Alexia Vlahos is lifting increasingly heavy weights at her local gym in Brisbane, preparing to compete in powerlifting and athletics at Invictus Games Sydney 2018.
“Sport is my saviour, it has brought me inspiration and the power to heal,” said Vlahos.
“After being medically discharged earlier this year from the Australian Army, I’ve found that immersing myself in sport training as an Australian team member for the Invictus Games has given me the focus and positive perspective to create a meaningful life. Something until recently I didn’t think possible.”
Vlahos was a talented Western Australian state junior representative sprinter and basketballer and her dreams lay in sport before an injury as a teenager lead to a knee reconstruction.
After leaving school she joined the Army to train as a driver specialist. However, a succession of various injuries during her first years in the military required multiple surgeries. Finally, another total knee reconstruction signalled the end of her military career.
“I was broken,” she admits with tears. “I joined the Army with the purpose of doing good. Having to leave that adopted family made me feel I’d failed. I take my work and career very seriously and being injured deeply affected my mental health.
“The transition from fit athlete to physically and mentally struggling everyday just to move was debilitating. I lost all sense of who I was and that not only frightened me but finished me emotionally.”
Fortunately in November last year at age 23, Vlahos discovered the Invictus Games – an international adaptive sport event for wounded, injured and ill servicemen and women. She trialled and was selected in the Australian team.
“Knowing I was going to be discharged from the Army my life looked empty, but this sporting challenge gave me a new focus. I looked at life with a new perspective and I realised that my future was in my hands, just like that line in the Invictus poem says about I am the Master of my Fate.
“Training for the Games enabled me to feel worthy and gave me some control of my future. Sport is my medicine and I love the feeling of being strong in both mind and body as I train.”
As she lifts weights, a tattoo on her wrist appears: Exhale the Past, Inhale the Future it says.
“Too often I look back and feel angry about what has happened. But that tattoo reminds me of the potential of a better future and right now that means doing my absolute best for Australia at the Invictus Games. I dreamed when I was a young sportswoman of wearing the Australian uniform – now I am doing that and am so proud of this achievement.”
Vlahos is competitive by nature and lifting progressively heavier weights in training gives her a good shot at the podium.
“But winning is not my only goal,” she says. “I know that at the end of the Games I will have given my absolute best; I will have pushed my mind and my body beyond what I thought were my boundaries; and then seeing the smiles around me will be my golden experience.
“For me, sport has a wonderful way of directing my mind to something positive. It is also a personal reminder that we never know what is possible unless we try. I also realise that I am better than I ever thought I could be.”
There will be one session of powerlifting on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. The sport has been very popular with only a few dozen tickets left for the 1.30pm session on Wednesday. Fans should get in quick and purchase online >>>
AnneMarie White
Invictus Games 2018