QUANTICO MARINE CORPS BASE, Va. (Army News Service, June 22, 2015) -- The Army took six golds, two silver and a bronze medal in cycling at the Department of Defense Warrior Games, June 21.
The Army swept the tandem visual impairment division, led by Staff Sgt. Sean Johnson, who took gold with a time of 52:47.12 for 30 kilometers. Cpl. Matthew Mueller took silver with a time of 52:57.11 and Spc. Anthony Atemon took the bronze coming in at 52:57.18. In this division, visually-impaired athletes pedaled while a guide in the other seat helped steer.
Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Samantha Goldenstein took gold in the women's upright open class with a 20-kilometer time of 37:43.24.
Staff Sgt. Monica Martinez won gold in the women's handcycle (H5) division with a time of 23:57.71 for 10 kilometers.
Sgt. Zed Pitts won the men's upright C5 division with a time of 49:20.55 for 30 kilometers. Capt. Steven Bortle won silver in the men's upright C4.5 division with a time of 53:16.82.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Timothy Sifuentes took gold in the men's recumbent division with a time of 37:59.49 for 20 kilometers.
Spc. Stefan Leroy took gold in the handcycle (H3) division with a time of 19:00.67 for 10-k.
The course was the same for men and women, only the distance was different for each class. All hand cyclists, tandem recumbent cyclists and women's recumbent cyclists raced a distance of 10 kilometers or 6.25 miles while men's recumbent cyclists and women's upright cyclists raced 20 kilometers or 12.4 miles. The longest ride was for men in the upright or tandem upright classes, who powered a distance of 30 kilometers or 18.6 miles.
The races kicked off at 8 a.m., to a sunny, but humid and hot morning of pedaling. Just as the competition wrapped up, the Marine Corps raised the black flag signaling no outdoor physical training should be conducted.
At noon, medal presentations were made with a Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, civilian bringing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-place medals by literally dropping in via parachute with red smoke flowing as U.S. and British flags streamed from his rigging. He was followed by another Soldier bearing the Army flag as he trailed smoke from the drop; then by a Marine with the Marine Corps flag, a Sailor with the Navy flag and a SOCOM Soldier with his respective flag.
For Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Samantha Goldenstein, this is her second appearance at the games. Last year she won three silver medals and a bronze, but those were in track and field competitions. This year, she took gold in the 20-kilometer women's upright open class.
A 12-year veteran, she's had chronic hip issues and impingements from poor running form and hard impacts on her hips. She said it's just a matter of time until she has replacement surgery for both hips.
She found out about the benefits of adaptive cycling when she was assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, or WTU, after her second deployment.
"While I was in the WTU, they said to me we have all these road bikes just sitting here in the closet - do you want to try one out," she said. "I said, absolutely, so I took it out and that's how I've learned to cycle… it really got me into adaptive sports and now it's a stepping stone that I'm experimenting with on a variety of other types of cycling.
"This has been huge for me because not only am I out there getting physical activity, which helps your mood and your mental status, but we're out here with people and have a sense of comradery whether you're the best cyclist or the worst cyclist, we're still out here making friends and that's huge," she said.
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