'I discovered that there are still so many things I can do,' Master Sgt. Dorian Gardner said. 'After thinking to myself, 'life is over,' adaptive sports really opened my eyes and showed me there are so many things I could still do, regardless of my injury.'
Dorian Gardner was a Marine Corps sergeant serving in Afghanistan in 2010 when an improvised explosive device took his left eye and left him legally blind.
"The Marine Corps is — day in and day out — a tough go," Gardner said,"but doing it with limited vision and having to be very reliant on others for aid, day to day, made things a bit tougher. But I was determined to prove to myself and everybody who doubted me that I could still do this job — that I could still be a Marine.”
The game is played on a basketball court, and competitors wheeled themselves up and down it in specially-designed chairs built to take a beating — or, to dish them out. Rugby is a notoriously rough sport and, Gardner said, the game on wheels is no different."It's still a pretty rough sport even in the wheelchair," Gardner said."The chairs are designed specifically to take impact. There's defensive chairs there's offensive chairs.
Gardner, who is nearing his 20-year mark in the Marines, is getting ready to retire. But, he says, his athletic pursuits are just beginning.
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