By Dan Walton
Athletes are travelling around the world to be in Toronto this fall for the Invictus Games, and representing Oliver at the international event will be MCpl Lutz Stelzner.
The Invictus Games is an athletic tournament for veterans who became injured while serving in their country’s armed forces.
Lutz was serving a career in the Canadian Armed Forces until 2006, when he was forced to resign due to the onslaught of blindness.
Training is well underway for the Games which begin in September. Lutz is preparing for the road cycling event, which he’ll be doing in tandem along with LCdr Mark Cunningham, who is partially deaf.
“He’s good,” Lutz said about his partner. “Me and him together, we could be a force to be reckoned with.”
“He’s got a great attitude,” Cunningham said of Stelzner. “Imagine you’re riding your bike at 40 kmh, you have no brakes and you can’t steer. Now close your eyes. That’s what it feels like for Lutz as a blind cyclist sitting in the back of a tandem. I wish I had his courage.”
The two first met at a five-day training camp in Victoria.
“We only have one more camp, so between the two camps, we only have 10 days of training together,” said Lutz. “But he’s willing to come up here if we find a tandem to practice on. We only have one more camp.”
Lutz said the first camp was exciting and euphoric, and that there’s a deep sense of brotherhood when among military veterans.
“Even people with PTSD, they deal better with people in the military, they trust their fellow soldiers more.”
Since he began training for the Games, Lutz said he already feels and looks much better, though he isn’t always able to maximize his training schedule due to issues with depression. But he feels like his depression is slowly getting better, partially thanks to the Games, and he’ll be participating in a study that measures the effects of sports on depression.
The Games aren’t very competitive, instead, the emphasis is on personal improvement and camaraderie.
Nonetheless, Lutz plans on pushing himself hard. He plans to keep training hard, lose 10 kilograms before the event and then put on an impressive performance.
“I don’t want to be patronized. I don’t want people cheering me on just because I’m a disabled veteran.”
Getting the right tandem bicycle won’t be cheap though. The Soldier On Program assists athletes with $1,000 each and Sport Chek is offering equipment at 40 per cent off, but the cost of a new bike suitable for the event is over $10,000.
“Finding funds is the hard part,” he said.
In the meantime, Lutz makes the most out of training on a stationary bike in his basement.
“But when you go from a recumbent bike to an upright, it’s a little bit different; it’s a bit of a disadvantage with respect to which muscles are being applied.”
The 2017 Invictus Games run from Sept. 23 to 30, with athletes coming from 16 different countries. The tournament was founded by Prince Harry in 2014.
