Three years ago, New South Welshmen Ben Leaudais was an apprentice carpenter, skateboarder and a drummer in a band.
Then his life took a massive turn when he stepped into a friend's car for a joy ride late one night.
"I had been drinking and in my drunken state didn't put a seatbelt on," he told SBS World News.
"We hit a telegraph pole. I was probably only in the car for 10 or 15 seconds."
Leaudais would wake in hospital a quadriplegic.
He said he didn't remember the first few weeks. After intensive rehabilitation, it would take him nine months to regain some use of his arms.
The Central Coast native would find salvation in the sport of wheelchair rugby.
"I went to a wheelchair rugby training session while I was still in rehab and I saw how much these guys were doing on their own. It gave me so much motivation to become more independent," he said.
Ben spent nine months in hospital (SBS) Source: Fairfax Regional Media
"In hospital, you're told you can't do this, you can't do that. Whereas when you're around these sort of guys it's about what you can do."
Now, Leaudais trains six days a week and is a mainstay for the New South Wales Gladiators, often driving himself to training in Sydney.
Recommended reading
Marathon mum: How a cancer survivor became a running sensation
Watching on from the sidelines, Ben's father Geoff said it was clear the training sessions were important on a much deeper level.
"It's pretty hard for the boys to vent, vent a bit of anger, because you can see so much frustration coming out in them here," he said.
Leaudais' focus was the upcoming national championships in August, which he hoped to use as a springboard for selection for the world championships in Sydney next year.
He's already tasted national team play as a development player and hoped to feature at the global showpiece which brought together 12 nations, and where Australia would be looking to defend its world crown.
"It's been a long time coming," he said.
"I've been training six days a week for a few years now and if I do make it, it's going to be the biggest tournament of my life."
Wheelchair Sport NSW Development Officer Mark Wilson said Leaudais was firmly on the radar of national selectors moving forward.
He travels from the NSW Central Coast to Sydney for training (SBS) Source: SBS
"Having won gold at the Rio Paralympics, they're not resting on their laurels," He said.
"They're looking at the next four year cycle and Ben's very much a part of that."
At the end of the day, Leaudais, like his teammates, was just a guy who loves his sport and who was getting on with life.
He admitted he's not here because of his accident - he's here because of what he wants to achieve.
Share
