'Blessing in disguise': Metamora grad battles MS, excels in military Warrior Games

PEORIA — Allie Smith has two armfuls of medals from the 2024 U.S. Department of Defense Warrior Games , but the real prize proved to be the mettle she discovered through competition.

The Germantown Hills native and former Metamora soccer player is a U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant working as an avionics expert, repairing aircraft at McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County, N.J. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in late 2022, and her world changed. The Air Force urged her to try out for its Warrior Games team.

"I feel like (the Warrior Games) gave me a sense of purpose, allowed me to set goals for myself and have something to look forward to each day," said Smith, 28. "The people in my program have become family. They became my best friends. Overall, everyone is going through a different thing. Seeing how everyone responds to it is a joy.

"You feel like you are part of something again. You don't feel alone anymore."

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The games are an annual 10-day event with more than 200 wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans from the Army , Air Force , Marine Corps , Navy , U.S. Special Operations Command , and representatives from the Australian Defence Force .

The Games are designed to enhance the recovery journeys of wounded, ill, injured service members and veterans outside of traditional therapy settings.

They were held in June in Orlando, Florida, at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex . The teams competed in adaptive sporting events, including archery, cycling, indoor rowing, powerlifting, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track, field, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair rugby.

Smith won gold medals in women’s powerlifting, wheelchair basketball, women’s 100 meters, women’s 200 meters, women’s 400 meters, women’s discus and women’s shotput. She won a silver medal in the women’s 4x100 meters and a bronze medal in sitting volleyball.

New Year's Eve, 2022

Smith knew something was wrong on New Year's Eve, 2022 when she couldn't feel her dogs jumping on her legs.

"I was numb, I had no idea it was MS," she said. "No one in my family had it. When I first was experiencing side effects, I thought I had an allergic reaction to something.

"The base doctor sent me to an ER. They did images of my brain and spine and they found multiple lesions there."

There is no cure for Multiple Sclerosis. There are medicines and therapy programs to manage it, and some patients have periods of remission, but largely it's a relentless disease that attacks the central nervous system.

"I was in a dark place," Smith said. "For the last 18 months, I have not worked on the flight line. I show up to work but I don't do much. I was depressed, felt like an outlier.

"But I met with a medical advisor, and the recovery care coordinator told me about the Warrior Games program, told me about adaptive sports. I fell in love with it. Met so many people, great people, and we compete with other teams."

Smith grew up in Germantown Hills and was an athlete at Metamora, playing as a defensive-midfielder in her junior year. She graduated from Metamora in 2014, went to Illinois Central College and then Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and earned a marketing degree with the latter.

In 2019, she joined the Air Force.

The Warrior Games rebuilt a competitive connection for her.

A gritty battle in Orlando

Smith was among 100 athletes who tried out for the 40-person Air Force roster for the Games. The Warrior Games events are sorted into men's and women's competition, and with divisions in each based on an athlete's classification.

Smith won nine medals overall, but narrowly missed a medal in cycling, an event she called "the most challenging."

"Having MS and being out in the heat causes muscle spasms and fatigue," Smith said. "It was an 18-mile race and the course was 19 laps. There were 18 of us in the race. I think on Lap 5 one of the Army girls caused a wreck — took out a Marine, who flipped over and broke a collarbone. I rode over one of the bikes because there was nowhere else to go. I landed on my hands and tore them open. I was sitting there trying to put the chain back on the bike. I caught back up and finished fifth anyway.

"They had to tape my hands up. My coach carried me to an ice tank afterward. I love being challenged like that."

'A blessing in disguise'

Smith is now slightly over five years into her Air Force career. She has revised her original plan.

"I was pretty upset at first when diagnosed with MS," she said. "My plan was to do the full 20 years. Now I see it as a blessing in disguise. Aircraft maintenance is a very physical, demanding job."

Instead, her Air Force commander has notified her she will receive 100% disability at age 28, and she'll be retired by the end of the summer.

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"Going through it, I've been able to share my story with others, like being a mental health advocate to help others," Smith said. "I'd like to train for that when I get out. I'd like to keep telling my story and helping people. What would I tell them? I would definitely say, give yourself some grace. Take things day by day. At the end of the day you are a lot stronger than you think you are. Choose to power through it."

She can, incidentally, continue competing in the Warrior Games after retirement. They are staged in Colorado next year.

"I'll be there," Smith said. "For sure, I'll be there."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: 'Blessing in disguise': Metamora grad battles MS, excels in military Warrior Games