Bobsledding isn't a Paralympic sport. These athletes are racing to change that

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Will Castillo rubs sandpaper along the shiny steel runners on his bobsled at the top of a mountain in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"We're polishing the runners to make them go faster," he says. "Any little bit of friction will slow you down. When you're trying to race by hundredths of a second, you try to go as smooth as possible."

Friction would be a mild word for what Castillo has dealt with as part of a movement to get para-bobsled accepted as an official sport in the Paralympic Games. His own journey started in Iraq. On his second Army deployment in 2007 a bomb attack took his left leg to above the knee and killed everyone else in his truck. His transition back to civilian life wasn't easy.

"I wasn't doing anything with my life, to be honest with you. I was going through transition problems," he says. "The leg never really affected me, but losing my gunner and driver was really my biggest injury."

That survivor's guilt left Castillo depressed – for a while he fell into substance abuse. Then a friend connected him with the fledgling U.S. parabobsled team – and he found a new mission. After a few rough runs.