Casey Tibbs

Biography

Casey Tibbs, Petty Officer 1st Class (US Navy), made history in 2004 by becoming the first active-duty military member to compete in a Paralympic Games. As if this wasn’t achievement enough, Casey topped that experience by leaving the Games with two medals around his neck: the Silver in the pentathlon and the Gold in the 4x100m.

Motorcycle accident
In March 2001, Casey lost his right leg below the knee as the result of a motorcycle accident when he took a turn too fast and hit a guardrail. "I was down and hard on myself because it was kind of my fault that I lost it in a motorcycle accident," he said. After several weeks of learning to walk and then run on a prosthesis, his main challenge was to convince the Navy to allow him to remain on active duty. Pushing himself to the limits, Casey received the okay to remain in the Navy.

Early aspirations
He has always loved to run, and has even earned high school varsity letters in track and field events, as well as football. It wasn’t until his accident, though, that Casey put his running to the test and, in 2003 - with no training – he took first place in the 100m, 200m, and 400m events at the Hanger Endeavour Games. Seeing what he could do, Casey set a goal for himself to take the Gold at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. After only a couple months of training he earned a spot on the US Paralympic team and achieved his goal, winning Gold in the 4x100m and bringing home the Silver in the men’s Pentathlon.

Casey and Össur
Casey wears multiple Össur products and credits the company for making him the best on and off the track. Running faster today than before his amputation, he uses Össur's Flex-Foot Cheetah^® and Flex-Run^® to give him high energy return and to help him sprint past the finish line. For everyday use, Casey wears the Modular III^TM, Vari-Flex^® and likes the Ceterus^® for its great rotational radius, especially when competing in the Discus and Shot Put.

Navy
Still enlisted in the Navy, Casey was assigned to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California where he worked with the “Morale, Welfare and Recreation Program, administering fitness programs for members of the military who have been injured while on active duty. As an amputee, Casey relates well to patients and serves as a mentor during the rehabilitation process. "I work with a lot of these returning amputees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq just to be a mentor to them basically and introduce them to other adapted sports that are out there," said Casey. The Navy allowed him to continue training for the 2008 Paralympic Games.

Casey's most recent Naval assignment has relocated him and his family to Georgia. He has gone through extensive training and is the first amputee to complete Naval (SERE) training and the first amputee in Naval history to become a Naval Aircrewman.