The road between Fort Leonard Wood and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is not as far as it seems.
Sgt. Nathan Schrimsher, one of the first Soldiers who secured a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, started his Army career here in 2013. His coach, Staff Sgt. Dennis Bowsher, who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, also started his career at Fort Leonard Wood in 2005.
Both Army athletes compete in the modern pentathlon and are both motor transport operators. Their experiences while at Fort Leonard Wood for both Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training were similar.
“It was in January of 2013 when I started basic. One of the coldest Missouri winters, as I’ve been told,” said Schrimsher, a native of Roswell, N.M. “I wasn’t ready for that. It was cold.”
“My time at Fort Leonard Wood was fun,” said Bowsher, a Dallas, Texas, native. “I was there from August until December of 2005 for basic training and AIT. I got to experience the opposite ends of the weather spectrum with the heat during basic training and some snow and freezing temperatures while at AIT.”
Schrimsher’s road to Rio started in New Mexico when he picked up the sport at the age of 12.
“My parents wanted me and my brother to do something active when we were younger,” he said. “They took us to a swim team and the coach happened to be an Olympic pentathlete for Poland at the 1980 games. He told us about a pentathlon camp he would coach later that year. We both went to it and now are on the national team.
“The rest is history.” Staff Sgt. Dennis Bowsher
The modern pentathlon is a sport that involves multiple events, including swimming, fencing, equestrian show jumping, running and shooting. After multiple appearances in the Modern Pentathlon Junior World Championships, where
Schrimsher earned various medals, he made the jump to the senior division. He placed third in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, earning him a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the Rio games.
“I just want to go and compete and do the best I can,” he said. “I just feel like regular old Nathan from New Mexico, just doing my thing. I’m going to give it my best like I’ve always done.”
Bowsher, a six-time national champion, is looking forward to the opportunity to coach his fellow Soldier and motor transport operator.
“This is a great opportunity because I have been to an Olympic Games before and this is Sgt. Schrimsher’s first time,” he said. “To be able to share the experiences of what to look for will help him along the way, because the biggest thing is to make this competition as normal as possible so you don’t have all those extra stressors added on.
“Anything I can do to help, that’s what I’m here for.”
Both athletes credit their training as Soldiers for their success in the modern pentathlon; an event Schrimsher said was designed for Soldiers.
“Being a Soldier in a sport designed for Soldiers gives me pride, and the Army training I receive to be physically and mentally tough enough to apply to whatever the competition day throws at me,” he said. “Now, I’m taking all this to the pinnacle of sports, to the 2016 Olympic Games.”
Bowsher compared it to living up to the Soldier’s Creed.
“A big thing the Army teaches you is written in the Soldier’s Creed, ‘I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough,'” he said. “Training at such a high level requires you to be disciplined. With modern pentathlon, we will have three to four practices a day. I have to be disciplined in my time management in order to get the most out of each workout, as well as taking the appropriate recovery time in between each workout.
“There are days where I wake up and I am tired or may have a low level of motivation, it is during these times where I have to be strong. I have to get up and still put forth a great effort in my workouts. I know that in doing so, it will create a huge base of fitness.
“When it comes time for a competition, I will be physically and mentally prepared.”
Bowsher said he would like to come back to Fort Leonard Wood to be an instructor at 58th Transportation Battalion because he would be able to share his experience with the new transportation Soldiers.
“As an instructor, I wonder how my experiences as an Olympic athlete could be used to help shape the men and women who are taking the sacrifice to represent and serve the United States of America,” he said.
With the Modern Pentathlon covered by Schrimsher and Bowsher, Spc. Leonard Korir, also a motor transportation operator, has track and field covered as well. Korir makes three U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program Soldiers who spent time at 58th Transportation Battalion during their Army careers.
The Iten, Kenya, native qualified to represent the United States in the 2016 Summer Olympics with a third-place finish in the 10,000 meters with a time of 28:16.97 at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Korir, 29, won the 2015 New York City Half Marathon in 1 hour, 1 minute and 6 seconds. He joined the Army in September of 2015. He said he joined the Army to be a part of something bigger than himself.
“I was inspired to challenge myself more by joining the military,” Korir said. “I wanted to represent the Army in world class events like the Olympics and world championships.”
The modern pentathlon events in the 2016 Summer Olympics begin Aug. 18. The 10,000-meter event takes place this Saturday (Aug. 13).
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