#259: Sgt "Big Country" Goes From Losing Leg To Pro Para Athlete, From Army to Adaptive Sports

A decade after injuries ended his Army career, a man known as “SGT Big Country” is succeeding in adaptive sports – with parts of his legs missing – and placing 3^rd at track and field nationals recently in seated disc throw, while a documentary about his inspiring journey will be streaming soon.

(2:38) Disabled veteran and Pro Para athlete Brian Conwell took a break from training and hopped on our podcast to talk about the major crash, dark days/years of depression that followed and teaching himself to walk again…

(9:13) what the military taught him about resilience and fitness, as he overcame news from doctors and misconceptions of disability…

(13:51) his adaptive sports journey that could land him on Team USA in the Paralympics, including competing against the best this summer in Oregon, what his average training days look like in the gym and with throwing coach…

(22:40) being determined and pushing past limitations, inspiring others in the process and how he hopes to get a lot of other disabled veterans involved in sports through his nonprofit “Veterans Battlegrounds” with a sanctioned competition featuring a dozen+ sports planned for 2028: https://vbgg.org/.

SGT “Big Country” Conwell also talked about making that comeback with prosthetics after the wreck, plus (35:00) what he learned from the Army about resilience, values, hard work, leadership that’s helped him to get where he is today. See more of him in action: https://www.instagram.com/sgtbigcountry/?hl=en.

On your journeys of fitness and faith, we are helping you stay motivated to be stronger physically and spiritually on the new RUN THE RACE podcast. Host Jason Dennis - veteran WTVM news anchor, marathon runner and missionary, will talk to experts and people with inspiring stories as we dig deeper into the mind, body and soul.