Seth Jahn

Seth Jahn

Personal information
Nationality	United States
Born	(1982-12-25) December 25, 1982 Bradenton, Florida
Height	1.905 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	211 lb (96 kg)
Sport
Sport	Soccer / 7-a-side football
College team	St. Andrews University
Medal record 7-a-side football America's Cup 2014 Men's
Updated on 18 June 2016.

Seth Jahn (born December 25, 1982) is an American 7-a-side soccer player. After High School, Jahn accepted athletic scholarships to St. Andrews University. After a brief professional soccer career, Jahn attended and completed Ridge Votech Firefighter Academy, then worked in emergency medical services at Tampa General in the ER and ICU. From Florida, Jahn then signed in the US Army in 2003 and completed Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training in 2004. Jahn completed multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan throughout his service. After leaving active duty, Jahn remained in the military by joining the Florida National Guard. In 2008, Jahn became a law enforcement officer for the state of Florida and later joined the S.W.A.T. team at Lake Wales Police Department where he served honorably for three years. There were a number of remarkable events of survival that qualified and made Jahn eligible for the US National Paralympic team. In 2009, Jahn was nearly killed on a parachute jump training when both his main canopy and his reserve parachute failed to deploy. After waking up in the hospital, he spent a short stint inpatient, and jumped the very same day he was cleared. In 2010, while engaged in combat operations, he was severely injured and was left with a number of injuries including a traumatic brain injury, five spinal cord injuries, peripheral, femoral, and phrenic nerve damage rendering him a hemiplegic for nearly six months. Jahn spent the next two years in hospitals recovering from his injuries with only one goal, to return to the military. The following month he was cleared from rehabilitation, he was injured and sent back to the hospital in a near-fatal high speed motorcycle accident in Tampa, Florida. Jahn briefly returned to the military where he served with 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne)^[1] before being honorably discharged. After the military, Jahn became a badge and credentialed special agent for the US government. Two years later in 2014, he became a US government security contractor. Jahn was injured once again in the Middle East, after being hit by shrapnel from an enemy rocket, Jahn suffered a punctured lung, ruptured eardrum, and another traumatic brain injury.

Throughout his life, Jahn has been an active sportsperson, competitively participating in sports like muay thai kickboxing, mixed martial arts, archery, competitive shooting, dogsled mushing, sailing, Formula race car driving, 50m freestyle swimming, 30 km cycling, 100m track and field event, precision air rifle, shot put, sailing, boxing, basketball and soccer. Soccer was his most serious sport, playing it on a high school, university and professional level.

Because of disability, he participated in military rehabilitation activities, after trying out and making Team SOCOM, he went on to represent Team SOCOM in the Warrior Games of 2013 as the Ultimate Champion.^[2] While living in Europe and playing club ball in Germany, Jahn was scouted by the US National 7-a-side football team. He got his first national team call up in 2014 for trials, made the final roster, and was with team when they finished third at the 2014 Americas Cup, and at the 2015 CP Football World Championships in England where the United States qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. He was a member of the team that participated in the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto.

Personal

Jahn was born on December 25, 1982.^[3] He is from Lakeland, Florida and currently lives in Tampa, Florida.^[4][5] He graduated from George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Florida.^[5][6][7] While in his 20s, he worked for the SWAT department for the Lake Wales Police Department. He also became a trained EMT.^[6] He enlisted in the US Army on September 11, 2003 initially serving in the field artillery corps before going into the Special Operations community.^[6]

A US Army veteran, Jahn did three tours of Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Army's Special Operations.^[6][7][8] He also served in Iraq.^[3] In 2010, in Afghanistan as the turret-gunner, he was severely injured in combat after his all-terrain vehicle rolled down an embankment, where he was submerged in water after engaging the Taliban in a firefight. The resulting medical injuries included spinal cord injuries, nerve damage, traumatic brain injury, displaced ribs, and severe damage to both his shoulders.^{[6][7][8][8][9][9]} In 2014, as a government security contractor, he was injured again after being hit by rocket shrapnel that gave him a concussion, ruptured his ear drums and punctured his lungs.^[3][8]

Since acquiring his disability, Jahn has climbed two of the world's tallest mountains.^[6][8] He has also fought professionally in a Muay Thai bout in Thailand, MMA in Europe, and has also driven a Formula One car in European circuits.^[6][8] He volunteers at the Orban Nursery Inc.^[9]

Jahn is 190 cm tall and weighs 96 kilograms.^[3][7]

Sports

As a youngster, Jahn also boxed and played basketball.^[5] He participated in the 2013 Warrior Games, competing in 2 team sports and 5 individual sports.^[6][8]

Playing soccer in high school in 2001, Jahn earned several honors including Regional Champions, Most goals/Most Assists/MVP High School Awards. All-County Honorable Mention.^[5] He played NCAA soccer for St. Andrews University in North Carolina.^[6][7][8] He got a NCAA CVAC All-Conference Honorable Mention in 2002.^[5] He had a very short professional soccer career in South America.^[6][7]

7-a-side Football

Jahn is a CP6 classified player.^[5] Originally playing in the midfield for the USPNT,^[4] he has spent the entirety of his career playing center forward for the National Team.^[7]

Jahn got involved with 7-a-side football through a military rehabilitation program.^[8] He earned his first call up to the national team squad in 2014.^[3][8] He represented the US at the 2014 Americas Cup where the United States finished third. Jahn's first US National career goal would come in the 11th minute against Mexico of the tournament en route to their bronze medal finish.^[3][5]

In March 2015, Jahn was part of the 14 man roster that participated in the Povoa de Varzim, Portugal hosted Footie 7 – Povoa 2015 tournament.^[10] Jahn was pivotal in the Americans securing a third-place finish in Portugal when he earned a hat trick after scoring three goals and the game winner in their last game against host Portugal to determine the third-place finisher in the tournament chalked full of world powers of the sport.^[11] Jahn also scored the loan goal against Argentina earlier in the tournament.^[12] The competition was a warmup for the World Championships that were held in England in June 2015.^[10] In June 2015, he represented the United States at the World Championships in England. Jahn sat the first game against Venezuela, nursing a complete quadriceps tear of his left leg, while team USA easily dispatched the Venezuelan squad with a 3-0 result. In the critical game against Scotland, Jahn would not sit again. Jahn, as the team Captain, scored the game-winning goal against Scotland to bring them out of Group play, along with Brazil, and into the Final 8, in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory. Jahn earned Man-of-the Match honors in the historic win for the Americans.^[13] In their final game of the World Championships, Jahn scored one of the United States's four goals in their 4-1 victory against Argentina that gave them a seventh-place finish and secured their place in the 31st Olympiads in the Rio Games of 2016.^[14][15][16] It was his first World Championships as a member of the national team.^[17]

In the lead up to the Rio 2016 Games, Jahn was selected to the team's full-time residency program, training in Atlanta, Georgia ^[7] Jahn was part of the 14 man squad that represented the United States at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto. There, the United States played Canada, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil.^[18][19] He was one of the starters for the team, where he served as a striker.^[8] He played in the team's game against Canada and scored the American's only goal of the game.^[19] Jahn took part in a national team training camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California in early March 2016.^[4] In 2017, he is currently one of three captains for Team USA.^[6] In Rio, though the US team played the role of underdogs, Jahn fought through injuries, and was instrumental to the team's success. Team USA quickly became a dark horse in their opener against The Netherlands, #3 in the world at the time, where Jahn produced the game tying assist with seconds to spare, to pull the US squad to a 2-2 draw against the heavily favored Dutch. Jahn had a brilliant assist and a breakaway goal against #6 in the world Argentina, where the US fought valiantly but ultimately fell in injury time 3-2. Jahn led team USA as they bounced back against #7 in the world Ireland, where Jahn had the go ahead goal in the opening moments, and the US tough squad finished the Games with a massive victory over the Irish in a 2-1 result. Jahn led the USA squad in total points with two goals and two assists for their best finish in the Games since 1994.

References