WEBVTT 00:01.526 --> 00:04.340 - [Interviewer] So, name, rank? 00:04.340 --> 00:07.080 - My name is Sergeant Cory Ivans, Junior to be exact, 00:07.080 --> 00:11.080 I'm 26 years old, I've been in the United States army 00:11.080 --> 00:13.680 for about seven years, it'll be eight in November. 00:13.680 --> 00:15.610 I served as a 25 uniform which is 00:15.610 --> 00:17.530 Signal Support Systems Specialist, are, 00:17.530 --> 00:20.280 as we know it in radio, signal everything, 00:20.280 --> 00:22.530 cause we pretty much do everything in Signal. 00:24.600 --> 00:26.920 That's a little short brief about me. 00:26.920 --> 00:29.630 - [Interviewer] So, how's your experience here in the 00:29.630 --> 00:31.800 Warrior Games been so far? 00:31.800 --> 00:33.240 - I've had a lot of fun in the Warrior Games. 00:33.240 --> 00:36.740 This is my second year here so I'm kind of here as a vet. 00:36.740 --> 00:38.564 Unfortunately, we only get two years 00:38.564 --> 00:40.550 to play the Warrior Games unless you're 00:40.550 --> 00:42.230 invited back for a third year. 00:42.230 --> 00:43.960 So knowing that I only get two years, 00:43.960 --> 00:47.140 I just gave my all in every event that I did, 00:47.140 --> 00:50.110 knowing that I could not be back for a third year. 00:50.110 --> 00:53.280 I tried to be the spark plug for the entire team, 00:53.280 --> 00:54.960 give them that motivation to, 00:54.960 --> 00:57.240 when they were lacking it, just try to give them 00:57.240 --> 00:59.450 those words of encouragement that I feel everybody needs 00:59.450 --> 01:01.623 and even that I need at certain times so, 01:01.623 --> 01:04.470 and knowing that in doing that I would just try 01:04.470 --> 01:06.300 to have as much fun as possible because 01:06.300 --> 01:09.240 this is the chance and the time to get away from work. 01:09.240 --> 01:11.790 For all the stressors, to just leave them back at home, 01:11.790 --> 01:13.350 you're here to compete and have fun, 01:13.350 --> 01:15.620 meet people from other branches and just be excited 01:15.620 --> 01:18.890 about the chance that you get to compete on this level. 01:18.890 --> 01:20.413 - [Interviewer] How do you feel that you're here 01:20.413 --> 01:21.910 on your second year and you might not 01:21.910 --> 01:23.260 come back for a third year? 01:25.110 --> 01:27.620 - Honestly, I'm just grateful for the opportunity. 01:27.620 --> 01:29.140 I don't expect to come back for a third year, 01:29.140 --> 01:31.010 not that I'm good or bad or anything, 01:31.010 --> 01:34.140 I don't consider it that way, I just consider it, 01:34.140 --> 01:37.560 hey, I was blessed and lucky enough, 01:37.560 --> 01:39.640 talented or skilled enough to be here the two years 01:39.640 --> 01:42.780 that I was here, so if I don't get invited back a third year 01:42.780 --> 01:44.210 it won't hurt my feelings. 01:44.210 --> 01:45.590 I know I did everything I could 01:45.590 --> 01:47.530 when I was here and that's all that's important to me. 01:47.530 --> 01:50.760 I didn't leave anything to where I would regret it later, 01:50.760 --> 01:51.920 saying I wish I would've did this. 01:51.920 --> 01:54.220 No, I did everything that I wanted to do 01:54.220 --> 01:56.980 and my results are I have three medals so far and 01:56.980 --> 01:59.513 we'll just see how the rest of my events go. 02:00.680 --> 02:02.380 - [Interviewer] What medals do you have? 02:02.380 --> 02:05.200 - The medals I have, I have a silver and seated discus, 02:05.200 --> 02:07.138 or excuse me, a seated shot put. 02:07.138 --> 02:08.030 I have I have a bronze in seated discus and 02:08.030 --> 02:10.820 I have a bronze in wheelchair basketball. 02:10.820 --> 02:14.470 We play for bronze in seated volleyball on Sunday. 02:14.470 --> 02:19.470 - [Interviewer] Sweet, sweet. So, being here, what's your 02:20.090 --> 02:23.110 support system, who's supporting you while you're here? 02:23.110 --> 02:26.490 - My wife, Mary, Mary Ivans, and my son, Cameron Ivans. 02:26.490 --> 02:29.660 They're here. Of course, the entire team army. 02:29.660 --> 02:31.580 They're very supportive, they give us 02:31.580 --> 02:33.880 words of encouragement daily, telling us 02:33.880 --> 02:36.010 don't stress about the small things, 02:36.010 --> 02:41.010 control what you can control, which I try to focus on daily, 02:41.500 --> 02:43.939 because if you try to get out of that realm of, 02:43.939 --> 02:47.590 oh, it's raining outside, my day's going to suck. 02:47.590 --> 02:50.510 No, you control what you can control. 02:50.510 --> 02:51.670 You can't control the weather. 02:51.670 --> 02:53.480 So, if your events are outside 02:53.480 --> 02:55.050 and they say, "Hey, you have to perform outside", 02:55.050 --> 02:56.270 you just got to perform outside. 02:56.270 --> 02:58.410 You gotta take those practice shots, 02:58.410 --> 03:00.600 adjust, and just try to do your best. 03:00.600 --> 03:02.870 So like I said, control what you can control, 03:02.870 --> 03:04.877 the team army has my back, knowing that, 03:04.877 --> 03:07.626 and my family, so they're very supportive. 03:07.626 --> 03:09.620 - [Interviewer] Great. I heard you just 03:09.620 --> 03:11.090 won your basketball game. 03:11.090 --> 03:12.231 - I did. 03:12.231 --> 03:13.990 - [Interviewer] What does your family think about that? 03:13.990 --> 03:16.440 - They're very excited. They're excited because 03:16.440 --> 03:18.430 although we couldn't go for the gold, 03:18.430 --> 03:20.050 we said, hey, since we're in this bronze match, 03:20.050 --> 03:22.996 we're going to give everything that we got, and we did. 03:22.996 --> 03:24.670 We got up to a big lead in the first half, 03:24.670 --> 03:27.680 fortunately, maybe we pressed too hard on the gas, 03:27.680 --> 03:31.210 tired ourselves out a little bit, but we kept the lead. 03:31.210 --> 03:32.870 They never came back too close to where 03:32.870 --> 03:34.410 we thought we were going to lose. 03:34.410 --> 03:37.310 We were in control of the game the entire time. 03:37.310 --> 03:38.470 We were all excited about it. 03:38.470 --> 03:40.380 I mean, it's not gold, but maybe next year. 03:40.380 --> 03:42.930 Unfortunately, we lost to three-peat, or four-peat, 03:42.930 --> 03:45.350 excuse me, because we had won three years in a row and 03:45.350 --> 03:47.900 this is the chance at a fourth but maybe next year. 03:53.470 --> 03:57.883 - [Interviewer] So, what's your diagnosis like? 03:58.836 --> 04:01.140 What qualified you to be here 04:01.140 --> 04:03.570 inside this Warrior Games event? 04:03.570 --> 04:04.863 - Okay, so my injuries. 04:06.070 --> 04:10.280 Back in 2016, I had blown out both my patellar tendons. 04:10.280 --> 04:12.923 My left and my right leg, you have one per leg. 04:13.940 --> 04:15.770 That was in 2016. 04:15.770 --> 04:19.300 I had the surgery at the same time, 04:19.300 --> 04:22.940 so for about three to six months I was unable to walk. 04:22.940 --> 04:25.800 Then I needed a second surgery for my right leg 04:26.753 --> 04:30.660 because the tendon itself had got messed up. 04:30.660 --> 04:31.630 So they had to redo it. 04:31.630 --> 04:33.960 They put a (murmurs) graft in my leg, 04:33.960 --> 04:37.170 but it didn't hold, so I had to do it a third time. 04:37.170 --> 04:40.320 So that was what got me my three surgeries on my knees. 04:40.320 --> 04:43.200 And then as I was going through the Med Board, 04:43.200 --> 04:45.190 I had got an MRI on my ear because 04:45.190 --> 04:46.800 I was having some trouble with my hearing 04:46.800 --> 04:50.150 and they found a tumor on my spinal cord 04:50.150 --> 04:53.110 so I had to stop the Med Board and get that cut out. 04:53.110 --> 04:54.660 It was nerve sheath tumor. 04:54.660 --> 04:59.660 It was between the fourth and the fifth portion of my spine. 05:02.898 --> 05:04.300 So what they did, they went in, 05:04.300 --> 05:05.730 they cut that entire section out. 05:05.730 --> 05:10.420 So between the second and the fifth piece of my spine, 05:10.420 --> 05:12.710 they cut it out, they put a metal piece there 05:12.710 --> 05:13.810 to hold it in place there and 05:13.810 --> 05:15.890 a rod on the other side to balance it out. 05:15.890 --> 05:18.410 So I have a rod and a piece of metal in my neck. 05:18.410 --> 05:20.640 So those are my disabilities that 05:20.640 --> 05:22.990 qualify me to participate in the Warrior Games. 05:25.720 --> 05:30.670 - [Interviewer] Okay. So you're here at the Warrior Games. 05:30.670 --> 05:33.130 There's people watching this all over the world. 05:33.130 --> 05:35.100 How do you feel being such a-- 05:35.100 --> 05:36.800 you're inspiring all these people? 05:40.000 --> 05:41.930 - To be honest, I don't really think about it. 05:41.930 --> 05:44.370 I feel like when you kind of focus 05:44.370 --> 05:48.790 too much on that, it starts to take you away 05:48.790 --> 05:50.520 from the game or the competition 05:50.520 --> 05:52.604 because you start to think too much about 05:52.604 --> 05:56.340 people watching you, what they're thinking about you, 05:56.340 --> 05:57.520 if they're judging you. 05:57.520 --> 05:59.613 And I don't let that cloud my mind. 06:00.619 --> 06:02.270 I mean, I'm grateful that I'm here on this stage 06:02.270 --> 06:04.240 being watched by the audience and 06:04.240 --> 06:05.700 they're rooting for me or booing for me, 06:05.700 --> 06:09.350 whatever they're doing, I'm glad that they're doing it, 06:09.350 --> 06:12.330 whichever one it is, but I don't pay any attention to it 06:12.330 --> 06:16.070 because I don't want it to take away from what I'm doing, 06:16.070 --> 06:17.010 the sports that I'm doing, 06:17.010 --> 06:18.470 so I just try to focus on the game 06:18.470 --> 06:21.760 and let everything else on the outside be on the outside. 06:21.760 --> 06:23.160 - [Interviewer] Cool, cool. Okay. 06:23.160 --> 06:24.693 That's a good way to think about it. 06:29.358 --> 06:31.647 So, the Warrior Games: what does it mean to you? 06:31.647 --> 06:34.230 - The Warrior Games mean a lot to me. 06:34.230 --> 06:35.860 I'd be kind of disappointed if they took it away 06:35.860 --> 06:38.560 because I feel like this is a good venue 06:38.560 --> 06:40.910 for soldiers with disabilities to get out 06:40.910 --> 06:44.240 and show that just because you have 06:44.240 --> 06:47.340 this disability or that one, it doesn't stop you from 06:47.340 --> 06:48.790 being a person or an athlete. 06:48.790 --> 06:50.350 You can still get out and 06:50.350 --> 06:52.110 do these adaptive sports because 06:53.200 --> 06:55.097 your disabilities don't define you. 06:55.990 --> 06:58.890 I felt like as I was going into my disabilities, 06:58.890 --> 07:00.310 as they started racking up, 07:00.310 --> 07:02.510 I felt like they were starting to define me. 07:03.734 --> 07:05.400 A good friend, Buddy Korolov, 07:05.400 --> 07:08.900 he was my sports rec at the time. 07:08.900 --> 07:10.500 He was like, "Yo, man, 07:10.500 --> 07:12.140 I understand that you have these injuries, 07:12.140 --> 07:15.580 but you just got to drive on 07:15.580 --> 07:16.820 because it's the army way. 07:16.820 --> 07:19.930 Yeah, it sucks, but just because you can't 07:19.930 --> 07:21.990 go out and run a hundred meters, 07:21.990 --> 07:25.600 let's just say four seconds flat anymore, 07:25.600 --> 07:27.010 you can do the best that you can. 07:27.010 --> 07:29.340 You have to adapt to what you are dealing with." 07:29.340 --> 07:33.610 So, inserts, adaptive sports, wheelchair basketball, 07:33.610 --> 07:35.710 is the first thing I kind of picked up on. 07:37.040 --> 07:40.116 I don't want to go as far as-- it saved my life, 07:40.116 --> 07:41.148 but it kind of saved my life 07:41.148 --> 07:42.670 because I had got to such a low point 07:42.670 --> 07:47.670 that getting up every day and playing army 07:48.473 --> 07:50.790 and just dealing with everything that I was dealing with, 07:50.790 --> 07:53.112 I didn't want to go through with it anymore. 07:53.112 --> 07:54.113 But he grabbed me. 07:55.077 --> 07:56.430 He was like, "Try this. Do this." 07:56.430 --> 07:58.470 Just something to get my mind off everything. 07:58.470 --> 08:00.947 And I started liking it and then he said, 08:00.947 --> 08:02.200 "Well, there's this great opportunity for you 08:02.200 --> 08:04.770 called the Warrior Games, I'm going to train you up 08:04.770 --> 08:06.924 and we're going to send you." 08:06.924 --> 08:10.693 So, that was back in 2017 and I went to Texas, 08:11.721 --> 08:14.160 El Paso, and I loved it. 08:14.160 --> 08:16.237 And they called me back, they said, 08:16.237 --> 08:18.961 "Hey, we want you to come out for the Warrior Games". 08:18.961 --> 08:21.330 And the first year in Colorado, it was so exciting. 08:21.330 --> 08:24.130 I can't explain the feelings and the emotions that I had 08:25.910 --> 08:27.150 because just to think the year before, 08:27.150 --> 08:30.131 I didn't want to do anything and then the very next year, 08:30.131 --> 08:32.770 I feel like I was on top of the world, 08:32.770 --> 08:35.710 just because I had found an outlet, 08:35.710 --> 08:37.220 something to channel my emotions, 08:37.220 --> 08:40.300 something to make me feel like an entire person again. 08:40.300 --> 08:42.970 So, I'm very grateful for the Warrior Games 08:42.970 --> 08:44.190 and I hope it never goes anywhere 08:44.190 --> 08:45.820 because there's other people in the world, 08:45.820 --> 08:48.060 I'm sure like me, maybe worse, maybe better, 08:48.060 --> 08:49.420 that need the Warrior Games. 08:49.420 --> 08:52.210 They don't know it yet, but it will help them realize 08:52.210 --> 08:54.730 that just because you have a disability, 08:54.730 --> 08:56.900 it doesn't define who you are. 08:56.900 --> 08:58.580 - [Interviewer] Sweet, sweet. 08:58.580 --> 09:01.000 I just want to take a side note, man, dude, 09:01.000 --> 09:02.408 you're inspirational. 09:02.408 --> 09:03.730 - (laughs) 09:03.730 --> 09:06.290 - [Interviewer] And you're punctuation-perfect, 09:06.290 --> 09:07.579 I'm like, whoa, fuck. 09:07.579 --> 09:08.412 - Thank you, thank you. 09:08.412 --> 09:10.493 - [Interviewer] It's better than me, I can't do that. 09:14.690 --> 09:16.000 Well, you got that second point 09:16.000 --> 09:17.800 but I had a personal thing I wanted to say. 09:17.800 --> 09:20.710 So your friends and family, do want to say anything 09:21.820 --> 09:26.820 to me and the camera for your friends and family? 09:27.230 --> 09:28.303 - I thank them all. 09:30.370 --> 09:33.906 The thing about being an athlete, it gets frustrating. 09:33.906 --> 09:37.000 The time periods between competitions, 09:37.000 --> 09:39.130 the training that you have to do, the diet. 09:39.130 --> 09:41.230 Obviously I don't stick well to that diet. 09:43.478 --> 09:46.101 But it gets frustrating for the athlete in the family 09:46.101 --> 09:47.410 because there's so much time that you have to put in 09:47.410 --> 09:51.170 to what you're doing, the sport that you're going into, 09:51.170 --> 09:53.120 and it takes time away from the family. 09:54.530 --> 09:56.660 And I'm not saying me but just other families, 09:56.660 --> 10:00.630 they're not always considerate, they're not always willing 10:00.630 --> 10:02.270 to give that time to the athlete. 10:02.270 --> 10:03.880 But my friends and family are. 10:03.880 --> 10:07.410 So speaking from my perspective, I'm grateful for it, 10:07.410 --> 10:08.950 because everyone doesn't get that chance, 10:08.950 --> 10:10.780 or that opportunity to go do what they have to do, 10:10.780 --> 10:12.660 because they always have to worry about their families. 10:12.660 --> 10:14.500 But my friends and family, they understand 10:14.500 --> 10:15.563 and they're very supportive of me. 10:15.563 --> 10:17.610 So I just appreciate everything they do for me, 10:17.610 --> 10:20.490 the time that they just let me have to myself to perform 10:20.490 --> 10:23.040 and to practice so that I can be the best that I can be. 10:23.040 --> 10:23.973 - [Interviewer] Sweet.