MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Army News Service, June 24, 2015) -- Two years ago, Army surgical nurse Capt. Kelly Elmlinger was helping wounded warriors recover from battle scars at the San Antonio Military Medical Center.
Now, she's competing alongside wounded warriors at the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games in Quantico this week.
Elmlinger, 35, planned to compete in all of the track events and three of the four swimming events. She got off to a roaring start, June 23, by winning her divisions of the 100- and 800-meter wheelchair races before the remaining track events were postponed because of a severe thunderstorm.
In March 2013, Elmlinger was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare tumor in her lower leg, while she was taking care of wounded warriors in San Antonio.
"I ended up finding myself a patient on my own floor," she said. "In January and February of 2014, I was able to start doing rehab."
By June, she was competing again - this time in a wheelchair.
"I've always been involved in athletics," said Elmlinger, who competed in track and field, cross country and basketball in high school and college. "I stayed active through the military [before being diagnosed with cancer] in different events, so when I got to San Antonio to take care of the wounded warriors, I knew a little bit about the adaptive sports and some of the things they did.
"We very much enjoyed when our patients who left our inpatient services came back to show us they were on their prosthetics - they were walking, they were competing, they were going on trips - and the milestones they were able to achieve. It was absolutely wonderful to see them come back much healthier and in much better spirits, so that got me introduced to the adaptive community."
Being an Army medic for 13 years and a medical provider for wounded warriors, she knew her road to recovery would be long and painful.
"Having gone through the process myself of inpatient and WTU [Warrior Transition Unit], I was very much looking forward to these games," said Elmlinger, who made her Warrior Games debut in 2014 at the games in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and also competed in the 2014 Invictus Games in London. "Just the camaraderie that you build up; they make it about [military] branches, but for me it's not really about branches, there are so many people outside of Team Army that it's great to see."
She knew it was a way to get back in touch with a competitive way of life she had been missing.
"Running was my thing," Elmlinger said. "I completely was lost without running. I was introduced to wheelchair racing and it was a steep learning curve. I didn't really like it at first. It wasn't 'love at first sight,' as I tell people.
"But I stuck with it, and it just kind of became easier, and then you just have that one day where it clicks, and you're like, 'You know what? I like this.' That was kind of it for me, and here I am."
With only a year of wheelchair-racing experience, Elmlinger welcomes the challenge of improving in every race.
"I'm trying to get to the national level," she said. "I still have some work to do. I haven't met some of the standards that I've set for myself that I need to get to, but many of the athletes on the national level have been doing this for 15, 20 or 30 years, so I have a lot of time that I need to make up."
Some wounded warriors quickly admit that they were ready to give up before discovering adaptive sports, which gave them a sense of being born again.
"I wouldn't say that I gave up, but running was an outlet for me: the stressors of the day, to kind of make your peace with whatever, to sort your emotions, just to kind of go out and get lost, so when you lose that outlet that's been such a large part of your life - it wasn't just because I liked running. I craved that time to get myself sorted out. When you lose that productive outlet, I felt lost for awhile."
She now makes time and has potential to succeed both on the track and in the pool.
"I probably have the potential to go on and do rather well, but you have to follow your heart," she said. "You have to follow the thing that makes you feel like you're whole again."
Sometimes, perhaps, it takes reverting to another era of life.
"I hadn't competed in a track meet since college, back in '98," Elmlinger said. "But the nostalgia of being back out on the track - sometimes I feel like I'm back in junior high and high school again, and it's fun. I do a lot of road races, as well, so getting out on the roads and going fast, and just smelling the smell of going by trees and all that stuff you get from those external feelings."
Elmlinger's plan was to win her division in all of the track events at the Warrior Games, but Mother Nature put that on hold - at least for another day or few.
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