From Paralysis to the Podium: Sam Constantin’s Two-Year Battle to Walk and Compete at the Adaptive CrossFit Games
It was a routine day parachuting for Sam Constantin.
His 171st career jump.
But that day in September 2023, the long-time CrossFit athlete, who was in his fourth season of parachuting, had his sights set on a challenging maneuver that was new to him: A swoop.
A swoop is a landing technique where the skydiver uses intentional speed and turns to glide close to the ground at higher speeds than usual.
- “Maybe I was still too much of a beginner to try this,” admits Constantin, now 24 years old, about the day that changed everything for him more than two years ago.
All of a sudden, something was wrong. Something was really wrong.
- “I was too low to the ground, and I didn’t have enough time,” Constantin said.
Unable to control the landing, he hit the ground at 100 kilometers an hour. He couldn’t feel his legs, his back was injured, and he could see by the way his foot was pointing that it was broken.
- “I remember everything, but I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.
What was going on was that Constantin had become paralyzed below the waist. Doctors told him they didn’t think he would walk again.
Constantin’s Journey Since 2023
The news that he had suddenly become a paraplegic shocked Constantin’s world. But something told him not to accept the prognosis.
He was young, fit, and determined to put in the hard work to regain the function of his legs.
- “At first, it was really on a day-by-day basis. I was just trying to focus on everything I could at the moment,” Constantin remembers. “And I just knew there was a lot of work to do. I didn’t want to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. There was no way I wasn’t going to walk again.”
And so, four months after the accident, the moment his doctor cleared him, Constantin returned to CrossFit Caribou in Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs, Quebec.
As happy as he was to be back at the gym, it was a frustrating experience.
- “It took me probably a month to figure out how to adapt everything and learn what I could and couldn’t do. And I didn’t want people to look at me differently, so it was very hard,” said Constantin, a Level 1 coach who works part-time at Monark CrossFit in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec.
But little by little, day by day, Constantin, who was in a wheelchair at the time, started to figure out how to work with his new body.
As the weeks went on, he regained some feeling and strength, he explained. And thirteen months after the accident, although his feet still hadn’t regained the connection between his muscles and nervous system, he was strong enough in his legs to stand and began walking again with help.
This was a game-changer for Constantin, who then decided he wanted to train for the 2025 Adaptive CrossFit Games by WheelWOD in Las Vegas, NV.
Not only did Constantin qualify for the Games last summer in the major neuromuscular impairment division, but he also placed second in the world, behind only Jeremy Dalton.
- The experience was “really great,” he said, adding that he’s hoping to return to the Games next summer.
However, Constantin is hoping he can qualify in either the moderate or even minor neuromuscular impairment division next summer, because although he still has little feeling in his feet and uses a prosthetic to walk, he has continued to make rehabilitation progress and is still hopeful he will be able to make a full recovery one day.
The Big Picture
Constantin still hasn’t achieved his long-term goal of “being as strong and as fast as I was before the accident,” but he couldn’t be more thankful for the progress he’s made over the past two years.
- In fact, all of his upper-body strength movements – pull-ups, bench press, strict press – are stronger than they were before he became a paraplegic, he said.
And although he has been the one doing the hard work day in and day out, Constantin credits his gym friends and his family, especially his parents, for their invaluable support.
- “It would have been a lot darker if they weren’t there,” he said.
Constantin’s message to anyone who might find themselves in a position similar to his: “Take it day-by-day and just focus on the small goals, the small victories to get to a bigger goal. No matter the conditions, there are always goals that can be achieved,” he said.
He added, “And, surround yourself with great people.”
