The sun just began to creep over the horizon as squad leader Mike Egan carefully led his troops through the small village of Kajaki, Afghanistan.
They could no longer rely on the darkness to conceal them from the Taliban, resorting to a series of choke points and mud compounds as cover.
Mike Egan with his troops | Photo courtesy of Egan
But it was the silence that worried Egan most.
His mind was racing with reasons.
“Are we near an IED?”
“Is it an ambush?”
Time had run out.
Egan’s next step launched him into the air, landing him headfirst into the dirt.
“Looking down, I saw the shredded remnants of what were once my legs. They were peppered with wounds from nails and screws, purposefully placed with the explosives,” he wrote in an article for the Washington Post.
In an instant, Egan became a bilateral amputee. He was put in a medically induced coma and underwent 40 surgeries, spending the next few months in the hospital and over a year of rehabilitation.
Every goal and aspiration Egan set for his life vanished.
“It was really like a reset button on your life,” he said.
How the Washington Post Found His Wife
Egan battled with PTSD in the years following his injury.
To get through the trauma, his sister convinced him to start journaling. So, Egan started a blog describing his struggles.
“But no one knew about it,” he thought.
One post featured an in-depth retelling of the day of his injury, and to his surprise, it began to circulate the internet. So much so that someone from the Washington Post found it and asked if they could publish it.
On June 5, 2014, Egan’s article was posted on the Washington Post’s website. At the bottom of the article were links to Egan’s social media pages.
Mike and Amy Egan
Upon its release, Egan was flooded with messages from veterans who related to his story. He then received a friend request from a woman named Amy. Out of curiosity, he reached out and learned she had lost her partner while he was serving in the military.
“We talked for months, and we leaned on each other a lot in a time that was very difficult,” Egan said. “Through meeting her I was like, “I really want to focus on getting my life together.’”
Amy was the one person who motivated him to quit his medications, focus hard in school, and look for another purpose in life.
In 2020, Amy and Mike were married.
The Weekend That Changed Everything
“I have this passion for helping others, how do I do it?” Egan thought.
Throughout his recovery, fitness served as an outlet for him to relieve stress and regulate his emotions. He found he could combine his passion for fitness with his passion for helping others as a personal trainer.
“I feel like it gives me back a lot of energy and it makes me feel gratification for being able to do that for other people because I know how much of a positive impact it had on me,” he said.
Working at a gym nearby, Egan was only training able-bodied athletes, but one day a man with spina bifida requested his help. Although Egan was unfamiliar with training disabilities other than his own, he didn’t want to turn him away, so he told the man he wanted to research how to train him safely before starting.
That led Egan to an organization called The Adaptive Training Academy (ATA), which provides educational resources, events, and experiences to advance the accessibility and inclusion of adaptive fitness and health. In October 2021, he attended an ATA seminar in San Antonio, Texas, held at The Tribe/3F CrossFit.
Mike Egan at 3F CrossFit
“I’m sitting there in the seminar and I realize, ‘This is CrossFit,’” Egan said. “I had no idea there was an adaptive fitness space for adaptive CrossFit.”
Among the ATA staff was CrossFit Seminar Staff Kevin Ogar, who approached Egan during the lunch break and asked if he wanted to join him in a workout.
“I got demolished, and I was like, ‘I like this,’” he said.
After the course, Egan joined 3F CrossFit, applying what he learned in the seminar to his own training. Less than a month later, Egan became a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer.
From the moment he arrived, the community banded together to help adapt the gym. Some members even helped build ramps and railings to make the gym more inclusive.
A year later, another member offered to build another location specially designed for adaptive athletes.
“The current Tribe location is built from the ground up, and a lot of thought and effort was put into ensuring it was an adaptive space,” Egan said.
Opening its doors in 2022, the new location features larger bathrooms and chairs in the shower stalls. It has railings and ramps at every entrance, and the equipment is accessible for anyone.
Giving Back
Within a month of joining 3F CrossFit, Egan pitched the idea of creating a program dedicated to adaptive athletes.
Mike Egan coaching at 3F CrossFit | Photo courtesy of 3F CrossFit on Instagram
With the help of affiliate owner Nicholas Vera, he reached out to Texas Regional Parasport and Morgan’s Wonderland to offer to host their program at the affiliate. Working alongside Texas Military Program Coordinator Jennifer Weatherford, the duo hosts two classes a week for military and civilian disabled individuals free of charge.
“I treat it like any CrossFit class,” Egan said. “I just adapt it to their capabilities and where they’re at.”
Weatherford and Egan will take the gym’s workout of the day and scale it to every athlete’s abilities, ensuring the intended stimulus is maintained.
“(Jennifer) is one of the most knowledgeable — she’s been in this realm way longer than I have, over 20 years easily of working with people with severe injuries — so I’m really blessed to have that relationship with her and the connections with Morgan’s. I’ve learned a lot from her,” he said.
A New Way to Serve
Twelve years ago, Egan thought he had lost everything.
But since that one memorable weekend at the ATA seminar, Egan has worked with the Marine Corps again as a coach for the Wounded Warrior Battalion, assisted the Adaptive Training Academy as a subject matter expert for seated athletes, created a functional fitness class for local veterans and civilians with disabilities, and became a CrossFit Level 2 coach at 3F CrossFit.
“That’s the most important thing. You have to find something that makes you feel good because you can translate that to other people,” Egan said. “What I’m good at is helping people in their daily lives and I’m going to keep that going as long as I can.”
Wounded Veteran Mike Egan Uses CrossFit to Serve Community