LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — For paralyzed Army Sergeant First Class Sualauvi Tuimalealiifano, who has made his home in Land O’ Lakes, it was adaptive sports that pulled him out of his darkest moments.
After graduating high school in Hawaii in 1997, Tuimalealiifano enlisted in the U.S. Army. Just days before the end of his third deployment, he was thrown from his Humvee during a mission behind enemy lines in Afghanistan in 2007.
“It was during a patrol,” he said. “I was thrown off the vehicle, and I landed on my back.”
He remembers hearing the snap of a twig between his ears.
“I suffered a spinal cord injury, C5 and C6. It pinched the spinal cord,” he said. “I am paralyzed from the shoulders down with no hand function.”
Tuimalealiifano was med-evacuated to Germany for surgery and then home to the U.S.
“Those pains I never felt before,” he said. “I’ve been shot at, been stabbed, I’ve been blown up, concussion, I’ve been through a lot, choked out, knocked out from a lot of things.”
He left the hospital in 2008 and moved back to Hawaii as a quadriplegic. For the next four years, he locked himself in the house — isolated in his own thoughts.
“You go in being the guy you always wanted to be helping, pulling out people from emergency situations. Now, I am the guy on the other side,” he said.
The U.S. Special Operations Care Coalition stepped in and encouraged him to fly to Tampa to try adaptive sports programs. It was there he tried wheelchair rugby for the first time, and he found a new way of life.
“I have to first get out of the comfort zone of not wanting to be seen like this,” Tuimalealiifano said. "At 6"1', 240 pounds, I stayed in shape with everything I do.”
He competed in the Warrior Games and later became the first quadriplegic athlete to compete in The Invictus Games, which is an international competition for wounded servicemen and women.
“For Wheelchair Rugby, we got to take gold from the Brits back in 2016 when the US hosted at Disney World.”
In 2015, he was introduced to the Semper Fi & America’s Fund, a non-profit that helped him acquire training equipment for competitions.
“The Fund has been a financial go-to for myself and a lot of other service members,” he said. “They provide and helping us with outside-the-box equipment for the sports. Financial support and a lot of the gear we could not get.”
He also competed in wheelchair racing, shot put, and discus.
