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Rico Roman, the two-time Paralympic gold medalist, loves representing his country.
“After 2018, I did not plan on playing anymore. I really didn’t,” Roman, 40, tells PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Okay, after 2018 I’m going to be done.’ That’s what I told my family.”
Then, at a meeting with his team and friends in Washington, D.C., teammate Declan Farmer — with whom he won the golds in Sochi and Pyeongchang — changed Roman’s mind. “Farmer goes, ‘You’re not going to play anymore?’ Just the way he said it, I was like, ‘Well, if you’re going to put it like that, then I’ll play.’ And so, yeah, here we are now,” Roman says with a laugh.
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Now, the Oregon native has his sights on competing in his third Paralympics and winning a third consecutive gold medal. (The official 2022 roster for the Paralympics team has yet to be announced.)
This time around, his approach is different — largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of the things that I’ve learned during this pandemic was just to appreciate everything, and that’s what I was trying to tell my kids,” the father of two says.
“Just appreciate each other and love one another because you never know. You’re here but might not be tomorrow,” Roman explains. “You don’t want to say something mean or something hurtful. Or wish you would’ve given somebody a hug and then they’re not here tomorrow. I’ve seen that firsthand, being in the military and losing guys. It’s tough and it ain’t easy.”
The athlete adds, “Some of the good things during the pandemic: I shoot a bunch of pucks. I’ve shot tons of pucks.”
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Roman also credits his former Paralympic teammate and friend Josh Sweeney for helping him before the global lockdown. “He’s one of the guys I did rehab with and he’s also a Marine Corps veteran,” Roman says. “He had a hockey net and weights. He was like, ‘Hey, do you want these? Because I’m getting rid of them.’ This was right before COVID even kicked off.”
He adds, “They shut down my rink and there was nowhere to skate. So, I was like, ‘I’m going to shoot at home.’ I couldn’t control not going to the gym or I couldn’t control the ice rink not being open, but I control shooting these pucks. I just shot tons of pucks.”
The pandemic also shut down the opportunity for his family and friends to cheer him on in person in Beijing as international spectators are banned from attending, much like the Tokyo Olympics this past summer. “Knowing that my family and friends are watching it, I would definitely still feel inspired and still hungry to bring back the gold medal with my teammates,” Roman says.
“We take the same pride in competing and winning that anybody does,” he says, comparing Paralympians and Olympians. “The passion is the same. We want to win. We want to be recognized just as much as anybody else and we want to be treated the same, too. I think that’s huge and important. It’s not, ‘Oh. Look at how sweet.’ It’s like, ‘No, these guys are getting it. They’re out there and competing at the highest level. They’re trying to win.’ "
Roman adds, “The passion to play at a high level, doesn’t change in Paralympics and Olympics. If you ask how many times a standup Olympian goes to the ice rink and a Paralympian goes to the ice rink, it might be on par. The only difference is some of the things in hoops and jumps of things we’ve got to jump through to get to where we’re at.”
Sled hockey follows most of the typical ice hockey rules. Instead, players compete in specially designed sleds that sit on top of two blades that are “as close as seven sixteenths to an inch or to an inch and a quarter.”
Additionally, sled hockey players use two sticks instead of one, and the sticks have metal picks on the ends so athletes can propel themselves.
“The passion is the same. The speed that we play at is super fast, it’s aggressive,” Roman says. “We’re out there knocking each other’s helmets off. The talent that it takes to skate with your arms, using the sticks, balancing on two blades as well as getting hit and staying balancing up on your sled — it’s the highest level.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning this February, and the Winter Paralympics, beginning this March, on NBC.
source: people.com
