Air Force training gives cross-country skier background in ‘toughness’

Sean Halsted has been through a drill in which he is soaked with water and rolls in the sand, then helps carry a large rubber raft about a mile across a U.S. Air Force base.

And he has had to tread water for what seemed like an eternity, then swim 15 feet to the bottom of a pool, stack up his oxygen tank, mask, fins and weight belt, only to go back down, put it all back on, and then tread water some more.

So when you tell Sean Halsted to strap into a sit ski and propel himself for kilometers on end using only his arms, he has one response: No problem.

Halsted, 39, is competing at his first Paralympic Winter Games this year as a cross-country skier. It is difficult, Halsted said, logistically to arrange sit-ski events. So when the opportunities like the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver happen, these athletes want to take part.

"For us, you just can't get 30 sit-skiers together," Halsted said. "And so when you do, you want to be a part of that race."

The Ephrata, Wash., native has already competed once in these Games, finishing ninth in the men's 15-kilometer sitting race March 14. He will also be participating in the 10-kilometer sitting race March 18 and the 1-kilometer sitting sprint, for which the qualifying and final take place March 21.

Cross-country skiing wasn't originally in the plans for Halsted. But the military was. With his dad, mom and brothers in the Air Force, Halsted was destined to enlist at some point.

Halsted joined the Combat Control Team, which he said is similar to special operations. That's where he went through the drown-proofing and other tests to see whether he would quit.

"We had this saying, it was: ‘Jack of all trades; Master of none.' '' Halsted said. "So we were very selective. We could do just about everything: free-fall parachuting, scuba diving, mountain climbing. It was very physical. So I was a very physical person before; not very specialized, but very physical."

That was until one day in 1998. While performing a search and rescue exercise using a fast rope, Halsted fell 40 feet out of a helicopter. Fast roping is a technique used by military members when helicopters cannot land because of a ground fire or rough terrain. The accident left Halsted paralyzed from the waist down.

Halsted has always thrived on activity and physical exertion, but it took about two years of rehabilitation before he even began to believe that could be part of his life again.

"Initially rehab is all about existing," he said. "You know, it's about how do you tie your shoes? How do you put on your shoes? How do you change shirts?"

Then, in 2001, he attended the Veterans Affairs winter sports clinic in Aspen, Colo.

"At the VA, they break you into the recreation part of it as therapy," Halsted said. "It gives you that why - why am I putting on my shirt? - as well. After, say, I was playing wheelchair softball for example, and you aren't worried about ‘Can I get to first base?' You are worried about ‘How fast can I get to first base?'

"So now when you're out in public, you're not so concerned about ‘Can I get down this sidewalk? You're like, ‘Yeah, I can get down this sidewalk. I was just chased down by a guy with a softball!' "

Halsted, a father of three, credits the Veterans Affairs with showing him that activity and recreation could still be part of his life. The transition to Paralympian was not overnight, though.

Halsted's first choice for a sport was wheelchair basketball; actually, it was the only sport he knew of at first. But that didn't really fit him. So he tried downhill skiing, but that wasn't what he was hoping for, either.

So, finally, about two years after attending that first Veterans Affairs clinic, it became apparent that cross-country skiing was going to be the sport for him.

"At first, cross-country to me was - I don't want to say a stupid idea - but that's just crazy, nothing but a gut check," he said. "But now having done it, it was like, ‘Oh, this fits. It gives you what you need and challenges you where you need to be challenged.' "

More specifically, it gave Halsted the cardiovascular workout and physical challenge that he had thrived on in the Air Force.

"It gave me everything that I was looking for," he said. "The lactic acid burn, the heart rate, you're still in the snow, so I felt very comfortable in that environment, and it was still that skill involved in the skiing aspect of it."

It wasn't until 2005 that Halsted began competing. Through contacts at the VA, he got in touch with people from the U.S. Paralympic team and was invited to the fall camp. From there he was invited to the U.S. Championships, and then to a World Cup event in Norway. Finally, he was made a member of the U.S. national team.

Halsted had always been an active person, so it was inevitable that if he could find a way to stay active, he would.

And when he saw all the elite athletes at his first World Cup event - as opposed to the small handfuls of athletes at the domestic events he had been to - it gave him another driving force in life.

"I don't see how anybody could not want to compete against the best," he said. "No matter what field you're in. You want to see where you rank, where you fit."

Representing the United States as an athlete is not quite the same as representing the United States in the military, Halsted said. But he is proud to be wearing the red, white and blue at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, and he will never forget what helped him get there.

"What I went through to make it as a combat controller was pretty hard core," He said. "So my experience there has taught me what hard core is. And so anything that isn't as hard as that - is fun. So, yeah, what that has brought to me is that yes, my training is tough, but it's also allowed me to accept that toughness, to accept that 5 a.m.'s aren't a bad thing. You don't know when you're going to go to bed; that's not a bad thing. It's raised my level I think of expectation of what I am capable of."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Chrös McDougall is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.