Double-amputee marathoner’s goal: to show that ‘anything is possible’
Retired Army Sgt. Stefan LeRoy was knocked to the ground by a massive explosion beneath him during a tour in Afghanistan June 2012. Out of instinct, he tried to stand up. That’s when he realized his feet were gone.
LeRoy will be running the Boston Marathon on prosthetic blades tomorrow with one goal in mind: to show people anything is possible.
“Afterwards there’ll be other athletes who say, ‘I can do this because you can,’” said LeRoy, 26, of Florida. “And that’s the bigger thing that I pull out of it. It means something to someone else.”
LeRoy was deployed with the 82nd Airborne when he stepped on an improvised explosive device. He lost both feet immediately and shattered his left femur — eventually his right leg was amputated below the knee, his left above the knee.
He received his first pair of prosthetic running blades in January 2015, and didn’t waste any time — a month later, he ran his first 5k. Nine months later, he ran a half marathon.
Aside from the massive accomplishment of learning to walk and run on prosthetics, there are challenges for double-amputee marathoners that many don’t realize, LeRoy said, like the massive energy output that leads to a greater need for hydration and caloric intake.
“Because I’m running on prosthetics, what I have left on my body is working overtime,” he said.
In addition, the blisters that most runners fear are even more of a threat to those wearing blades — painful chafing and blistering often occurs where the legs meet the prosthetics. And debilitating muscle cramps are another common obstacle, said David Cordani, LeRoy’s running guide.
“Visualize having a third, a half or two-thirds less muscle mass,” said Cordani, president and CEO of Connecticut global health service company Cigna. “The amputee athlete has to generate the force that an able-bodied runner is generating with less muscle fiber.”
Cordani, who has been working as a guide for eight years, said LeRoy is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with the right mindset.
“The human spirit, the human mind never cease to amaze me,” Cordani said. “When someone channels it, anything is possible.”