Gabriel “Gabe” George is a medically retired U.S. Navy Corpsman and an American Paralympic athlete.
Military career
George joined the Navy in July 2004 as a corpsman.[1] His first deployment included bringing him to the Mediterranean, Israel, Haifa, Greece, Croatia, Europe, and Turkey; the second was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was medically retired in 2009 as a result of the injuries from his motorcycle accident[2]
Archery
In 2018, George was introduced to adaptive sports through the National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic in San Diego,[3] where a Paralympic coach demonstrated how he could fire a bow using string—he went to buy a bow the next day.[4] Soon George was looking to compete, participating in paralympic competitions while aiming to be included on Team USA.[5] His dedication to the sport has led to participation in the 2019 DOD Warrior Games for Team Navy,[6] candidacy for the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020 (prior to its cancellation[7]), and an invitation to the Invictus Games in 2022 for Team USA.[8]
Advocacy
Medical marijuana
Because of his motorcycle accident, George suffers from chronic pain due to nerve damage. His neurologist was the first to suggest medical marijuana as a potential treatment for the side effects of his pharmaceutical regimen.[9] George has expressed that taking the drug improves his quality of life, combating the chronic pain while also not adding any side-effects [10]
Appearances
In 2019 George was a feature interviewee on the Making Good episode Veterans Oceans Adventures, aired by the BYUtv channel.[11]
George was a contestant on the American Go Big Show, appearing for the first time on January 14, 2021 as a contestant on the episode “You Can’t Unsee This!” After earning the high score in his match-up, he moved on to be a semi-finalist and appeared a second time on February 25’s episode “Go Big, Fly High.”[12][13]
