He is a super man, his body the embodiment of perseverance — a chiseled chest from years of weightlifting and two prosthetic legs because he’s a bilateral above-knee amputee. And as Josh Pauls walked around a weight room Saturday morning, a rap lyric from his playlist blared: “I walk around like I got a ‘S’ on my chest.”
A St. Louisan since college, Pauls has won four gold medals in the Paralympics for sled hockey. And he is the national team’s captain.
“I mean, it’s kind of surreal,” said Pauls, 30, who is the only player to ever win four golds in the sport. “Sometimes I wake up and am like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is my actual life.’”
And on Saturday, after his workout, he played in the Disabled Hockey Festival at the Maryville University Hockey Center, navigating his body upon a sled with a blade under it, while eluding fellow elite players.
“It’s more or less a combination of hockey, cross country skiing and bumper cars,” Pauls said of sled hockey. “You’re constantly smashing into guys, trying to get body position. You’re fighting to get up and down the ice on the forecheck and on the backcheck. It’s a lot of work and a lot of our guys end up playing, like, 40 out of 45 minutes of a game. I’ve definitely played games where I said after: ‘I had three shifts all game — I had the first period, the second period and the third.’”
Over the past few weekends, disabled athletes of different levels and disciplines (sled hockey, special hockey, warrior hockey, blind hockey, deaf/hard of hearing hockey and standing amputee hockey) ascended on St. Louis. It was a testament to love — these young people playing their hearts out, these parents helping their children in and out of their sleds and heavy equipment.
And of course there were the national players, spread out among different teams. Pauls and his teammates are an inspiration to our nation. Yet we don’t see them play too often — perhaps you’ve never seen a game or even a highlight. On Saturday, I attended my first-ever sled hockey game. I’ll remember it for a long time, not necessarily for the score (8-4, Colorado over Chicago) or even the scoring, but for the simultaneous intensity and beauty of the play.
Pauls plays defense, but, really, he just plays. He’s everywhere. He’s Bobby Orr on a sled. Using a metal stick in each hand to propel up and down the ice, he was constantly involved with the play on the puck. He scored two of the four goals for the Chicago-based team. He cracked some jokes and shared some verbal motivation. He had some epic one-on-one battles with U.S. teammate Declan Farmer, considered the best player in the sport. Pauls wasn’t perfect, but when you play essentially an entire game, there might just be a mistake or two.
“It’s always a joy to play,” Pauls said. “And it’s just a really good group of people.”
As a kid in New Jersey, Pauls was born without tibia bones — at 10 months old, he had both legs amputated. As a kid in New Jersey, he was also born into a hockey-mad family. They loved the New Jersey Devils — on Saturday, Pauls mentioned his favorite player, Scott Niedermayer, who of course was a defenseman. Now, the first time Pauls played sled hockey, he hated it. But he gave it another chance at a later age and found more comfort.
He came to St. Louis to play for Lindenwood University. As a senior, he was set up on a date with Kate Yancey of Crestwood. They ultimately got married — though had to change their wedding date (originally June 26, 2021) due to a scheduling conflict with the gold medal game of the Paralympics world championships. He won the medal, along with goalie Steve Cash, the St. Louisan in his final U.S. game. And then he got married on July 3, 2021.
“That was a friggin’ awesome week,” Pauls said.
After Saturday morning’s game, Pauls held a seminar for disabled athletes and families in the weight room of the Maryville facility.
Pauls answered questions and posed for photos. He shared some stories about his workouts with hockey trainer Jeff LoVecchio. He pointed to the large painted words on the wall that said: “WHAT IS YOUR WHY?”
And Pauls showcased some of his workout regimens, from doing pull-ups to bicep curls to an exercise in which you’re on your stomach, arms reaching out, and you slowly lift your legs and arms. It’s called “The Superman.”
“The best thing about Josh is that he’s a beacon for other players to see where they want to end up in this sport,” said Lloyd Ney, the Disabled Hockey Festival event chair. “Obviously, when you look at Josh on the ice, you see just how talented of a hockey player he is. But you have to think that a lot of that comes from how good of a person he is. We have a saying in one of our hockey clubs — the person makes the player. And Josh is a really shining example of the quality of the person and how it translates.”
