Chris Santistevan, 33, of Gillette, is the only Wyoming athlete competing in the 28th annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games beginning today in Omaha, Neb.

The games offer wheelchair athletes a chance to compete in 17 different events. Santistevan is competing in five: obstacle course, trap shooting, air rifle, soccer and bowling. It is his second year in a row competing as part of the Colorado team.

"I just don"t want to sit around," he said. "The games are fun. You learn a lot from others, see different ways of doing things that you hadn't thought of, and the camaraderie is great."

Last year Santistevan received gold medals in air rifle target shooting and the obstacle course, silver in the 200-meter and relay races and bronze in the motor rally, a sort of poker run/scavenger hunt with trivia questions and clues. He competed at the novice level.

The obstacle course involves weaving through cones, going in circles, maneuvering different terrains and going backwards. It's a timed event.

Power soccer players put a bulldozer type blade on the foot rests of their wheelchair and use it to kick the oversized ball to teammates and into the goal.

For bowling, Santistevan will have wife Sheryl or stepdaughter Bailey Huber aim a ramp he rests on his chair while he sends the ball down.

Santistevan isn't really sure how he'll do trap shooting. When he looked at the Web site for the games, he realized all the competitors have two arms. But he shot trap in high school and just wanted to see if he could do it.

Air rifle is his favorite. He uses a .177 caliber gun given to him by Bass Pro Shop to shoot 1 1/2 inch diameter targets from 10 meters (33 feet) away. To get a perfect score of 10 on the target, he must hit a dot the size of the air pellet. The points drop the farther away he is from the center.

Last year he marked a final score of 367 out of 600 at the novice level. But the open level winner earned a 460, so Santistevan is shooting a little higher this year.

"It's nice to be competitive," Chris said. "Everybody's competitive, I think, at heart. This just levels the playing field to compete against guys with the same problems."

Or, at least, similar problems. Some have two arms. Some use a manual wheelchair. Some steer their wheelchair by blowing into a straw.

"There's always somebody worse off than you," he said. "But everybody is determined. Nobody quits."

* For more information on the National Veterans Wheelchair Games or to keep track of Santistevan's progress, visit www.wheelchairgames.va.gov.