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.

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

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.”

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.”

Related: Blinded Navy officer grabs gold in first Paralympic race
Related: From darkness to gold: Blinded swimmer ready to race
Related: Iraq vet: 'Now it's time to win at Paralympics'
Related: Ex-Marine's journey from homelessness to Paralympics
Related: 'Superhuman' Paralympians burst onto world stage 

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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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

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.

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.

Related: 'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage 

“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.

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.’ ”

Related: Veterans push Paralympics back to battlefield roots
Related: Wounded warrior seeks glory representing America in London

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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MOORE HAVEN, Florida - A teenager lost his right arm below the elbow in an alligator attack while swimming in the Caloosahatchee River, according to officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

FWC's Jorge Pino says the 11-foot gator was found and killed Monday evening after the attack that happened in the water near River Road, southwest of US-27, close to Lake Okeechobee.

Officials say the arm was found inside the gator.

"This area isn't Disneyland. It's right next to Lake O and there are thousands of alligators here," said FWC Captain Jeff Ardelean.

The victim, 17-year-old Kaleb Langdale, was flown to Lee Memorial Hospital after the attack. The arm was sent to the hospital, but friends said doctors were not able to reattach the limb.

Friends who were with Langdale at the time of the attack said they were not taunting the animal.

"It ended up being about a 10-and-a-half-foot gator who came straight at him. It came at him and he put his arm in the way instead of letting it get to his body. It took his arm and him under," said friend Matt Baker.

Read the full story at NBC 2 Florida

Another friend, Gary Beck, said Langdale popped out of the water shortly after the attack.

"He was waving saying, 'Call the paramedics! My arm is gone!'" Beck described.

"It was scary. I couldn't believe it was real at the moment," Baker added.

FWC officials said it was a dangerous time of year for swimming because alligator mating season means attacks are not uncommon.

"Any type of splash in the water is prey for them," Captain Ardelean said.

Beck and Baker said Langdale was in good spirits. They said he was just happy the gator got his right arm instead of his left because that is what he uses to steer his airboat.

NBC-2 is based in Fort Myers, Florida.

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Saul Young / AP

The scene at German Creek Marina in Bean Station, Tenn., on Wednesday after several children were shocked while swimming.

When Kevin Ritz read about the children who died after being shocked by electricity while swimming in lakes in Missouri and Tennessee on Wednesday, he thought about his 8-year-old son, Lucas, and the dozens of others who have died this way.

“Everyone goes, ‘How can that happen?’” Ritz said.

In 1999, Ritz’s children were swimming in the Multnomah Channel of the Willamette River in Oregon when suddenly, Lucas let out a gasp and apparently became unconscious. His life jacket flipped him over so that his face was out of the water. As his wife jumped in the water to save their son, she felt paralyzed, a feeling she attributed to fear. His other son later reported that he, too, felt numb and tingly.

Law enforcement officers told Ritz that his son had drowned, but Ritz pushed them to investigate further. His son’s face, he said, hadn’t been submerged and he had been wearing a life jacket.

“With my digital voltmeter, I went to the area where Lucas had been, put the negative lead to a ground, dropped the positive lead into the water, and immediately got AC voltage,” he wrote in an essay about his son’s death. “I notified the Sheriff’s Department, reporting what I had found and that I wanted to get someone to confirm my test. They agreed to send out some deputies while I called in an electrician. He arrived later that morning, tracing the electricity to a powerboat that was in the area where the kids had been swimming.”

Children electrocuted while swimming in lakes

In the throes of grief, Ritz, now a marine electrician, started agitating for safer marinas. It infuriated him, for example, that electrical outlets at marinas were not held to the same standards as outlets in bathrooms.

“The European market has had ground fault protection in their marinas – the power coming into the marina at the docks – for over 25 years,” Ritz told msnbc.com. “How come we can’t have that?”

The obstacles are many, however. Ritz said that a marina manager near where he lives wanted to upgrade some of the marina’s electrical system but learned that, by law, he would also have to upgrade the whole system – a pricey proposition.

Herb Hall, president of Sierra Boat Co., a Lake Tahoe marina specializing in classic and wooden motorboats, said having good electrical systems on the docks is discussed at an annual marina conference, but that some marinas “unfortunately aren’t successful and don’t have the money to maintain things.”

“On an annual basis, you need to be inspecting out on your docks,” Hall said. “Most marinas have floating docks. You have flexible connections going out on the docks that are moving all the time, and those chafe and wear and separate.”

2nd boy dies after shock incident in Tenn. lake

Ritz works with David Rifkin to keep a list of those who have died from what they call electric shock drowning. Their list is anecdotal, because that cause of death is impossible to determine in an autopsy, Ritz said.

Rifkin counts more than 50 people who have died in that manner since the mid-1980s, but he said the actual number is likely many times that.

“Most of the time when these things happen and there’s no reason to believe it’s electrical in nature, it’s listed as a drowning,” Rifkin said. “We’re thinking the numbers could be one hundred-fold.”

Rifkin’s list does not include those that occurred Wednesday – he said he does not yet have enough information to include them.

But the deaths on the Fourth resemble the others on the list, in that all occurred in freshwater. Alexandra Anderson, 13, and her 10-year-old brother, Brayden, were swimming in Lake of the Ozarks, a freshwater lake in Missouri. Noah Winstead, 10, and his friend Nathan Lynam, 11, died after being shocked in Cherokee Lake in Tennessee.

Rifkin has no documented cases of deaths in saltwater. He says that’s because of the high voltage gradient that would have to be present.

“When these things happen, I'm often called in to find the electrical fault,” Ritz said. “I spend a good portion of my life educating first responders and law enforcement on this issue in hopes that lives will be saved.”

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Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: Two swimmers who vanished in rip currents off the New Jersey shore were found drowned Thursday.

Both incidents occurred at beaches where no lifeguards were on duty.

Garrett Giberson, public information officer for the Asbury Park fire department, told NJ.com, website of the Star-Ledger newspaper. “Basically the bottom line is this: When lifeguards are off duty, stay out of the water. Rip tides are dangerous and obviously deadly. It's not worth your life."

The Asbury Park Press reportedthat authorities believe the body recovered in about 15 feet of water 200 yards offshore in Asbury Park’s 2nd Avenue beach is Chazmin Miles, 23, of Irvington.

Miles disappeared while trying to help his younger sister, who was rescued Wednesday evening.

See the Star-Ledger photo gallery

Hot in Northeast? 'You ain't seen nothing yet'

The body of Bestavros Faris, 18, of Bayonne, was pulled early Thursday afternoon from waters about 150 yards offshore from the O Street beach in Seaside Park, where he disappeared a day earlier, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

Asbury Park firefighter Brett Nielson pauses as he prepares to enter the surf, Thursday, to search for the body of a 23-year-old man who disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty Wednesday in Asbury Park, N.J. The body was recovered after a short search by divers.

"The wave grabbed him far away from me," friend Andrew Messiha told NBCNewYork.com. "I was standing near the shore. He called for help, but no one came because there was no lifeguard."

Faris and his friends were sucked into the currents late Wednesday afternoon; rescuers managed to retrieve three swimmers.

Faris' friends and family had kept vigil on the beach into the night, crying and praying as they waited for news but declined to speak with NBCNewYork.com after the body was found.

"It's very unusual to deal with these rip currents this time of year," Seaside Park Police Chief Francis Larkin told NBCNewYork.com. "Usually, it's hurricane season in September."

Newark, N.J., on Wednesday saw a record high of 98 degrees and relentless heat was expected to continue Thursday.

Strong rip currents kept rescuers busy elsewhere along the Jersey Shore. In Perth Amboy, two children were rescued from the water by a 36-year-old bystander and his 17-year-old son. The rescuers administered CPR to one child.

Andrew Mills / The Star-Ledger

Asbury Park firefighters, N.J. State Police Troopers and U.S. Coast Guard personnel work Thursday to recover a body about 200 yards offshore at the 2nd Avenue beach in Asbury Park, where a 23-year-old man disappeared while swimming after lifeguards had gone off duty yesterday.

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Authorities have ordered toxicology tests in the death of Rodney King, but the results won’t be known for several weeks, a sheriff’s spokeswoman told msnbc.com on Monday.

King, the black motorist whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers in 1991 sparked some of the deadliest race riots in U.S. history, was found dead on Sunday. He was 47.

Police in Rialto, Calif., found King's body in a swimming pool after his fiancee called 911, Rialto Police Capt. Randy DeAnda told NBC News. He was transported to Arrowhead Hospital in Colton, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m. PDT, DeAnda said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, but results won’t be

 released today, San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said. Authorities said there were no signs of foul play.

Rodney King: 20 years after L.A. riots, 'Can we all get along?'

King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers on a dark street on March 3, 1991, after he was stopped for speeding. Four officers hit him more than 50 times, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. A bystander videotaped much of the incident from a distance.

A year later, a California jury acquitted three of the four officers. The jury deadlocked on one of the charges for the fourth officer, Laurence Powell. Three of the officers were white and one Hispanic.

The riots that erupted on April 29, 1992, were among the most lethal in U.S. history. By the time order was restored, more than 50 people had died, nearly 3,000 were injured and thousands of businesses were damaged or destroyed.

20 years later: Have race relations improved?

In the two decades after he became the central figure in the riots, King was arrested several times, mostly for alcohol-related crimes. He later became a record company executive and a reality TV star, appearing on shows such as "Celebrity Rehab."

Looking back on that time, King told NBCLosAngeles.com in April, “Some of me wanted to get out there and riot and loot and tear up stuff too, but it just wasn’t the way I was raised.”

When he ventured into the streets during the riots, he wore a reggae hat with dreadlocks so people wouldn’t recognize him.

“It just looked a little bit like the war zone to me, smoke everywhere,” he told the station. “It broke my heart to look at that and to know this is, it’s really all about racial tension, and it’s a man-made problem.”

When King sat down with NBCLosAngeles.com, he was promoting his just-published memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption," which came out around the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots. According to the biography that accompanied his book, King had three children and was engaged to marry Cynthia Kelley, a juror in the civil suit he brought against the city of Los Angeles.

Nearly a year after the riots, a federal jury convicted two of the police officers of a federal charge of violating King’s civil rights and sentenced them to 30 months in prison. Two other officers were acquitted. King eventually received a $3.8 million settlement from the city, and the case led to sweeping changes in LAPD.

King said he was no longer bitter about what had happened.

“I like to be able to wake up and be able to pray for myself and pray for the world, that’s the most important thing,” he told NBCLosAngeles.com.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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