The Hall of Champions’ Challenged Athlete of the Year features ESPY star power for the second time in three years. The U.S. Navy’s Casey Tibbs is honored as the Challenged Athlete of the Year.
Tibbs, a 2nd Class Petty Officer who works as a peer commander at the Balboa Naval Hospital, won a 2007 ESPY as the Male Challenged Athlete of the Year. Two years ago, Olympic Training Center resident Marlon Shirley won an ESPY and was also named the Hall of Champions’ Challenged Athlete of the Year.
Tibbs was honored at the 2007 ESPYs-the same red-carpet affair that featured the Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson-for his success in track and field in the Paralympics. He is the first active duty serviceman to win an ESPY.
Tibbs, who is an amputee below the knee, works with servicemen returning as amputees from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Through rehab work, Tibbs motivates wounded servicemen to resume daily activities post injury.
Tibbs, who also trains at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, was the first active-duty Paralympian to earn a medal in the International Paralympics. At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens (the Paralympics are staged following the Olympics), he claimed the silver medal in pentathlon and the gold in the men’s 4×100-meter relay.
Other international medals he’s claimed include a gold medal in the pentathlon and silver medal in the long jump at the 2006 World Championships in the Netherlands.
At the 2007 Paralympics World Cup in Manchester, Great Britain, Tibbs was the bronze medalist in the long jump. This is Tibbs’ first time honored as the Challenged Athlete of the Year.
Posted on February 1, 2008 by admin
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