Get to Know Members of the US National Sled Hockey Team
I never felt sorry for myself or anything try this the first time I saw it in live action sled hockey I was 12 years old oh yeah I was born without legs amputated shortly after birth one above the knee one below the knee been using Prosthetics walk since I was a year old and parents took me to this you know felt very comtable in the ice it was so much fun just to have like a Level Playing Field and really just be able to compete and express myself fully that way when I was 10 years old lost my right leg in a boating accident when I got my first prosthetic the first thing I did was sneak into the garage and try on my old roller blades and try and skate around in the driveway and obviously that didn’t work hockey was my favorite sport and I wanted to keep playing it so luckily found out about sled hockey found a local team in New Jersey I was born without tibas and both legs they amputated my legs at 10 months old ever since then I’ve been using Prosthetics my grandmother she found a local sled program down in Littleton Colorado I was an athlete at heart I fell in love they got me into a sled they got all equipment for me and just went out there and just had fun you know I loved it ever since I’m considered a knee dis Arctic which is an amputation through the knee having my entire femur allowed me to I can weight Bear all my weight on it I played soccer basketball lacrosse baseball you name it I played it I fell in love with SL hockey the speed the skill the physicality I mean and so every day after school drive right to the rink and then head right to the gym after the next year comes around and Coach selected me for the national team when I started playing sled hockey I learned that it was a paral Olympic sport and that was my athletic dreams captain of the national team Josh Pauls met him when I was 10 he won a gold medal in Vancouver brought that gold medal back showed me and my dad and the rest was history I made the national team in 2012 13 season that’s you that’s you I get on the team that year as the youngest player and that was kind of when the team was starting to really come on the dream shifted to where what is the highest level of this sport I can attain and that’s winning gold medals on the US national team and we’ve been doing that for a couple years now we’ve had a lot of success lately we’ won the last four par Olympics we’re all competitors we’re all athletes we want to win but we also want the sport to grow more internationally we want to leave the sport in a place where it’s you know super competitive everyone knows about it and everyone has the opportunity to play if they want to play
The NHL follows members of the US National Sled team: Declan Farmer, Jack Wallace, Malik Jones, and Noah Grove. Learn more about their journeys as they participate in the 2024 World Para Ice Hockey Championship.
Watch the 2024 World Para Ice Hockey Championship at https://NHL.com/SledWorlds
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