My name is Robert Gagnon. I am currently a sergeant in the Canadian Armed Forces.
I am posted to Trenton and I will be releasing as of April 2019.
As a medical release, it's not your decision.
So, I found it very difficult leaving not on my terms and I needed kind of a goal -- something to shoot for --
and I thought applying for the Warrior Games would be that perfect opportunity for me to
have a goal and do something with people just like me.
It was just very comforting coming into a room of people that are just like me.
They all have a backstory. We all have some sort of injury.
We all have something that's holding us down, but we're all here together and we're all pushing through together.
So, today was a rough day and I had everyone help me out through it.
So, it's very comforting and rewarding to be part of a team that, at the end of the day, it's for the greater good.
It's not just about the individual. My wife has been my rock.
Throughout my whole career. It's crazy. She's always been there.
Whenever I needed her, whether she knew it or not. And she had her own struggles with her cancer and stuff.
So, it's been back and forth, but right now she's more there for me than I am for her.
So, it's very symbiotic where we work very well together, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.
She's truly my biggest supporter. She texts me every night. Asks me how it's going.
She doesn't pressure me. There's no worries about how the kids are at home or anything like that.
I know she's got it under control. So, it's perfect and I couldn't ask for a better support system.
I want to show them and explain to them how I've been injured many times in the Forces,
and it doesn’t matter what happens; that you can turn negative things into a positive,
and that I can still do this, and I can still perform at a high level despite my injuries.
And they're really great because they don't see the bad things
and they just... they think I'm their hero and I want to try to live up to that.
A message from the Government of Canada.