After five decades of resilience, Team USA’s ex-Marine Bobby Body is going for gold at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

Bobby Body’s journey to Paris 2024 is one marked by resilience, defiance, and 50 years of overcoming adversity.

Though his prosthetic left leg hints at the struggles he’s faced, the 50-year-old para powerlifter radiated a kind and gallant nature as he sat down with Olympics.com in New York for an exclusive interview ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Though the Games will be Body’s first time on the Paralympic stage, it is far from the first time he has worn his flag and represented the United States of America on a global level.

Born in a military hospital, Body’s early life was shaped by a series of traumatic events that began at just five years old, when he stood at a bus stop in Texas, too young to fully understand what was happening as his mother abandoned him and his family for a reason that, to this day, he still does not know.

Shortly after that, his father moved the family to Germany, where a strict lifestyle kept the children from what many Americans consider to be a normal childhood, including the simple luxury of owning any toys.

That was somewhat short-lived, though, as his father was arrested about five years later and he and his sister were sent back to the United States where they lived in an orphanage.

First falling in love with sports when he attended public high school, Body didn’t see a feasible future in athletics, so went to college before enlisting as a U.S. Marine, where he would later be medically discharged due to a knee injury.

Struggling as he tried to make his way through life in California, Body became homeless before the tragedy that was 9/11 sparked the decision for him to re-enlist, this time in the U.S. Army.

While deployed in Iraq, an explosion cost Body his left leg and nearly led to him losing his left arm as well.

Plagued with post-traumatic stress disorder and a battle with alcoholism, Body turned to the weight room after a counselor advised him to use it as a healthy way to let out his aggression.

It was a decision that would change his life.

Body’s talent and determination were quickly noticed, setting him on a path that has led him not only to the Paralympic Games but also to a broader role as a motivational speaker and a beacon of hope for so many people.

Body’s windy road to Paris

After his father's arrest, Body was moved to Eaton Rapids, Michigan, where he would begin a new life in the VFW National Home - a place for military children who were no longer able to live with their parents.

There, they’d clean pig pens and raise horses and sheep and, according to Body, the constant turnover of other children left the place feeling less like a home. Despite that, it still remains the place where he has lived the longest.

In some way, his time there also marked the very beginning of his long-winded way to becoming a Paralympian.

Like many other children, Body fell in love with sports, but for him, it was to keep "from thinking too much about, you know, all the negativity in my life," he said to ESPN.

**“**Athletics was the only thing we had going for for a lot of us,” he added when speaking to Olympics.com.

“But as far as weightlifting and strength sports, that's something that I never really got into. I was a track runner. I was a sprinter. And so, growing up in the orphanage, most of the sports that I played had to do with speed, not really strength. And so getting into strength sports is something that didn't come until later on in life.”

Body's journey as a powerlifter wouldn’t begin until much later on, when a therapist suggested that he “let out some of that aggression in the gym.”

And that was where he would eventually be discovered.

“While I was at the gym, (one of) the owners of my gym saw that I was lifting quite a bit of weight on the bench press, and they said, you know, you should try powerlifting.”

“At the time, I was like, oh, I'm an amputee. I can't power lift.”

But after giving it a shot and being noticed by a Paralympic high-performance manager who saw how much he was able to bench through a post on Instagram, “then [I] got into it,” he said.

Finally agreeing to compete on an international stage, the pandemic delayed his debut until 2021, but at the World Para Powerlifting Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, Body’s road to Paris 2024 began in earnest.

Bobby Body’s breakthrough moment

Two years after his debut, Body finished a disappointing ninth at the 2023 World Championships in Dubai. At the time he felt stuck as he was unable to break 500 pounds on the bench - something that would be crucial if he wanted to wear his country’s flag in Paris the following year.

Understanding that he needed to find an edge that went beyond the work he was putting in at the gym, Body sought the help of a mental health professional through the USOPC.

He began seeing counselors who were, as he told Team USA, “very good at their jobs because less than two months later, my bench went from 217 kg (478 pounds) to 228 kg (502 pounds).”

And “it wasn’t because my training got me that much stronger,” he continued.

“They got me to believe that I was actually stronger than I actually was, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally.”

The 502-pound personal record was a triumph for Body but it also proved historic for the United States, as he set a Games record and clinched the 2023 Para Pan American Games gold, winning his country’s first-ever para powerlifting title at the Games.

Body stood on top of the podium as the American flag was raised and the national anthem played, unable to contain his emotions as he contemplated what this meant to himself and his country.

Now, with the chance to win another historic gold at Paris 2024, Olympics.com asked Body what he would tell his younger self if he had the opportunity.

His answer was simple: “Never give up.

“No matter what you do, fight hard through everything that comes through in life, whether it's good or bad… Always fight and fight the good fight.”

And “be proud of what you've done and never have regrets. Everything… is just a stepping stone for success.”