EL PASO, Texas (June 3, 2015) -- For Quintarious Almon, representing the Army team at the DOD Warrior Games continues to be a chance at redemption.
Almon, a former Army Reserve truck driver with the 287th Transportation Company out of Aniston, Alabama, first attended the Warrior Games in 2011, but couldn't finish any of his events because of heat exhaustion.
He returned in 2013 and took the gold medal in the men's 100-meter wheelchair race. In 2014, he took the silver medal in the men's 100-meter wheelchair race.
This year he will compete in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100 relay and also in sitting volleyball at the games, scheduled for June 19-28, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.
"I had learned my lesson about training and nutrition and what I had to do going forward," he said.
Almon received his traumatic brain injury in a car crash when he fell asleep behind the wheel while driving in 2010. He said he doesn't remember the incident. As he was recovering in the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Benning, Georgia, he learned about adaptive sports.
"Adaptive sports are a great way for Soldiers to find another way to go about doing things and learn that there are still things out there that they can do," he said.
Active-duty, Guard and Reserve Soldiers, along with veterans, can participate in the DOD Warrior Games. Almon said events like the DOD Warrior Games helps veterans like him have a goal.
"When veterans get out of the military, some go through a stage of depression. Most guys don't know what they're going to do outside the military," he said."It gives veterans another outlet and a chance to become an elite athlete."
For Almon, who ran track in eighth grade and made it to state and played basketball and football in high school, it gave him a chance to feel like an athlete again.
"I enjoy working out and staying fit," he said. "It helps in my recovery. I still have long-term injuries, but my short-term injuries are not as noticeable anymore. They're still there, but I work really hard to overcome those and strive to continue to get better. I've done a lot of things since adaptive sports, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else."
Throughout the games, wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans from the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard will compete in track and field, shooting, swimming, cycling, archery, wheelchair basketball, and sitting volleyball.
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