Latino Paralympian Helps Lead Team USA to Gold

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Mar 232018
 
Latino Traffic Report has learned that Team USA and Team Toyota athlete Rico Roman captured a gold medal during the closing day of Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 on Sunday, March 18.

Roman, a forward for Team USA’s sled hockey team, helped Team USA defeat Canada in the gold medal match to claim his second gold medal with the team.

The retired United States Army staff sergeant and Purple Heart Recipient had his left leg amputated above the knee after he was badly wounded by an IED during his third tour in Iraq in 2007. “Loosing my leg, and fighting for my country, taught me the importance, and fragility of life. Things are never as bad as they seem,” he says.

Roman began playing sled hockey in 2008 after being introduced to the sport through Operation Comfort, an organization dedicated to assisting injured U.S. service personnel at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He later made his Paralympic Winter Games debut in 2014, when he and his Team USA teammates captured the gold medal in Sochi, Russia.
“The first time that I saw sled hockey was the first time I played it! I didn’t grow up in a hockey state, and didn’t have a clue what sled hockey was,” Roman admits. “The first time I tried out for the national team in 2010 I didn’t make it. That was all it took for me to dedicate myself to sled hockey.”
Toyota launched its ‘Start Your Impossible’ campaign in November 2017, highlighting Toyota’s mission to create a barrier-free society and reinforce the company’s values of humility, hard work, overcoming challenges, and never giving up. Team Toyota highlights these values as its U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes serve to demonstrate the ultimate discovery of one’s true potential throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.