In episode 95 of The Physical Performance Show Brad Beer sits down with Curtis McGrath - Paralympic KL2 Champion, 6 x World Champion Paracanoe (OAM). At age 24 years in 2012, Curtis tragically lost both legs after stepping on a homemade improvised explosive device in a blast in Afghanistan while on active duty as a Combat Engineer.
This is an inspiring story where Curtis went on to become a Gold medallist in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games 200m KL2 sprint canoe (4 years to day post incident), he is a Paracanoe world champion (5 years to date of injury) and Invictus Games Ambassador.
Listen in as we delve into the following:
- paddling with sharks in the lake
- growing up in Queenstown as a teenager
- moving to Australia
- exiting the military after 12 years
- the first introduction to kayaking and developing a respect of the water
- enlisting in the AUS military in 2006 and the first deployment to East Timor
- the rigours of jungle training
- leaving a legacy of East Timor with humanitarian work
- deployment to Afghanistan in 2012 as a Combat Engineer in the Australian Defence Force
- an incident in Afghanistan that resulted in Curtis losing both of his legs
- being the paramedic for himself-telling mates how to put tourniquets on legs
- extent of injuries
- declaring that his mates would see him in the Paralympics in the green and gold
- Performance Round and so much more
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