Return to Richmond

Original National Veterans Wheelchair Games participants see the event grow into something bigger than only sports.

It was just over 30 years ago when veterans such as Wannie “Ike” Cook, Charlie Hayden, and Jimmy May helped start a tradition that has become the largest annual wheelchair sporting event in the world.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) began in Richmond in 1981 with just 74 participants in five events. The Games returned to the River City this past June with more than 500 veterans from as far away as Great Britain taking part in 17 events such as basketball, quad rugby, table tennis, shooting, billiards, and boccia as an exhibition event.

Presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), and hosted by the Virginia Mid-Atlantic Chapter (VMAC), NVWG is far more than a sporting event. It is also about friendship, better health, participation, developing skills, and trying.

“It’s not man’s ability — it’s the ability in the man. I read that someplace and always kept it in mind,” Hayden explains.

 

To read more about this, order the September 2012 PN, Click Here.
To Subscribe, Click Here.