In March 2001, Casey lost his right leg below the knee as the result of a motorcycle accident where he took a turn too fast and hit a guardrail. "I was down and hard on myself because it was kind of my fault that I lost it in a motorcycle accident," he said. After several intense weeks of therapy and re-learning to walk and then run on with a prosthesis, his next step was to convince the Navy to allow him to remain on as active duty. Pushing himself to the limits, Casey received the okay to remain in the Navy and continued to push himself to the limits in excellence.
In 2004, Chief Petty Officer Casey Tibbs made history by becoming the first American active-duty military member to compete in a Paralympic Games. He has always loved to run, and has even earned high school varsity letters in track and field events, as well as football. It wasn’t until his accident, though, that Casey put his running to the test and, in 2003 - with no training – he took first place in the 100m, 200m, and 400m events at the Hanger Endeavour Games. Seeing what he could do, Casey set a goal for himself to take the Gold at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens,Greece. After only a couple months of training he earned a spot on the US Paralympic team and achieved his goal, winning Gold in the 4x100m and bringing home the Silver in the men’s Pentathlon.
He continued his achievements with two medals: silver in the pentathlon (P44) and gold in the men's 4x100m relay. At the 2008 Paralympic Games inBeijing,Chinahe captured gold in the 4 x 100m relay (T42-T46) and a bronze in the long jump (F42/F44). Tibbs added a bronze medal to his collection in 2011, earning third place in the men's long jump (F44) at the IPC Athletics World Championships inChristchurch,New Zealand.
Casey is currently an Air crewmen stationed at Navy Information Operations Command Georgia and was the first amputee to complete Navy SERE training (Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape), as well as the first amputee to become an Air crewmen through the U.S. Navy Aircrew school.
He is continually striving to go above and beyond and see what he can contribute to show that anything is really possible.
In 2004, Chief Petty Officer Casey Tibbs made history by becoming the first American active-duty military member to compete in a Paralympic Games. Here we take a look at his journey during this process.
