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Ordinary Heroes

Winners Never Quit

rising star in the Israeli Air “At some stage, I was at a friend’s He chose extreme sports. As one does…
Force, Dror Cohen was an F-16 wedding one night and all the guys were
A combat pilot and an instructor dancing, drinking and having a good From One Small Cruse of Grit…
in the IAF cadet school. He worked time. I was stuck in my chair, staring at “He who dares, wins,” says Dror.
hard and played hard. “I was born to them and sobbing inside, feeling really
be a winner,” said Dror, with the brash sorry for myself…” Again, it wasn’t easy at all. It was
confidence of a young Israeli, “like Tom a laborious and tedious process of
Cruise in Top Gun.” That wedding married Dror to a new reviewing the right sport, recognizing
idea. his precise disabilities and then tailoring
But then, one evening, on a routine his participation in that particular sport.
transfer to another base, his star came A new hope. Trying out new equipment, falling,
crashing down.
“It was then I realized that no-one wants failing, getting injured… and falling
The car he was riding in was involved in to be around someone who’s down. again.
an accident. No-one likes a loser. So I just shifted
focus. I stopped imagining the ‘what- But you can’t keep a winner down.
The other three passengers and the ifs’ scenarios and instead looked for the
driver dusted themselves off and walked ‘what cans’. I was a winner again!” Dror eventually chose sailing as his main
away with only minor injuries. challenge.
He knew what he had to do.
Dror couldn’t move. “Sailing is like playing chess, a real game
Dror had been a confessed adrenalin of smarts… and I just love the sea, the
He was paralyzed from the waist down. junkie before his accident and so looked wind and the power of natural forces.
for an outlet that could accommodate They define the conditions and it’s up to
24 years old.
his new situation. you to conquer them!”
Picking Himself Up
Down but not quite out, Dror was forced
to start a new life. He had no choice.
Well, not quite true.

“You always have a choice,” says Dror.
“Not about what happens to you in life
but how you respond.”

And after about a year of denial,
depression and defeat, Dror gradually
began harnessing his winning spirit to
reinvent himself.

“It wasn’t easy at all. Being a paraplegic
is a big deal but it's really the small stuff
that bugs you… like trying to navigate a
crowded sidewalk in a wheelchair to hail
a cab, or not being able to pick up my
little nephew and toss him into the air…”

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