Veterans Wheelchair Games: Detroit hosts for the first time
DETROIT. The 45th National Veterans Wheelchair Games ran July 8 through July 14 at Huntington Place, the first time Detroit has hosted the event. More than 500 veterans came in from around the country to compete, up from the 77 who took part when the games began in 1981. Detroit is home to more than 22,000 veterans.
Competitors took on more than 20 events, among them pickleball, table tennis, softball, basketball, wheelchair slalom, air pistol and field events. Army veteran Lisa Maddox, who served nine years, competed in several of them. Air Force veteran Eva De Jesus was at her fourth games, and William Ward, who served 16 years, ran the wheelchair slalom.
Maddox said the games carry a camaraderie other adaptive competitions don't, the kind that comes from being a veteran as much as from having a disability.
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