Wounded Veteran Athletes Overcome Disabilities to Compete in Extreme Outdoor Challenge

Adventure TEAM Challenge 2010

The 2010 Adventure TEAM Challenge dates are set! Join World TEAM Sports deep in the heart of the Rockies June 25-27, 2010, and be ready for a real ADVENTURE!!!

CASTLE ROCK, CO – For three rugged days beginning Friday, June 25, nine teams of five athletes—three able-bodied and two disabled athletes, many of whom are wounded veterans—will compete in the fourth annual “Adventure TEAM Challenge,” hosted by World T.E.A.M. Sports in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The Adventure TEAM Challenge incorporates rafting, hiking, climbing, and biking under adverse conditions.

Conceived by Erik Weihenmayer, the first visually impaired individual to climb Mt. Everest, the event kicks off Friday morning, June 25, with the teams rafting the unpredictable waters of the Arkansas River, surrounded by towering 14,000-foot peaks of the Sawatch Mountain Range. The following two days will take the athletes deep in the remote Rocky Mountain range south of Leadville, Colo., where they will hike and climb dramatic peaks and bike through beautiful alpine meadows before completing the race on Sunday, June 27, 2010.

“The Adventure TEAM Challenge is another of our events that brings together disabled and able-bodied athletes to promote teamwork, build camaraderie and inspire hope,” said Jeff Messner, President of World T.E.A.M. Sports. “The number and capabilities of those participating in this challenge prove that exceptional athletes do matter and that people of all abilities can do the impossible.”

While some participants for the Adventure Team may be well known, such as Eric Weihenmayer, he is competing with and against some other amazing individuals, such as:

• Sarah Will, a skier who was paralyzed from the waist down in 1988, was a four-time Paralympian who has won 12 Paralympic gold medals and one silver medal throughout her career;
• Matt Nyman, a veteran who lost his leg in a helicopter crash in Iraq, did off-road triathlons, mountain biking, and snow skiing before his injury. Matt has returned to mountain climbing to meet his athletic goals and has attempted to climb Mt. Denali.
• Clarissa Olivares-Pozgaj, a 15-year-old girl who is wheelchair-bound with Arthrogryposis—a rare congenital disorder that causes multiple joint contractures and is characterized by muscle weakness and fibrosis—will be pulled by her father in a custom carriage.

About World T.E.A.M. Sports
Since 1993, World T.E.A.M. Sports has been using the power of adaptive sports to provide opportunities to individuals living with a disability by having people of all abilities join together to overcome soul-stirring athletic challenges. In an effort to change the way the world views athletes of all abilities. World T.E.A.M. Sports hosts a variety of challenging athletic events to promote inclusion and T.E.A.M.work, thereby educating people and communities about true human ability while enabling individuals to realize their own. A registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, World T.E.A.M. Sports is more than an organization, it is a movement to change the way the world perceives all athletes. To learn more, visit WordTeamSports.org

Johnny Punish

Johnny Punish founded VT in 2004.  After 20 years at the helm, he “retired” from the daily operations in late 2023 passing the ball over to the new owner of VT, Chief Justin Time.   He now writes for VT as “Writer Emeritus”.  He is also a global citizen eco-activist, visionary, musician, artist, entertainer, businessman, investor, life coach, podcast host, and syndicated columnist.  

Punish is an ethnically cleansed Palestinian-American whose maternal family was evicted from their home in Haifa, Palestine in 1948 by Irgun; a Euro-Zionist Settler Terrorist Group.  The family became part of the over 1,000,000 Palestinians who are Al-Nakba refugees (The Catastrophe).  The family fled to Beirut Lebanon for 13 years eventually emigrating to the USA in 1961 via a Brasilian passport obtained by his Palestinian Brasilian-born grandmother (In the early 1900s, the family was sent to Sao Paolo Brasil as guest workers in the mining industry.  Punish’s father is Italian-American from New York City.  Punish’s paternal great-grandparents emigrated to the USA from Naples Italy and Marineo in Sicily in the 1890s.  Punish was born in the Bronx, New York in 1963.

Punish was educated at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (1980-81) and California State University Fullerton (1981-1984) with studies in accounting and business. Before the “internets” had been invented, he owned and ran (5) national newspapers in the United States of America from 1987-1998.  From 2004 to 2023, he owned and managed VT Foreign Policy retiring at the end of 2023.

Punish is also a recording artist.  He has over 100 original songs written. He records and produces music. A member of ASCAP, Punish has several songs placed in feature films. His music is promoted worldwide and played on all digital networks and net radio.

He is also the founder and owner of  Global Thinkers, a freedom media that helps free thinkers create real wealth.

Resources: Facebook –  YouTube – Apple Music – SoundCloud – Spotify –  X (Twitter)

Read Johnny’s Full Bio at JohnnyPunish.com >>>