FORT BLISS, Texas - A motorcycle accident where she lost the lower half of her right leg caused a change in the competitive attitude of Army Veteran Sgt. Ana Manciaz. Prior to the accident, she was not especially athletic or competitive. Since then her goal is competing in triathlons.
Manciaz is training at Fort Bliss, Texas, in preparation for the 2016 U.S. Army Trials. More than 100 wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and veterans are currently at Fort Bliss to train and compete in a series of athletic events including archery, cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track and field, and wheelchair basketball.
The Army Trials are conducted by the Army Warrior Transition Command March 6-10 and will help determine who will get a spot on the Department of Defense Warrior Games 2016 Army Team. Approximately 250 athletes, representing teams from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Special Operations Command and the British Armed Forces will compete in the DoD Warrior Games June 14-22 at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
Manciaz is training for several swimming events, cycling, archery, and the 200-meter event in track. She describes swimming as her strongest event, and that's what led her to become interested in the triathlon.
The triathlon for wounded, ill, and injured competitors is typically a 500-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike race, and a 5-kilometer run.
In the future, she'd like to train and compete at a national triathlon. She has already competed in what are called "mini-tris", triathlons where the goal is for competitors to pursue personal bests and not simply win.
Competition for her took on a completely new meaning after she lost her leg. "I was never really athletic before I lost my leg and not that competitive," she said. Through the adaptive reconditioning program at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio, Texas, she felt able to embrace a more competitive attitude toward sports.
The Center for The Intrepid also provided her the opportunity to experiment with what she could and couldn't do with a prosthetic leg ranging from scuba diving to triathlons.
She also described her care at Brooke Army Medical Center as a catalyst for a surge in direction and personal growth.
She talked about her new prosthetic leg like it was a new car. "You want to take a new car out and see what it can do," she said. She wanted to find out what her new leg could do and how hard she could push it.
Manciaz talked about adjusting to running with the blade prosthetic. It takes adjustment, she said, "You use different muscles." She credited the Return to Run program at the CFI for helping her make the adjustment to running with the blade prosthetic. She described lots of calisthenics to help with lateral mobility, strength, and balance.
For someone learning to run on the blade, "strength is a huge component of learning to stay upright," she said. For cycling, she has a separate blade that her prosthetist adapted to clip into a cycle pedal.
Manciaz's advice to her fellow competitors? Take every opportunity you can, she said, because any one of those paths may lead to a surprise destination.
Manciaz was very positive about adaptive sports. "I've been really lucky," she said, referring to the help she received at BAMC, from the CFI, and as a veteran. "As a result, I've expanded my own ideas of what I'm capable [of accomplishing]."
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