Jiu-jitsu champion seeking medal after sparring accident left him paralyzed
Eight months ago, Ben Kunzle prepared for the jiu-jitsu world championships with one last sparring session at the Fight Sports Club Miami gym. He wanted to polish a takedown maneuver he had performed thousands of times as an athlete.
But as Kunzle lunged toward his opponent, he slipped on a spot of sweat, and what should have been a clean throw collapsed into a horrific accident. His partner fell onto Kunzle’s neck, dislocating his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae. Kunzle lay motionless on the mat. He was paralyzed.
“I heard a little pop, I went down, I screamed,” Kunzle said. “I couldn’t feel anything. My initial reaction was that I was just stunned and I’d be fine. We have a pastor at the gym who trains with us and he ran over and said they were calling paramedics. The first thing I said to him was, ‘How am I going to pay for this?’”
After a painful ambulance ride to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center during which Kunzle could “feel the bones grinding against my spine every time we hit a bump or turned a corner,” Kunzle had surgery and was told by his doctors he would never walk again.
‘Fight again’
“How much movement I would recover from my shoulders downward they didn’t know,” he said. “I refused to accept the worst-case prognosis. I told them I would walk and fight again.”
In a remarkable measure of progress, Kunzle, 24, is competing in the handcycle division Saturday in the Life Time Tropical 5K of the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon weekend. He expects to complete the 3.1-mile race on downtown streets in 45 to 60 minutes even though he just started training on the handcycle one month ago, at the suggestion of his recreational therapist and with the help of Rafael Abreu, who coaches disabled athletes at Curtis Park in Miami.
“I hope to win my first medal, post-injury,” he said. “I’ve never had to overcome so much adversity to win a medal before. My body was turned off and I’m fighting to turn it back on.”
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Although he hated running as a kid — one reason he gave up soccer to focus on jiu-jitsu — Kunzle sees marathons and triathlons in his future. He’s regained movement in his shoulders and arms. His grip is still weak so he ties his hands to the cycle crank. His three hours of therapy per day includes walking with assistance on a treadmill, lifting weights and exercises for his chest, torso and fingers.
One of Kunzle’s jiu-jitsu students was Dino Spencer, a trainer at the Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach. Spencer taught Kunzle to box while sitting in his wheelchair.
“I started with small slaps and now I can hit pretty hard,” Kunzle said. “I’ve received a lot of support from therapists, friends and family. A lot of people with spinal cord injuries are left to rot. The key is to keep moving.”
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Jiu-jitsu training helped recovery
Kunzle’s 13 years as a jiu-jitsu athlete has made all the difference, he said.
“It’s not just the physical strength you’ve built but the mental strength you gain as a fighter,” he said. “You learn how to stay calm and work through a predicament when someone is trying to choke you.”
Kunzle took up the sport at age 11 because he was tired of getting beat up by his older brother, he said. Brazilian jiu-jitsu evolved from traditional Japanese jujitsu (“gentle art”), which Japanese monks seeking a non-violent form of self defense created in case they were attacked by robbers outside their temples. It combines the principals of judo and wrestling.
“It is Mixed Martial Arts without the punches and kicks; it is grappling with the goal of making your opponent submit,” he said. “It’s a sport where the little guy can beat the big guy. It’s a form of self-expression, which is why I love it.”
Kunzle graduated from MAST Academy and studied engineering for two years at Florida International University before turning his full attention to jiu-jitsu. He was a multiple-time state champion, ranked No. 2 in the world as a middleweight, won international tournaments. Kunzle was in the final stages of completing a deal to open his own gym when he was hurt.
In December, he received his black belt in an emotional ceremony at Fight Sports Club Miami.
“Everyone shared a powerful feeling that day with Ben as he fulfilled a lifelong dream,” said Kunzle’s mother, Tania Wilson.
She was by his side three weeks after the injury when they went outside for the first time to watch the sun set.
“I said, ‘Wow, my life is over. I peaked at 23. All that work for nothing because of a freak accident,’” Kunzle recalled. His mother told him a new life with new challenges was just beginning. “I realized I needed to think of it as a passage through the gauntlet — each time you receive a new belt in jiu-jitsu you pass through a gauntlet of your teammates who hit you with their belts, as a symbol of the obstacles you’ve overcome.
“Now I want to inspire others who are facing obstacles.”
Kunzle’s friend, filmmaker Carlos Joya, has been filming Kunzle for years, collecting footage to make a documentary on his fighting career called “I Am Ben.” Kunzle’s injury did not halt their plans.
“We pivoted from an athlete’s story to a disabled athlete’s story,” said Kunzle, who also plans to start a podcast featuring the stories of people with disabilities. “And now we may end the film with me pushing across the finish line.”
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This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
