51 | Paralympic Javelin Thrower Justin Phongsavanh: Building a Dream
Release Date: 06/17/2021
164 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question on Balancing Healing and Life Goals
The Injured Athletes Club
“ I’m feeling like my injury has really held me back in life. My first two years of college, I was trying to survive school while recovering from a car accident. I’ve needed every extension and have had many surgeries after that, which have affected my schooling and life in general. Now I’m ready to transfer from my community college to a university, and I don’t have all the right classes for the degree I’m going into. I feel like this injury has just ruined me, and I’m not sure what to do.” —Rylie Injuries can be devastating at any stage and time. But in some cases,...
info_outline
163 | Marathoner Leanna Scaglione on Running Through Life's Challenges
The Injured Athletes Club
“ Whatever you're feeling, whether it be anger, hatred, sadness, disappointment—it's okay. You're allowed to feel those things. That is valid. But just know that this situation— yes, NF is a lifelong diagnosis, and not having a cure, it does change your life trajectory a little bit. But it doesn't dictate how you have to live your life.” Leanna Scaglione was just 16 years old when what the aspiring ballerina thought was an injury from dancing turned into something she never could have imagined—surgery to remove a spinal tumor that left her temporarily unable to walk. Soon...
info_outline
162 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Rebuilding Trust in Your Body
The Injured Athletes Club
“How do you navigate phantom pains and constant re-injury fears after recovering from a bone stress injury?” —Marija Fear is one of the brain’s ways of protecting the body when it’s injured. But often, our anxiety lingers long after it’s useful. Our bodies and minds don’t always recover at the same rate, Coach Carrie explains in this week’s listener Q&A (that’s why deliberately working on your mental skills is so important!). Phantom pains and fears of re-injury are totally normal after a bone stress injury, she points out. To reset your nervous system and...
info_outline
161 | Triathlete and Author Roderick Sewell on Defying Odds and Creating a Legacy Beyond Sports
The Injured Athletes Club
“ Representation does matter. Because I've been to Zambia, Ethiopia, and Kenya with this same team, and when they see somebody who looks like them and is also walking on prosthetics … this child might be 18 and has never had a prosthetic. Now they're like, ‘Oh, I have the motivation to not only try it, but know that I can live a normal life.” On Oct. 12, 2019, marathoner Eliud Kipchoge the two-hour barrier in the marathon distance. The next day, his compatriot Brigid Kosgei the official women’s marathon world record, running 2:14:04 in Chicago. Between the two, another...
info_outline
160 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Handling Unwanted Advice
The Injured Athletes Club
“The most frustrating thing is when older women in their 70s and 80s keep pestering me when I’m injured. I call them the ‘I-told-you-so ladies.’ I feel like they’re giving me unsolicited advice and discouraging me to go back to lifting. Sometimes their comments hurt. One lady is a retired bodybuilder and a personal trainer in her 80s who had a hip replacement and the other lady is just an average Joe who doesn’t lift weights but got a knee replacement. Please help me how to deal with those two! I just hate it when people in general give me unsolicited advice.” —Nicole ...
info_outline
159 | Paralympic Athlete and Mental Coach Lacey Jai Henderson on Grief, Retirement, and Growth
The Injured Athletes Club
“ I think this is also what helps with the athlete transition—and even when you're dealing with injury and you're going to recover—is your relationship to the sport. Because that's what I realized: There's this feeling of loss and grief, and it's like somebody died, but at the same time, it doesn't really actually have to be like that. I've learned that sport's always gonna be in my life … but my relationship with it changes.” For years, Lacey Jai Henderson found joy and purpose in sport. Not long after losing her leg to cancer at age 9, she was enthralled by the movie Bring...
info_outline
158 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: In It for the Long Haul
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How can I be resilient in a long-term recovery program?” —Kim Recovery always takes longer than you want it to, because you don’t want to be hurt in the first place. But some rehab periods are lengthier than others, and that can be physically and mentally exhausting. To cope, Coach Carrie stresses in this week’s listener Q&A, remember that staying resilient isn’t the same as being relentlessly positive. You’ll have ups and downs, and times when you have to come to a newfound acceptance of the process. Luckily, she has tools for doing so,...
info_outline
157 | Coach and Elite Runner Laura Thweatt on Rebuilding and Reinvention
The Injured Athletes Club
“That injury was one of the most psychologically harrowing experiences of my career, just figuring out how to navigate that space, how to eventually see it as a superpower … if I hadn't gotten that injury, I wouldn't have been able to rebuild my body in a way that allowed me to come back a completely different athlete. I think because of all the work I had to do in the gym to address things I had never addressed my entire career, coming off of that gave me longevity.” Elite runner Laura Thweatt had a lengthy career at the top level of the sport—while running for Saucony for more...
info_outline
156 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: How to Cope with Shifting Timelines
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How do I deal with expectations around timelines?” —Every injured athlete, ever In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries. And for our season finale, she tackles an issue that’s come up from more than one person: how to manage when recovery takes longer than you’d like. So many injured athletes have had the experience of latching onto an initial timeline given by a doctor, physical therapist, or other medical professional—then feeling let...
info_outline
155 | Volleyball Player and Dietitian Tatum Vedder on Nourishing Your Recovery
The Injured Athletes Club
“ Surgeries one through three, there is still this fear around weight gain and therefore restriction. And I think part of me wants to know, is that a major factor in why I didn't heal well? I'm not going to dwell on that or guilt-trip myself over it; it's in the past. But it was also an opportunity for surgeries four and onward, to say: ‘Let's take a different approach. Let's nourish to heal. Let's not feed to skate by.’” Tatum Vedder was heading into her last year of collegiate volleyball, playing in a co-ed tournament, when she took a rough landing and had to be carried...
info_outline“All right, there are two options: You can get going and see what you can do with this life, or you can give up. And I said, option one's too easy, I don't like taking the easy road out. I'm going to see what I can do. I'm going to see the capabilities I have as a person that I've forged for myself over the last 18 years of training, doing sports, lifting weights, going through all those life experiences.”
This Saturday, Justin Phongsavanh will have six throws of the javelin to earn his way to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, when he competes at the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials for Track & Field in Minnesota. In this week’s episode, he shares with us the incredible journey that brought him to this point—and how the power of sport has carried him through some of life’s toughest moments.
Justin grew up a multisport athlete, playing football and rugby, wrestling, and throwing shot put and discus. He was no stranger to setbacks, including broken wrists and multiple concussions. But his strength and athletic background would be put to an even larger test after a gunshot wound severed his spinal cord in 2015, when he was just 18.
The incident and his recovery afterward brought a true roller-coaster of emotions, including hopelessness and anger. Adaptive sports helped reconnect him to the competitor he was in the past, and continue seeking the best for himself.
It didn’t take long for him to realize he could be great—at his first meet, he broke national records in every event he entered, from powerlifting to shot put to javelin. Now, he’s gearing up to compete at the sport’s highest level, living his dream while also taking time to give back to the next generation through coaching young athletes.
Note to listeners: This episode contains descriptions of violence from 13:53 to 18:46.
A huge thank you to our sponsors for this episode: Fluid Running and ProStretch. Fluid Running makes it possible to maintain your peak physical fitness even when you're injured through the power of deep water running. And ProStretch offers uniquely designed products to stretch and massage muscles easier and more effectively than conventional methods. Listen for special discount codes in the episode!
In this episode, we discuss:
- The three categories of disability in Paralympic sport (5:41)
- The types of overuse injuries common among throwers, and how he helps prevent them (6:13)
- His earlier history with injury, including concussions (8:54)
- The incident that caused his spinal cord injury (13:39)
- His initial emotional reaction (18:46)
- The point at which he began to see the way forward—and how he approached rehab with an athletic mindset (21:19)
- The anger he felt at the individual responsible, and how he’s worked through it (25:14)
- How he got into Paralympic sport, and throwing specifically (30:36)
- His decision to move to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in California (36:29)
- What prehab and rehab looks like for the athletes there (40:26)
- How COVID altered his training (46:15)
- The coaching he does with younger athletes (51:01)
- His support system and how they’ve helped him navigate life (54:56)
- His advice for injured athletes and other people facing obstacles (58:15)
You can subscribe to The Injured Athletes Club on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and if you like what you hear, please leave us a rating or a review in Apple podcasts. That helps other injured athletes find the show.
Resources/links:
- Justin’s Instagram
- A story about him from Team USA
To access more resources for injured athletes:
- Join The Injured Athletes Club mailing list, for news and updates
- Join The Injured Athletes Club Facebook group, for support and camaraderie
- Like The Injured Athletes Club Podcast Facebook page, for the latest episodes
- Email us at hello@injuredathletesclub.com with questions, guest suggestions, or other feedback
DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational & informational use only and & does not constitute medical advice. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have heard in an episode of this podcast. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult with a qualified medical professional for proper evaluation & treatment. Guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experiences, and conclusions, and The Injured Athletes Club podcast hosts nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular treatment option discussed in the episodes of this podcast and are not responsible for any actions or inactions of listeners based on the information presented. The use of any information provided is solely at your own risk.