A US Vet and a Gold Medalist Sled Hockey Member

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Select Stilo and apply for exclusions. Select Rope Elegante for all the family members of JCPenney.com The result of the explosion was he lost both of his legs. During a year and a half long stay at Walter Reed, Corporal Woodkey underwent several surgeries for his legs. And now he is medically retired.

Certainly you understand that. He has become an incredible athlete. He hand cycled in seven marathons. And he now plays sled hockey for the Nashville Sled Predators. And he is a world champion and an Olympic gold medalist.

And he's on the Adam Gold Show. So how did you get interested in this? So actually, when I moved down to Tennessee, a couple of my buddies that I served with who were wounded in the military had started playing.

And they took me out to practice and I just fell in love with it from there. I mean, it's certainly not a sport you see a lot of people playing pickup. So what kind of a community is there?

It's actually, the community is really growing over the last two years. And most of the major cities in the U.S. have different levels of club teams. And that's where you can start playing at, you know, all the way from there's different tiers all the way up to like kind of the national level, which we play out in Nashville.

So, you know, in Nashville we have four or five teams and then we have kids teams too where you can get started young. So there's the sled, the sled predators. Why don't they just call them the sledders? I don't know.

That's beyond my pay grade. That's very military of you. Give me the gold medal experience that you had. Well, it was for the Winter Games in Beijing.

So obviously going into that was a little nervous because of, you know, the COVID and all the restrictions that were still happening at that point. And unfortunately, before we went in, we found that none of our families or anything could go, which was a little bit of a letdown, but at least the games were happening and we were able to go compete. And, you know, after we got there, everything settled down and actually was an incredible experience being in Beijing for that tournament. And, you know, we were able to outscore our points 30 to one over the tournament.

So that was pretty great too. Joseph Woodkey is joining us here. He is the he's on the U.S. sled hockey team, a gold medalist in twenty two, world champion in twenty one. And I know we just got finished with the Ryder Cup and there's so much so much talk about like what the sport has given you. So what has the sport given you? It gave me back kind of that sense of community I was looking for after I retired from the military and really just a sense of purpose again.

And, you know, I'm just a very competitive person. So being able to get out there on the ice and compete at such a high level just meant the world to me. And once again, being able to represent my country and, you know, wear that flag on my shoulder. Is there a mission or responsibility that you have as a Paralympian or just as an athlete with physical disabilities that maybe a regular athlete doesn't really carry, doesn't bear? You know, I think at any level of any sports, you know, with disability or not, you know, it's whatever you want to take on. And, you know, a lot for the Paralympics and everything, everybody's trying to grow the sport and the awareness and the inclusion aspect of it all. And being like, hey, you know, these real real athletes out here competing and just trying to get the word out about the sport and people to learn about it. So, you know, we have a lot of great advocates on the team that are out there, you know, spreading the word. And, you know, as we travel around the country or the world, we're always trying to meet new people and show people that, like, hey, it doesn't matter if you have a disability, you're able to compete at very high levels around the world. And so I think we just really kind of take it on ourselves a little more to expand, expand the sport and, you know, let people know that it's out there. Yeah, I think from somebody from where I sit, it seems to me like that you serve a higher purpose than other athletes do. You probably are more cathartic to a lot of people. And I think the example you set, the determination that you have has a lot to do with maybe helping other people in similar positions.

Final question. Are you still cycling in marathons? No, I haven't done a marathon in a while. After I made the national team for the for sled hockey, I kind of backed away from that.

It was just, you know, it was just too much. I enjoy cardio, but not that much at all time. So, no, I haven't I haven't done any marathons in a while. But, you know, that might be something I look forward to in the future here a little bit. Well, I wish you all the best in the future.

We have Joseph Woodkey, a U.S. gold medalist at the twenty two games in Beijing for sled hockey. I appreciate your time. Be well and we'll check in again. OK, well, thank you for having me.