The Warrior Games are an annual Paralympic-style competition organised by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans.

This year's event at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs was the biggest ever, with Snyder (pictured above, right and below, right) proving to be one of the stars of the competition – claiming four gold medals in swimming and another three golds in track and field.

Snyder says his ultimate plan is to compete in triathlon when the sport makes its debut at the Paralympics at Rio 2016, but said his short term goal is to swim competitively at London 2012.

He will compete at the upcoming 2012 US Paralympic Swimming Trials in the 50, 100 and 400 metres freestyle as well as the 100m butterfly and admits it would be amazing to go the Paralympics.

"The 400 freestyle is my best chance of making the team and it's also the event I feel the most comfortable in," said Snyder, a former Navy Lieutenant.

"Competition is wonderful, like when you're on your high school team and you're competing against other high schools.

"It's even better when you go to college and you're on a college team going against other colleges.

"But when you can say that you're representing the country of the United States against other countries internationally, I think that's the pinnacle of competition.

"If you do that on a stage like the Paralympic Games or the Olympic Games, it's arguably the best representation of competition as a whole."

Snyder, a 2006 graduate of the Naval Academy, is happy to talk about the incident in Afghanistan that left him without his eyesight.

It happened while he was helping in the evacuation of other military soldiers caught up in a different IED explosion.


He considers himself to be fortunate as the explosion was far enough in front of him to limit his injuries to facial lacerations, a shattered eardrum and permanent blindness rather than death.

"Outside of those injuries I was completely healthy," he said.

"I actually walked away from the incident."

Bill Roberts, Snyder's coach at the Naval Academy from 2003 to 2006, has also praised his ambition to make London 2012.

"I hope he makes it through the trials and earns his way to London," he said.

Roberts also revealed that Snyder has the chance to speak with his old Naval Academy swim team, who he previously captained.

"When Brad was speaking to the team, you could hear a pin drop," Roberts said.

"He definitely commanded immediate attention and respect, and well-deserved, of course."

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Photo credit for top image: Technical Sergeant Heather Kelly 

Photo credit for main image: Lieutenant Michael Fallon