#128 - “I Was Ready to Die" An IED Took Both His Legs. Then He Won Gold for Team USA w/Josh Sweeney
About this episode
Josh Sweeney shares his journey from losing both legs in an IED explosion to winning gold for Team USA in sled hockey.
He goes from “tip of the spear” to starting over in a single blast and he’s painfully honest about what that actually feels like. Watch here at: https://youtu.be/Np6lE6zrtU0 We talk with Josh Sweeney, a United States Marine Corps scout sniper who deploys to Afghanistan, gets hit by an IED, and loses both legs above the knee along with major hand injuries. Josh walks us through the moments people rarely hear about: the delayed medevac, the tourniquets, staying awake because the wrong meds could make him bleed out, and the strange fog of ICU drugs and hallucinations. Then we move into the harder fight: rehab, loss of control, and the identity crisis that hits when the uniform and the body you trusted are both gone. From there, adaptive sports becomes the doorway to a new life. Josh explains how sled hockey brought back team culture and accountability, how his “hockey sense” got him onto Team USA, and what it’s like to play for gold in Russia and score the game-winning goal at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics. He also shares the real cost of elite competition, stepping away for family, rebuilding after divorce, and later finding a new lane in Para Nordic skiing and Paralympic biathlon…
People in this episode
Host: Bam - The Wild Chaos
Guest: Josh Sweeney
Topics covered
- military experience
- adaptive sports
- rehabilitation
- identity crisis
- Paralympics
- resilience
- mental health
Keywords
- IED
- amputation
- rehab
- sled hockey
- Paralympics
- Team USA
- identity crisis
- adaptive sports
- mental health
- resilience
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Team USA, United States Marine Corps
Places: Afghanistan
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