This summer’s Department of Defense Warrior Games will be held from June 21- 30 throughout the Tampa Bay area. An estimated 300 wounded, injured or ill military veterans and active service members are expected to participate in the competition, representing the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, this year’s host branch. A paralympic-style tournament, athletes will take part in sports including archery, cycling, indoor rowing and powerlifting, as well as seated sports such as wheelchair basketball, rugby and tennis. Venues for these events include the Tampa Convention Center, the University of South Florida and Amalie Arena, the latter of which will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. Admission to sporting events is free to the public.
Get to know one Warrior Games competitor
Army Staff Sergeant Lauren Montoya knows she has a choice to make when she gets out of bed every day. She had part of her left leg amputated after surviving a 2014 IED explosion in Afghanistan, and she knows no one would blame her or her fellow injured service men and women for taking the easy road the rest of their lives. “They don’t have to physically push themselves. They have the ultimate pass to get out of anything,” she says.
Instead, the South Tampa resident and her U.S. Special Operations Command adaptive sports teammates have made a different choice. Montoya is a key member of SOCOM’s 2019 Warrior Games team, which will compete against wounded or ill service members and veterans from each branch of the military in 15 different sports beginning June 21 here in Tampa Bay. She’ll participate in swimming, rowing, seated volleyball, wheelchair basketball and track. Montoya says setting and achieving progressively bigger goals during her training for the games has helped her regain both physical and mental strength while recovering from her injury. “You’re able to look at something and say, OK, I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that, [but] here I am, so what else is next? What can I do after this?” she says.
Beyond balancing her work as an active duty service member, two (soon to be three)-a-day workouts, and life as a wife and mother, Montoya has also helped create a meal plan for Warrior Games athletes and their families to ensure they have consistent access to healthy food during the competition. “That’s something that’s near and dear to my heart as a prior competitor, knowing what value food has to an athlete’s body,” she says.
This will also be the Texas native’s first time competing in her adopted hometown, giving her and the SOCOM team a slight advantage in the comfort department (“I’m finally going to be acclimated to the place that I’m competing,” she says with a laugh). But she’s most excited about the thousands of service members and their families who will get to experience Tampa and its unwavering support for the military firsthand.
“I don’t think people understand Tampa is supportive as it is,” she says. “Just for [military] folks to come in and see the amount of support that they have and the stuff that’s offered to them, I think it’s going to be pretty important that we get to highlight that for the city.”
WHAT TO KNOW: 2019 Warrior Games | June 21-30 | Sporting events free to attend at sites across Tampa | Opening/closing ceremony ticket prices TBA | dodwarriorgames.com
FULL SCHEDULE
Friday, June 21
Golf Prelim
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Eagles Golf Course
16101 Nine Eagles Drive
Odessa
Saturday, June 22
Track
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Golf Finals
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Eagles Golf Course
16101 Nine Eagles Drive
Odessa
Mountain Bike Demonstration
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Alafia State Park
14326 County Road 39
Lithia
Opening Ceremony
7 to 9 p.m.
Amalie Arena
401 Channelside Drive
Sunday, June 23
Field
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Wheelchair Tennis
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Cycling Time Trial
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bayshore Boulevard
Monday, June 24
Archery Prelim
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Powerlifting
2 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wheelchair Basketball Prelim
3 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Tuesday, June 25
Archery Finals
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Indoor Rowing
2 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wheelchair Basketball Prelim
3 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wednesday, June 26
Shooting Prelim
7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wheelchair Rugby Prelim
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Sitting Volleyball Prelim
3 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Friday, June 28
Shooting Finals
7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wheelchair Rugby Finals
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Wheelchair Basketball Finals
3 to 8 p.m.
Tampa Convention Center
333 S. Franklin St.
Saturday, June 29
Swimming
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
1501 N. Belcher Road
Clearwater
Sunday, June 30
Sitting Volleyball Finals
12 to 4 p.m.
Yuengling Center
12499 USF Bull Run Drive
Closing Ceremonies
7 to 9 p.m.
Amalie Arena
401 Channelside Drive
