says. “They’ve both given me an opportunity to represent my country to its fullest.”

But the recovery process was not easy at first. As a bilateral above-the-knee amputee, Heath struggled to find comfortable prosthetic legs. Finally, in 2006 he found the right combination of sockets and computerized knees that allowed him to walk again.

During this time he also tried different adaptive sports, including hand-cycling and snowboarding. Eventually he focused on alpine mono-ski racing, and at the 2009 National Championships, he won gold in the sit-ski super-G and silver in slalom. He now competes and teaches – he is a certified mono-ski instructor.

At the same time, Calhoun continues to advocate for other injured veterans. He worked to get the Wounded Warrior Bill passed by Congress in 2005. That same year, he and two colleagues raised money and awareness for wounded service members by cycling across the US. The distance -- from Los Angeles to Montauk, NY – was 4,200 miles!

In May 2007, the Wounded Warrior Project honored him with the George C. Lang Award for Courage. NASCAR fans also voted to name a race in his honor, the Heath Calhoun 400.

Heath Calhoun sees competition as key: “Competition infuriates me. It drives me crazy. It stresses me out, but it also exhilarates me. It gives me something to get up in the morning for. It gives me something to push myself in the gym for. It gives me a feeling that I don't know how to get anywhere else. And it gives me an opportunity to live my life in a way that I never thought was possible.”

Update from Sochi: Heath took home a silver medal in super combined.

Photos courtesy of NBC Sports.