There’s one more week for San Diegans to rally support to bring an international adaptive sports competition to our region.
Prince Harry created the Invictus Games in 2014 to provide a stage for wounded and sick service members and veterans.
“Picture this: 550 competitors battling it out in really exciting competitions, such as wheelchair basketball, rugby and track & field,” said Claire Strong, with the British American Business Council San Diego (BABC).
NBC 7 spoke with Jiesyl Rama, a retired U.S. Navy officer who responded to the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard fire in San Diego five years ago. An explosion threw her body back and she hit her head.
Rama’s resulting traumatic brain injury and PTSD recovery led her to the Invictus Games.
“I don’t know if you’ve been around a lot of military people,” Rama said. “We like to win, right? Every branch likes to say that they’re the best, but what happens with that, as well, is that you get to see people like you doing incredibly difficult things. I’m not supposed to be able to snowboard — I’m not supposed to get too many hits in the head. I actually can’t feel a large percentage of my leg.”
Rama opened Ageless Fitness, a gym where she trained before defying the odds and snowboarding in this year’s Vancouver-hosted games.
The BABC has said that, as a military town, San Diego is the perfect place to host the games, but it needs the community’s help to push its bid across the finish line.
“We can’t do it without you,” Strong said. “The other thing we need right now is letters of interest from corporate sponsors, because we need financial support in order to make this happen.”
Once San Diego’s bid is submitted next week, finalists will be announced in December.