Double Amputee Former SEAL Wins Gold Medal at Paralympics

A double amputee and former Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan won a gold medal in the Men’s 7.5-kilometer biathlon during the first day of competition at the Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea Friday.Commander Dan Canossen led Coronado-based SEAL Team One in Afghanistan in 2009. He lost both of his legs at the knee when he stepped on an IED. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor. He learned his legs had been amputated after being unconscious for eight days.Canossen went through rehabilitation both at the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed National Military Center where he learned to walk with his new prosthetics.Canossen first went to the Paralympics in 2014 in Sochi where he placed 6th in the Cross Country Sprint, 10th in the biathlon individual and 10km cross-country, 11th in biathlon middle-distance, 13th in 15km cross-country and 14th in biathlon sprint.“A guy who was taking the transponder off was saying, ‘I think an American is in at first,’ and I was like, ‘Maybe that’s me,’” Cnossen told NBC. He didn’t realize he had won at first because there was a staggered start.The 37-year-old is also getting master’s degrees from Harvard in Public Administration and Theological Studies.Canossen, who is originally from Kansas, had been on four deployments. Photo Credit: NBC
Source: NBC San Diego