Over the span of those five years, Hammel found a path back to mobility, learning to walk again with the assistance of forearm crutches. With two more years under his belt, he was able to walk on his own, despite a limp and the support of AFO lower leg braces, and was eventually able to ride a bicycle as well as return to motocross competition.
“There were a lot of trials and tribulations, that’s for sure,” said Hammel of the path back from the enormous injuries he endured. “The emotional roller coaster was one of the hardest parts about it, but the journey itself … when you’re sitting in a wheelchair, you just think, “Man, what can I do not to have this? What can I do to make my life better?” And I thought to myself, “Well, I’m just never going to give up. These doctors told me that I’m never going to walk again. I’m going to sit in a wheel chair for the rest of my life.” And I just basically cursed them, and said that’s not going to happen.”
Hammel’s willpower took him through college, and he admitted that the early steps of the process were marked by “little victories” that meant the world, given the extraordinary circumstances he was up against.
“I went through my college years. I drove the wheelchair around school, and all that stuff, and I just wanted to get better so badly that I thought, ‘What can I do to walk again?'” Hammel recalled. “We started finding leg braces that would work, and I started using crutches — the Canadian crutches that attach to your forearms — and just slowly got to where I could stand up.”
“Taking one or two steps … it was like the most liberating thing in my life. You know, most people get up and they’re tired and they’re like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to get out of bed.’ But for me, to stand up and get out of bed, I was doing jumping jacks in my mind, you know? It was crazy cool.”
Eventually, not only was Hammel able to walk again, he was able to compete at the 2009 X-Games after earning a gold medal during the 2009 Motocross Extremity Games.
Those accomplishments were ones that Hammel said helped prove he was back to anyone who doubted it.
“It was about the mentality for me. I wanted to be better; I wanted to do well and perform again,” Hammel explained. “If you ask guys like Travis Pastrana and different people like that, a lot of them will tell you that they just want to be better all the time. … They think about winning first, they think about being a champion and they think about how much better that they can be at doing what they want to do and what they love.”
“That kind of drive is what I found and it’s what kept me going when I needed that extra push forward.”
Read part two of George Hammel’s inspirational story tomorrow on Race Chaser Online.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: editor@racechaseronline.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
Email Race Chaser Online: news@racechaseronline.com
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