In 2004 Melissa Stockwell deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division to Baghdad, Iraq. On April 13, she was on a routine convoy when her HUMVEE was hit by a roadside bomb. The blast resulted in the amputation of her left leg above the knee and she became the first female to ever lose a limb in active combat. After a year of rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center she was medically retired with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
She quickly adapted into a life of sports and went on to swim in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics before turning to the sport of triathlon in 2009. She is a 3x Paratriathlon World Champion and a recent bronze medalist from the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Melissa loves giving back to the multisport community and is the co-founder of the Chicago based Dare2tri Paratriathlon club where she helps get other athletes with disabilities into the sport of triathlon. She is a level 1 triathlon coach and currently serves as chair of the USAT Womens Committee and is a trustee with the USAT Foundation.
Melissa travels the nation for her career as a motivational speaker and runs a prosthetics company with her husband in Colorado Springs. She is a proud above the knee amputee and proudly lives a life of sport. She feels she has done more in her life with one leg than she ever would have done with two. Truly an inspiration.
Source: https://www.triathlon.org/athletes/profile/41634/melissa_stockwell
