Sep

2012

9:43am, EDT

365 days after blindness, swimming sailor claims gold

Christopher Lee / Getty Images for NBC News

Exactly one year after losing his sight in Afghanistan, Navy Lt. Brad Snyder earned a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

For one final, terrifying moment, Navy Lt. Brad Snyder could see.

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In fact, the last thing he ever viewed — one year ago today — was his two intact arms and his two attached legs. After stepping on a hidden bomb in an Afghan farm field then feeling the raw heat of the blast burn his face and hurl him backward, Snyder’s first instinct was to look down and inventory his body parts.

“That gave me positive reassurance everything was going to be OK. Shortly after that, my vision went away. I thought maybe blood or dirt had dripped down over my eyes,” said Snyder, 28, a former bomb defuser. “And then it was black, just black, the same way I see now. It didn’t occur to me until the fifth day in the hospital that I wasn’t going to see again.”

Today in London, with that dark anniversary in mind, Snyder dived blindly into a pool and sprinted away with gold – earning his third medal (two golds and one silver) at the 2012 Paralympics. At the close of the 400-meter freestyle final, Snyder cruised into the wall nearly six seconds ahead of the runner up, Spain's Enhamed Enhamed, who took silver.

"It's not a poor anniversary and I'm really looking forward to celebrating how far myself and my family have been able to come over the past year," Snyder said from the Olympic Aquatics Centre pool deck. "It's a special night for all of us, (including friends and family who cheered from the stands). We are going to look at this evening as a celebration. A celebration of conquest if you like. We are all happy to be together, being in London and enjoying the experience."

Snyder finished the race in four minutes, 32.41 seconds, a personal best. But it was a larger span of time — 365 days — that truly occupied his thoughts and fueled the best race of his life.

He swam for victory: “Yes, I’m really competitive.”

He swam for inspiration: “The idea that there shouldn’t be anything in the way of barriers presented to you that slow you down. Yeah, (stuff) happens. But I hope this shows the value of attitude, of making a decision to not look back. I made that decision. From that point, it was all just about figuring it out and moving forward.”

And he swam for love: “My support network really came to bat for me when I was down. My mom, my brothers and sister were at my side. My Navy friends demonstrated their commitment to me. So I feel an obligation to reciprocate that commitment, to show them I appreciate the love. I want to prove to them — and myself — that I can experience success on a level I experienced before, even though I am now blind.

“Competing (today) was the pinnacle of that.”

Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

His mother, Valarie, witnessed her son's golden swim while sitting with her other two sons, her daughter, and Valarie’s sister — the same group that surrounded Snyder’s hospital bed near Washington, D.C. when a doctor told him no surgery could restore his shattered eyes. In fact, those eyes later were surgically removed and replaced with prosthetics.

When she watched her son compete — as he once did for the Naval Academy swim team — Valarie knew she would be “weeping,” she said, while she measured the massive ground Brad already has gained in 12 months. But she also reflected on how this journey began for her: with a horrifying phone call last Sept. 7.

At 5:30 a.m., the ringing phone read “unknown number” on its screen — the same message that showed up each time Brad called home from his base in Afghanistan. But he typically called her at 11 a.m.

“At that time, it could only mean one thing,” Valarie Snyder said. “I didn’t want to answer it.”

She did, though. And her son’s commanding officer revealed to her that an explosion had hit Brad in the face, that he still had all of his extremities and that he was then in surgery. Not long after she was reunited with her wounded son at a stateside military hospital, he reassured her that his life would continue without sight. And what the woman saw today in the London pool only reinforced that sunny outlook, she said.

“He keeps saying he’s got to show me it’s not a disability, that he’s going to be fine,” she said. “He’s telling me that I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

"He truly was swimming for (his family and friends)," said his swimming coach, Brian Loeffler. "He recognizes how much suffering they went through when he was injured.”

It was Loeffler who realized — while first perusing the Paralympic swimming schedule — that Snyder would be competing in his best event one year to the day after losing his vision.

“It immediately became a goal of mine to do everything I could to help Brad win a medal on that day,” Loeffler said. “I initially only told his mother of the schedule. (But) I could not keep it from Brad so I told him a week after I told his mother because I wanted him to focus in on that special day as well.”

Snyder, ironically, visualizes each of his swims beforehand, using the mental images he has concocted for the pool, the lane lines and the crowd. The tactic allows him to feel that every race is already familiar.

Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics in September.

Launch slideshow

Prior to today's race, he saw himself walking across the pool deck toward the block, standing above his assigned lane as his name was announced, then feeling the surge of competitive juices rise inside. A gold medal is what he glimpsed in his mind. And if only for four furious minutes, his new life as a blind man faded as a constant reality.

“From the moment I step up on that starting block, I just want to beat everybody in the pool,” Snyder said. “But once I hit the (finishing) pad, once the race was over, it all went back to just being an amazing experience.”

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Aug

2012

9:40am, EDT

From darkness to gold: Blinded Navy swimmer set to race at Paralympics

Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Launch slideshow

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

The man who views only black today is visualizing all the colors of his London swims. In his mind, he sees the aqua-blue pool frothy with wakes, the home stretch of the lane lines painted red, and the dark, wide mouths of roaring fans.

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Behind prosthetic blue eyes — replacements for the natural pair he lost after an explosion in Afghanistan nearly a year ago — Navy Lt. Brad Snyder soaks in the scenery of a dream realized. The 2012 Paralympics open today in Britain. Snyder races for gold Friday.

Already, though, he can glimpse a distinct, happy glow.

“During the Olympics, I read about the races, about (Michael) Phelps and (Ryan) Lochte and Missy Franklin. I heard the commentary and used that to pull out the details to produce this image,” Snyder said. “But instead of reading about Lochte, I just implanted myself in there.

“I imagine stepping onto the block, hearing “take your mark,” the sound of the start, hopping in the pool then just being smooth and strong down the middle of the lane, executing some good turns, and hitting the pad at the end. I’m imagining success. I’m imagining the good feeling that comes with competing well.”

As an elite athlete — among blind swimmers he is No. 1 in the world at three freestyle distances (50-, 100- and 400-meters) — Snyder draws such mental pictures as a preparation tool. As a result, nothing in or around the London pool, he said, should feel unfamiliar.

Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

But in a life being rebuilt after severe injury, this ironic tactic is simply how the man endures.

“I’ll tell you a little story,” said his mother, Valarie Snyder. “He was describing his apartment to me: ‘It has the most beautiful rooftop view.’ That’s how our conversations go all the time. It’s been rare that he gets down, and even then he apologizes for it: ‘Sorry I was in a bad mood.’ ”

The bright side is never far off. But total darkness came in a single stride. On Sept. 7, 2011, the former Navy bomb defuser was rushing forward to help two Afghan soldiers wounded in an initial IED blast. In his dash, Snyder stepped on a second hidden bomb in an irrigation ditch spanning a farm field. His eyes were irreparably damaged by the detonation and later were removed by a surgeon.

Once a member of the Naval Academy swim team, Snyder returned to the water about a month later — this time, seeking a familiar, soft place in a world suddenly filled with surprise, hard edges.

“I was there the first day he got back in the pool,” his mother recalls. “Just to see the sheer joy on his face. On the ride home afterward he told me: ‘I can do this, mom. I can swim competitively. Everything new that I can do just makes me realize: this isn’t such a bad thing.’ ”

The warm water also rekindled an ultra-competitive, inner furnace, driving Snyder to begin training in Baltimore with Brian Loeffler, head swimming coach at Loyola University. His new goal: earn a spot on the U.S. Paralympic swim team and compete at the world’s second-largest sporting event, the Paralympics. He punched his London ticket in June after a series of spectacular sprints at the time trials in Bismarck, N.D.

He strolls into London’s Olympic Stadium today with 226 other disabled American athletes — one of 20 active or former service members on the U.S. team, and one of six wounded during combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“There’s a girl who was in a coma for four years. There are people dealing with moderate cerebral palsy,” Snyder said. “It puts everything in perspective when I’m contending with my own little issue to see what everybody on the team puts up with. It humbles you. Every person on the roster is one of the most amazing people I’ve met.”

Yet each teammate also is an accomplished athlete who outperformed hundreds of Paralympic hopefuls to make the cut. For context, simply peruse two of Snyder’s post-injury times. In the 50-meter freestyle: 26.54 seconds — better than 10 Olympians who swam in London; and in the 100-meter freestyle: 57.75 — quicker than three 2012 Olympians.

The 100-meter free on Friday offers Snyder his first crack at a medal, and it unleashes an aggressive schedule of seven events over nine days. In addition to his three world-best times, he’s currently ranked No. 2 among blind swimmers in the 100-meter butterfly and No. 4 in the 200-meter individual medley. For each event, Loeffler works as Snyder’s “tapper,” using a walking cane to touch Snyder’s shoulders to alert him that the wall is near and that a flip turn or final push is required.

“His order of events sets up well since the sprints are early in the week (and) I do expect he will do well in his early events,” said Loeffler, who also serves as the co-head coach of the American Paralympic swim team. “(But) we have focused his training toward the 400 free.”

For Snyder, his coach and his family, that is the race of races, scheduled for Sept. 7 — exactly one year to the day he stepped on the bomb.

“It’s difficult to imagine and quantify the emotions I’ll be running through that day. But it’s going to be a moment that I’m going to enjoy. Because to me, competing on that day means that I was presented a challenge and I experienced some success in my transition to blindness. I conquered my adversity to some extent. Obviously, the adversity is not conquered. I’m still blind at the end of the day,” Snyder said. “But it means I’ve walked the path from being chained to the bed at exactly a year ago to competing on an international level at event like the Paralympics. It means I won a little bit.”

All of the people who huddled near that bed last September at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C. will be in the crowd in London — his two brothers, his sister, an aunt and his mother — who calls herself “a weeper” and who fully expects a gush of tears, win or lose.

“From getting the phone call that morning from his commanding officer to not knowing what we were about to go through to what we went through the past year and then to see all that he has accomplished, well, it’s going to be amazing,” Valarie Snyder said.

“He shared something with me not long ago. He said that every little boy dreams of doing something great in their life in sports. If you’re a runner or a swimmer, you dream of one day going to the Olympics. But when you grow up," she added, "you realize that was just a dream."

“He believes has been given the opportunity to actually fulfill his dream.”

Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.”

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