Melissa Stockwell didn’t win a medal in Tokyo but she gained a special friend

Three-time Paralympian Melissa Stockwell is undecided about her future for perhaps the first time in her life.

Melissa Stockwell has a reminder for anyone going on a bike ride.

“Trees are hard. I would never recommend hitting them if you can avoid them,” Stockwell told FanSided’s Da Windy City podcast.

Unfortunately for Stockwell, her bike accident came on a leisurely ride close to her husband’s family’s home in Michigan a mere eights weeks before the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics. It was five years of training nearly out the window.

A misplaced branch caused Stockwell to swerve and beeline towards the woods where she ended up flying off her bike and hitting a tree. The result was a fractured back in three places with severe bruising but there was a silver lining.

“Never ideal to break a back but the doctors kept telling me it was the best place to break a back,” Stockwell said.

Modified training was up next for Stockwell. She was able to swim and bike and eventually run three times before the games began. She ended up fifth in the PTS2 Paralympic women’s triathlon event.

For the ultra-competitive Stockwell, this was a rare time that a fifth-place still felt like a victory.

“In the days leading up to it I gave myself a new perspective,” Stockwell said. “I could have had a head injury, I could have been paralyzed, I could have been dead and all I had was a broken back. Let’s just be happy to be here, I still get to wear the U.S.A. uniform, represent my country, not to mention I get to be on this racecourse eight weeks after breaking my back.”

Melissa Stockwell left the Paralympic Games with something better than a medal

The racecourse experience notwithstanding, Stockwell’s most memorable moment from Tokyo 2021 came in the cafeteria. The tradition of athletes exchanging pins with other athletes from different countries at mealtime is an Olympic tradition.

Stockwell approached an athlete from Iraq and offered to exchange pins with him. It had been 17 years since she had lost her leg from a roadside bomb in Iraq that forever changed her life. The Iraqi athlete did not have a pin but asked Stockwell to join him for lunch where a friendship was immediately struck.

In 2021, that means amongst other things becoming “friends” on social media, in this case Instagram.

“He was scrolling through my feed and he saw a picture of me in my uniform and he looked at me and said Iraq and he pointed to my leg and I kind of was like, yes, I lost in Iraq,” Stockwell said. “He turned to his friend and he said something in Arabic I’m assuming and then he looked at me and said I’m so sorry. I tried to say you don’t have to apologize it’s not your fault and then he said do you have any friends in Iraq and I said you. You are now my friend.”

Stockwell has never been one to complain about her circumstances. From the roadside bomb to running into a tree eight weeks before the Paralympic games. She focuses her energy as best she can on what she can control.

“My message is always that of choice, we have so many choices in our life,” Stockwell said. “There are always obstacles that come our way. I think a lot of times we can’t change the things that happen to us, you know I couldn’t change the fact that I lost a leg, but I could change how I chose to perceive it. Here I am better on the other side.”

It is nearly impossible to detect any bitterness from Stockwell. She is a proud wife, mother of two young children aged four and six and she talked to FanSided while walking her dog. The 20-year anniversary of 9-11 just passed, the event that led to her enrolling in the Army. There is no audit coming from Stockwell measuring the benefits of the war in Iraq.

“I joined the army because I love our country, I still love our country,” Stockwell said. “I believe in the people that live here and what we are capable of doing together and I’m proud to have worn the army uniform. I hope in the long run the people that were injured, the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice, I hope that all that was worth something. But, I’m never angry especially when I think about the life that I have. I wouldn’t be living the life that I am living if it weren’t for what happened over in Iraq. I’m proud of it and I’ll always be proud of it.”

Stockwell will keep busy for now working with her husband in their prosthetics company. She is unsure if she will compete in Paris 2024. She also has a new friend to keep track of.

Melissa Stockwell is a brand ambassador for ChapStick. She proudly participated in ChapStick’s support for American Heroes this summer and their limited-edition American Flag stick.

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