Military athletes returning with Warrior Games’ medals – The Virginian

Hampton Roads sent 10 athletes to the Warrior Games in Colorado and about as many medals are coming back.

The week-long, Paralympic-style competition for about 200 wounded, injured or ill service members ended on Saturday.

Army Sgt. Justin Steele of Newsoms claimed the first local medal when his three-man team placed second in the archery compound event on May 2.

During Friday’s track and field competition, Army Sgt. Monica Southall earned a gold in women’s shotput.

Marine Pfc. Kirk Salmon earned a gold in the men’s upper body injury 1500M race and silver medals in the same category for the 100M and 200M races.He is assigned to the Wounded Warrior Battalion East at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.

Ret. Petty Officer 2nd Class Oswald Gould of Chesapeake won a silver medal as part of the Navy/Coast Guard 4x100M men’s relay team. A Marine team won gold.

Wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball games occurred throughout the week. The Army teams struck gold in both events.

The Army wheelchair basketball defeated a Marine team, earning Staff Sgt. Paul Roberts of Newport News a silver medal.

In sitting volleyball, the Army team, which included Southall of Suffolk, defeated the Marine team, which included Cpl. Dylan Kelly.

This was the third year for the Warrior Games and often the competition results are the least interesting part of the event.

One example is when Gould, who won the silver as part of the Navy’s relay team, came in last in the men’s bicycle open.

A cancer survivor and newcomer to the sport of cycling, Gould was in tremendous pain and was tempted to slow down by the end of the race. Then Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Angelo Anderson came up from behind. Anderson, a corpsman at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, was competing in a different race, but the Navy co-captain stayed with Gould until the end of the race.

“Angelo encouraged me and told me to keep pumping,” Gould said in a Navy news release. “I kept going and came home strong.”

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