{"id":413962,"date":"2025-04-15T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=413962"},"modified":"2025-04-15T20:54:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:54:22","slug":"veterans-find-confidence-on-the-slopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=413962","title":{"rendered":"Veterans find confidence on the slopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The mountain slopes of the Winter Sports Clinic can\u2019t fix everything, but for a week, it helped Veterans with disabilities remember that pushing boundaries\u2014and not their limitations\u2014is what defines them.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Facing limits, pushing beyond<strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>U.S. Army Veteran Jorge Decastro-Cordeiro, pictured above, looked up from the slopes of Snowmass and said, \u201cI call this a mountain of healing. It changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, during his fourth deployment to Iraq, the explosion from an improvised explosive device (IED) left him with a traumatic brain injury (TBI).<\/p>\n<p>Decastro-Cordeiro, like every Veteran who shows up to Snowmass, Colorado, for the weeklong National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic (Winter Sports Clinic) navigates injuries that changed how he can move and experience life.<\/p>\n<p>Each Veteran\u2019s story and injuries are different. Their injuries\u2014TBI, spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, amputations and other severe disabilities\u2014brought them to the mountain, but it\u2019s their ability to push beyond boundaries, connect with other Veterans and seek the freedom of movement that unites them.<\/p>\n<p>This year marked Decastro-Cordeiro\u2019s sixth trip to the Winter Sports Clinic. For him, what started as a challenge became a crucial part of his ongoing recovery.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Miracles on the mountainside<strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This month, nearly 400 Veterans met at the 39th Winter Sports Clinic to participate in adaptive skiing, sled hockey, curling, snowmobiling, fly fishing, scuba diving and other events.<\/p>\n<p>Some were participating for the first time. Others came back to push a little further than they did the year before.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"#wintersportsclinic 39th Annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic Closing Show\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dQiiWwKWC7A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Momentum and connection for the future<strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Army Veteran Kenneth Warkocki made his first trip to the Winter Sports Clinic this year. After struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD,) TBI and chronic pain for years, he started working with VA Salt Lake City Health Care System\u2019s recreation therapy and Whole Health.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Warkocki-1-extended_r1-2.png\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Army Veteran Kenneth Warkocki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>He trained for downhill skiing, lost 40 pounds, and earned a scholarship to participate. He also found something he didn\u2019t expect\u2014trust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt helped with the isolation part of dealing with TBI and other chronic health issues,\u201d Warkocki said. \u201cI wanna [sic] return next year. I found I could participate and be myself around the team. I\u2019m looking forward to more healing and staying committed to the adaptive sports program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Navy Veteran Rachel Rice returned for her second Winter Sports Clinic. In September 2019, while training for a marathon, her legs started to \u201cfall out from under her.\u201d By December, she could barely walk and would be diagnosed with a spinal cord illness.<\/p>\n<p>For Rice, the Winter Sports Clinic connects her to the thrill of skiing. \u201cIt\u2019s like having your own personal roller coaster. It\u2019s freeing\u2026you can go and do not feel held back,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n<p>First-time participant and Army Veteran Curtis Jemison began losing his vision in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I\u2019m in bad shape, and there are some worse off than me,\u201d Jemison said. \u201cThey are out here, pushing themselves, and they motivate me to push on.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The road to the big 4-0 <strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Jemison is determined to return to Snowmass for the 2026 Winter Sports Clinic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a special branch of people\u2014disabled Veterans. If you are disabled, don\u2019t think you can\u2019t do it, because you can,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be back again next year on the 40th. This is a great program, and I see why they\u2019ve had it for 39 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Winter Sports Clinic is co-hosted by VA and Disabled American Veterans (DAV). More than 600 volunteers and staff helped make this year\u2019s event possible<em>. <\/em>As Veterans head home, they take new skills, stronger bonds and confidence that will carry over long after the snow has melted.<\/p>\n<p>Next year marks 40 years of Veterans finding \u201cMiracles on a Mountainside.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wintersportsclinic.org\/\">Learn more or get involved.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mountain slopes of the Winter Sports Clinic can\u2019t fix everything, but for a week, it helped Veterans with disabilities remember that pushing boundaries\u2014and not their limitations\u2014is what defines them. Facing limits, pushing beyond U.S. Army Veteran Jorge Decastro-Cordeiro, pictured above, looked up from the slopes of Snowmass and said, \u201cI call this a mountain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":413964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-winter-sports-clinic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413962"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413968,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413962\/revisions\/413968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/413964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}