[ everyone agreeing ] >> o'donnell: melissa stockwell helped to lead the u.s.pics. the iraq war vet was the first female american soldier to lose a limb in combat. representing the u.s. means everything to her. and here's cbs's dana jacobson. >> reporter: just three weeks into melissa stockwell's 2004 iraq deployment, a roadside bomb changed the course of her life, taking her leg and sending her to walter reed army medical center. >> i remember getting there and i looked around, and i saw soldiers who were missing both legs; they had a leg and arm missing; they had lost their eyesight. and i thought, holy cow, am i lucky. i mean, all i lost was one leg. >> reporter: she found refuge in the hospital pool. >> i jumped in the pool for the first time and i didn't have to wear a prosthetic leg, and it was just, like, this freeing feeling. >> reporter: four years later, she was swimming for the u.s. at the beijing paralympics. >> this flag that i am so passionate about, looking back, it was what was meant to be. >> reporter: you wanted to serve the country. >> uh-huh

plenty more shots for gold in her future >> as for melissa stockwell, fifth place hardly looked like a disappointment as she came towards the finish line. >> now melissa stockwell, give it up for the united states of america three-time army veteran, paralympic athlete and cyclist and happy to get to the finish line in fifth place. please welcome melissa stockwell. >> i say it over and over, but i just feel so proud and i feel so blessed. with everything that goes on, we are the lucky ones i hope that everyone realizes that >> late on friday, abbas karimi returned to the final of the 50 meter race ended up finishing last and afterwards made no attempt to hide his disappointment. even it has story as a refugee captured the hearts of so many in tokyo and beyond along his path american brad snyder's paralympic path lasted nine years. in 2012, one year after the naval lieutenant lost his sight in an explosion in afghanistan, he won two swimming golds and a silver in london, three more golds and another silver followed in rio. always seeking a new challenge, in 2018 snyder transitioned fro

wheelchair rugby player, chuck aoki and melissa stockwell were the team's flag bearers. can you watch live competition starting today at 7:00 p.m. on nbc sports network. >>> tare are big-time alliances being formed in college sports. the pac-12 is joining forces with the acc and big 10 conferences, coming together for what they say is the future evolution of college athletics. the alliance was formed because the foundation of college sports is, in, quote, turmoil. the goal is to clablt on policy and issues and align scheduling. >>> a look at the sharks ice san jose. it will be the largest ice facility in north america. the new barracuda arena and sharks practice facility is still a year away from target opening. the expansion is already very impressive. there will be two more ice sheets, bringing the number of rinks there to six. facility will meet pept-up demand for ice. >> demand for ice in the bay area is tremendous. we should have built more. but the sheer demand of recreational ice is number one. number two is we really need a new home for our american hockey league

. >>> and we talk with paralympian melissa stockwell, the first iraq war veteran to qualify for the paralympics for watching. i'm anne-marie green. have a great day. ♪

triathlete melissa stockwell. >> i love you!bra in a training crash. at the time, she said she was lucky because she wasn't hurt rse. we had spoken with her a few weeks earlier. you seem so positive. are there days where you're not? >> of course. i think -- i mean, we're all only human, right? there's days i wake up and think, ah, i don't want to get in the pool, i would rather just like sit here with my kids instead of -- get a babysitter or have my husband watch them so i can train or race. >> a former army second lieutenant, stockwell lost her legs 17 years ago serving in the iraq war. while recovering at walter reed army medical center she sought refuge in the pool. >> i jumped in the pool for the first time after missing my leg, and i didn't have to wear a prosthetic leg. i got in, and it was just like this freeing feeling. it's almost like i forgot i was missing my leg. >> four years later she was part of team usa swimming at the beijing paralympics. in rio in 2016, she took home the bronze in the triathlon, a medal she ga

melissa stockwell became the first female american soldier to lose a limb in the iraq war.y" co-host dana jacobson recently met stockwell at the u.s. olympic and paralympic music in colorado springs. they discussed her journey to tokyo and what it means to be part of team usa. >> i get asked a lot how did you end up in the army. short and sweet, i love our country. >> reporter: melissa stockwell was a second lieutenant in the u.s. army's transportation corps when she deployed to iraq in march of 2004. three weeks later, within seconds the entire trajectory of her life changed. >> we were going into central baghdad, and we left the gate that morning. and i was in a vehicle, a humvee that had five of us soldiers in it. about ten minutes into that convoy, we went under this bridge, and there was just this deafening -- i mean -- black smoke and smell of metal, and the windshield's crashed in. and our vehicle is swerving to the left, we ricochet off a guardrail. to make long story pretty short, that roadside bomb that hit did take my left leg above the knee. it was gone. it was