Amped: a soldier's race for gold in the shadow of war

"When above-the-knee amputeeswalk, we generate seven to nine times the force of our body weight right into the point where the prosthesis meets our residual leg. For me, that's almost 1,500 pounds slamming into that socket." For any amputee, learning to walk with a prosthetic leg is a painful, grueling ordeal. Soon after army medic Kortney Clemons, who lost his right leg to a roadside bomb in Baghdad, began the process, he had more than walking in mind. He wanted to run, and run fast. Barely three years after the awful attack that changed his life forever, he aimed to join the elite corps of international athletes vying for gold in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. His account of his recovery from this catastrophic wound and his drive to become the first Iraq veteran to win Paralympic gold is one of the most remarkable, inspiring, andcompelling stories in the history of sports. Kortney Clemons served as an army medic in Europe before 9/11. After the invasion of Iraq, he was assigned to the 1st Batallion, 8th Cavalry Regiment inBaghdad. Clemons lost his right leg above the knee near Baghdad in February 2005, when a roadside bomb exploded as he was helping a soldier who'd been wounded in an earlier incident. In May 2007, he competed at the Visa Paralympics World Cup in England, finishing the 100 meters in 14.57 seconds. He aims to qualify for the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China, as a sprinter. Bill Briggs earned seven national sportswriting awards for the Denver Post, from investigative journalism to humor pieces. Now working as a freelance writer, Briggs has sold sports and business stories to the Miami Herald, MSNBC. Com, the Financial Times, and the Gazette (Colorado Springs). INDICE: Acknowledgments. Author’s Note. Part I: BLOOD AND TEARS. 1 Medic Down. 2 Southern Roots. 3 Missing Pieces. 4 Into the Void. 5 Baby Steps. Part II: WEARING THE COLORS. 6 Vision of Hope. 7 Off and Running. 8 Big Lift. 9 Precious Time. 10 History and Headlights. 11 Heavy Lessons. 12 Full Circle. Index.

• ISBN: 978-0-470-28137-6
• Editorial: John Wiley & Sons
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 288
• Fecha Publicación: 29/09/2008
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés