LEMOORE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – An Army veteran from Lemoore is bringing home two gold medals from this year’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games, but he says his greatest win has been reclaiming a sense of purpose.

37-year-old Anthony Martinez competed in multiple events at the 2025 Games in Minneapolis, including wheelchair softball, disc golf, and powerlifting – his longtime passion.

The Central Valley native bench pressed 465 pounds and deadlifted 700 pounds to earn gold in both events.

“I love lifting weights so, so much,” Martinez said. “Because when I’m doing it, I don’t feel disabled. I feel just like I’m a regular, normal person.”

Martinez served in the U.S. Army from 2005 to 2008 as a parachute rigger and deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After returning home safely nearly five years later, a car crash left him pinned under a vehicle. First responders had to apply a tourniquet, leading to the eventual amputation of his right leg.

“I still get stuck in the mind sometimes. I get into little ruts,” he said. “But when I get out of my comfort zone, [competing] is that renewed sense of being. I think, ‘OK, so what?’ I’m in a wheelchair. It’s really not that serious.”

Martinez has competed in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games for four years. The event, hosted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America, is the largest annual adaptive sports competition for military veterans with disabilities.

This year, Martinez entered events ranging from adaptive fitness to discus and says he’s discovered a new love for team sports at the games.

“Even though I’m more of an individual person – being able to have a team that you can count on, it’s a new kind of feeling,” Martinez said. “This is like a family reunion,” he said. “We give each other a hard time – but we’re all family here.”

Now more than a decade into life as an amputee, Martinez says the competition, and the camaraderie, have helped him push past the limits he once believed he had.

“It’s me versus me,” he said. “When you’re lifting weights, I don’t feel like anything’s holding me back. I feel like, I got this.”

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games are open to U.S. veterans with spinal cord injuries, amputations, multiple sclerosis, or other neurological conditions requiring the use of a wheelchair for competition.

Now in its 44th year, organizers say the event aims to celebrate the determination and athleticism of disabled veterans across the country.