From the Trenches to the Arena
The third Invictus Games, coming to Toronto in 2017, pay tribute to wounded active and veteran military servicemen and women, while celebrating the power of rehabilitation and recovery through sport.
On November 16, 2007, the armoured vehicle that Captain Simon Mailloux was commanding struck an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Afghanistan. The blast killed two Canadian soldiers, Corporal Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp and Private Michel Levesque, and left Mailloux massively concussed with a fractured jaw, and severely injured leg. When he woke up in a German military hospital, the lower part of his left leg had been amputated.
“It was strange,” Mailloux recalls. “You look at yourself in the mirror, and suddenly [you’re] not the same person. You have to redefine who you are — and that’s a tough process.”
Captain Simon Mailloux on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, discussing his injury, road to recovery, and return to action.
Such is the case for many injured veterans. Adapting to life following a serious injury or illness presents a unique set of challenges, often exasperated by a sudden change in environment. A crucial tool in the recovery of many veterans who have undergone such drastic change is an introduction to the world of para-sports.
On September 23, 2017, the Invictus Games will arrive in Toronto, where over 550 competitors from 17 countries will compete in 12 para-sports — from wheelchair basketball to golf — for one week. The Paralympic-style event was created by Prince Harry in 2014, with the goal of bringing together ill, injured and wounded servicemen and women from across the globe to celebrate the critical role that sports play in the rehabilitation and recovery of veterans.
After completing his clinical rehabilitation and adapting to life with his prosthesis, the next major step in Mailloux’s recovery was learning to run with his artificial limb (known as adaptive running).
“If I wanted to go back, I needed to be able to run. Starting to run allowed me to forget that I have an amputation and to just go on with my life.”
But why go back? Mailloux’s answer is simple: his platoon needed him. “I left on a stretcher, on an unaccomplished mission, with things to be done still. [After being hurt,] I was under meds, but I yelled from the stretcher, being carried to the Blackhawk helicopter that was evacuating us: ‘Just wait for me, I’ll be right back!’ It was a no-brainer for me. I needed to go back.”
And back he went — all the way to Afghanistan. In November of 2009, he completed the objective he had set out to accomplish two years prior, and became the first Canadian amputee to deploy to a war zone as a combatant.
Now, he is preparing for a new task: leading his nation as co-captain of Team Canada in the 2017 Toronto Invictus Games, none of which would have been possible without his reintroduction to sports.
Photo Courtesy of Simon Maillox and the Invictus Foundation
Mailloux sprints at the 2016 Invictus Games in Orlano, Florida.
The psychological and physical benefits of participating in sport are well-documented. Dr. Steven Dilkas is a physicist and musculoskeletal rehabilitation specialist at West Park Healthcare Centre in Toronto, and will serve as load physician for the 2017 Invictus Games. He believes that participation in sports after an amputation has physiological benefits that are critical to medical rehabilitation. Sports can improve a patient’s cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, strength, cognitive function, and confidence. Ultimately, it helps re-establish some sense of normalcy back to their lives.
Dilkas, who also works closely with Team Canada’s Wheelchair Curling and Senior Men’s Wheelchair Basketball teams at the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario, believes that rehabilitation operates on a spectrum.
“The initial stages of our rehab are getting an individual to do their normal daily activities,” he says. “Towards the end of that continuum, we get back to sport, which is really an optimization of their level of function. We’re trying to get them back to where they were before their injury or illness.”
In some instances, patients will even go onto exceed their function prior to injury. Cpt. Mailloux, for instance, recently completed his first half-marathon — something he’d never done prior to his amputation.
Although there is a healthy competitive element, one thing emphasized by organizers and athletes alike is that the competition is second to the road that leads there, and to the therapeutic role that sports play in an athlete’s recovery.
“The Invictus Games are about veterans coming together to compete with each other using sports as a healing conduit — it’s not about the medals,” Mailloux says. “It’s more about their story, and what they’ve overcome just to be on that start line.”
