An Army veteran who lost an arm and a leg to roadside bomb in Iraq took top honors in the “Ultimate Men’s Health Guy” contest announced Oct. 7 on NBC’s Today Show.
Sgt. Noah Galloway, a medically retired infantryman, was chosen from among 1,300 entrants — garnering more than 60,000 “Readers’ Choice” votes — and is now the first-ever, regular Joe reader to grace the magazine’s cover.
In late 2005, Galloway was just a few months into his second tour in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) when his Humvee was sent flying into the air. He woke up in a military hospital six days later, on Christmas Day.
Thus began a journey of recovery that climbed from booze-soaked low points of deep depression to a moment of clarity five years later when he decided it was time to turn things around.
In the years since, he has become an avid CrossFit competitor, run the Marine Corps Marathon and knocked out a slew of mud runs, including the 70-hour pain-a-thon known as the Spartan Death Race.
“My depression terrified me,” the 33-year-old father of three from Alabama says in his Men’s Health write-up. “I never wanted to experience that again. That’s why I got into races. What kept me moving was never going back to where I came from. I wanted people to see more than my injury.”
Clearly, the fitness magazine’s editors saw far more. Indeed, Galloway was among three selected as finalists along with former Marine helicopter pilot Kavan Lake, now a Naval Academy football coach.
Asked about his recovery on the Today Show, Galloway credited friends and family.
“It was really tough, but I had some good people around me, to help motivate me,” he told co-cost Willie Geist, just before learning he had won. “When I got back in shape and started pushing myself, I started living off the motto of: ‘No excuses.’ ”
That’s also the name of the nonprofit he’s started. The No Excuses Charitable Fund aims to help lower childhood obesity in Alabama.
“While Galloway’s physical transformation is impressive, the man is by no means a finished product. He knows his motivations can be laced with vanity and a need to impress,” writes Men’s Health editor-in-chief Bill Phillips. “He still has a nasty dip habit. The first-ever Ultimate Men’s Health Guy is a tobacco user? Yes, for the time being. Every man is a collection of flaws and virtues, a work in progress.”■
No comments:
Post a Comment