Inspiring experience

Michael Digue participates in the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic

by Melissa Soria

Pharos-Tribune lifestyle writer



Michael Digue, 46, isn’t accustomed to sitting around his house all day, cursing his circumstances in life.

Digue is an U.S. Army veteran and paraplegic who lives an active lifestyle despite a car accident that confined him to a wheelchair five years ago.

In 2005, he participated in the 25th annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Minneapolis, Minn. The next year, he traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to participate in the same event, where he received gold medals in archery, air guns and weight lifting.

Recently, Digue skied down slopes at the 21st National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colo. The clinic is the largest rehabilitation event of its kind in the world, according to the organization’s Web site.

More than 350 U.S. military veterans from 41 states participated in the clinic to learn or improve their skills in adaptive Alpine and Nordic skiing and snowboarding. The clinic used instructors to teach downhill and cross-country skiing to veterans with significant physical and visual impairments.

For Digue, the experience was an unfamiliar one.

“I never skied in my life since the first Monday when we got here,” he said. “I was totally hooked from the first day.”

Digue had a choice to ski with a mono-ski or bi-ski, which, with two skis, is more stable than the mono-ski. Digue was advised to use the bi-ski because the mono-ski is more challenging. Digue would be spending a short time skiing, and the instructors wanted him to have an enjoyable experience.

Digue insisted, though, that he use the mono-ski.

“It was pretty scary,” Digue says. “The fun of it, though, overrode the fear right away. It was so much fun, I didn’t have time to be scared.”

Digue started his first session skiing with an instructor behind him, guiding him down the slopes.

By the end of Day 2, Digue was told he was doing so good that he could ski alone for the rest of the time.

“They said I learned in six hours what it takes people to learn in three years,” he said.

Digue couldn’t get enough of the sport the rest of the week.

“I’m in love with skiing,” he said. “I’d never thought I’d ski in my life.”

At the event, he also rock climbed and practiced his archery. He’s hoping to win another gold medal in the archery competition at the 2007 National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Milwaukee, Wis. in June. He said he would also love the opportunity to participate in the 2010 Paralympic Games.

Digue said the sporting events provide him with many opportunities: from being able to challenge himself to having something to get excited about each year.

“It’s something I look forward to,” Digue said. “It’s tough to sit in a wheelchair all your life. The alternative is to sit at home and do nothing — turn into a vegetable.”

Digue said the events allow him to forget about his daily challenges in a wheelchair.

“You forget about all that stuff,” Digue said.

Sandy Trombetta, director of the winter sports clinic, agreed that the event is a chance for participants to get away from their worries for a week.

“There are a lot of different prejudices out there,” he said. At the sports clinic, participants just “be and do.”

Digue said the events also give him the opportunity to make new friends and see old ones.

“Some of them, I’ll never see again,” he admits.

“It offers so many interactions,” Trombetta said. “It’s a reason for people to get out and about.”

Trombetta, who is a recreational therapist, said it’s important for disabled individuals to continue to pursue their passions, whatever they may be.

Taking away those passions can affect their quality of life, he said.

“You really take away a large part of who they are,” he said. “You take away a lot of their self-expression. You literally take away their essence to a degree.”

“By giving them that back, it really does so much for them,” he said. “They’re fulfilling things that meant something to them.”

Most importantly, they are shown the possibilities of what they can achieve.

Digue recalls witnessing the first time an Iraq veteran realized his true potential at the sports clinic.

“There was this guy, Angel, he was 18,” Digue remembers. “He just came back from Iraq.”

The left side of Angel’s body was affected as a result of surgery he had to his brain, Digue says.

“As soon as he got to Iraq, he got shot in the head,” he said.

Digue and others were rock climbing, but Angel wasn’t sure if he could accomplish the task.

“He said, ‘There’s no way I can do that,” Digue said.

Digue, along with a quadriplegic, climbed up the wall to prove to Angel that it was possible.

“I said, ‘If he can do it, you can do it,’” Digue recalls.

“He kept saying, ‘There’s no way I can do this.’ I said, ‘I know you can do this,’” Digue said.

Angel finally climbed the wall and hours later ran into Digue.

“I said, ‘So, you did it,’” Digue said. “He was just grinning from ear to ear.”

Trombetta witnessed a similar experience with a man who lost a leg.

Trombetta saw him “thrive at the event.”

“It made a difference to him ... to what he thinks of himself, and what he can do,” he said.

Digue admits that his life has changed because of events like the sports clinic.

“Your mental picture is a lot different,” he said. “You see a lot of people in the same situation — or worse. You suddenly appreciate that you’re even healthy enough to go.”

Trombetta said it’s important for the participants to “not see themselves as victims.”

He says the real challenges the disabled veterans face don’t necessarily occur at the sporting events.

“It doesn’t take courage for them to ski. The courage comes each and every day when they get out of bed,” he said.

Melissa Soria may be reached at (574) 732-5143 or via e-mail at melissa.soria@pharostribune.com

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