Beaverton's Dennis Connors has turned tragedy into triumph in his life beyond the armed forces

Beaverton’s Dennis Connors has a unique story, but at the same time he doesn’t.

The former Marine and war veteran has lingering effects from his time defending our country, and further effects from a stroke he suffered four years ago. But while still coping with the sadly common residuals from an experience many can’t relate, along with the tragic results of a compromising health scare, the 39-year-old has made the most of his circumstances, much of which he attributes to a sport that’s now taking him to Paris for the upcoming Paralympic Games.

“I had cycling as an outlet,” Connors said. “I started cycling for mental health reasons, and so I just continued with it and that led to competing, making my first team and going to Europe. Now, three years later, here we are.”

Rewind to the early 2000s. With the tragedy of 9/11 still fresh in his mind, an 18-year-old Connors was driven to the military.

While initially drawn to being a Navy Seal, the teenager was dissuaded from such due to his age and instead chose to join the Marines where he spent four years essentially working a desk. But in 2007 he was deployed to Iraq and soon thereafter worked as an intelligence collector as part of a joint unit, eventually making it to Special Operations Command. From there, however, the Marines wanted their commodity back and Connors thought it best to leave the military and seek something new.

The husband and father of two chose to prioritize his family as a stay-at-home dad, but he also started cycling with encouragement from his wife and as a means for coping with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Connors — like many veterans — struggled sleeping, being in public places, with crowds, and even admittedly considered suicide based on what he had experienced and was experiencing. The cycling helped with that. It provided him the camaraderie piece that he’d missed since the military, and that coupled with his family, aided his fight against the demons that came for him in quiet moments.

Then, in 2018 he started having symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. He thought less of it, but his veteran cycling friends thought otherwise and convinced him to get checked out. Connors said that he was lucky in that regard because contrary to what they learn in the military, veterans tend to keep mum about their issues beyond the armed forces opposed to leaning on others like they do throughout their service.

“When you’re in the military, everything they teach you is team-based, like, you won’t succeed if you try to be an individual,” Connors said. “But for some reason when we all get out, we suffer from these issues and think we can handle them on our own.”

A neurologist told him he presented signs of a stroke, which to his knowledge he’d never had. Then, in 2020, his wife noticed what she recognized as symptoms of a stroke, which turned out to be the case and ultimately changed his life.

“It affected me drastically,” Connors said. “I mean, my number one job was to be a stay-at-home dad. I ran around with them, took them climbing, would go fly fishing waist deep in water, but now I could never do anything like that.”

Connors had to re-learn even the most basic tasks, including walking, and all with young children at home.

Cycling became an escape from his problems. What was once an after-thought to the veteran had become a necessary and driving force in his life.

“What’s funny is, when I first got out of the Corp and I got a bike, I was like, ‘I’ll never ride this thing and wear lycra, I’m not putting that on.’” Connors said with a chuckle. “Fast forward six or eight years, and all my laundry is lycra and cycling jerseys.”

And it’s hard to argue it hasn’t been for the best. The 39-year-old has earned three medals at the World Championships since 2021, and this last year won the event, giving him five medals in six races on last year’s world cup circuit. That helped earn the world class para-athlete a roster spot on Comcast’s team of 16 sponsored Olympic and Paralympic athletes, all of whom qualified for the company’s “Connections Credit” which helps support their access to internet at home or on-the-go via their mobile device.

Now, it’s off to Paris for the Paralympics late next month where he’ll be joined by his wife and kids, parents and “hopefully” his in-laws.

And will Connors be nervous? To an extent, he said, after-all, now all of his friends and family who’ve just heard about his exploits will get to witness his performance firsthand via Peacock where they’ll be airing the competition live.

“It’ll be a little nerve-wracking because now everybody’s watching,” he said. “Before it was like, ‘what happened?’ And I’d tell them. Now, everybody’s going to get to watch it live.”