Steve Emt has lived several athletic lives all rooted in the same foundation — a deep belief in the power of discipline and mental toughness. Long before he became a three-time Paralympic wheelchair curling athlete, Emt was an all-state high school standout, a cadet at Army West Point and a UConn men's basketball walk-on.
Those years as a student-athlete forged the resiliency that carried him through a life-changing car crash and onto the ice leading Team USA in wheelchair curling at the Paralympic Games.
Discovering discipline at Army West Point
Being a collegiate student-athlete wasn't on Emt's radar at first, but his academic achievements and skill on the basketball court garnered the attention of numerous schools — one of them being Army West Point. Already a proponent of togetherness and rigor, one recruiting visit was all it took for Emt.
"At West Point, you learn to do things right the first time, and if you don't, go back and do it again," Emt said.
The academy's standard was clear: Maintain a quality GPA, sit in the front row of the classroom, meet the uniform and conduct codes, give your all in practices and drills — or you don't play.
For a young person with accolades like Emt's and the easy confidence of the "big man on campus," the academy's early lessons were bracing. "They build you back up the right way. That place humbled me," Emt said.
The physical demands were obvious, but it was the mental rigor that reshaped him. Emt was learning precision over bravado, preparation over promise, team before self.
His first year in the academy was shaping up to be one of the most transformative years of his life, but a sudden loss shook Emt to his core. His father died of a heart attack at age 57. Steve was just 19.
"I did not deal with it the right way, so the next year or two were a mess for me," he said. "I decided to resign from the academy and go home to Connecticut, where I enrolled at the University of Connecticut — and that opportunity was just amazing."
A second chance at UConn
Emt arrived on UConn's campus in 1992 with another chance to play the sport he loved. He wasn't the highly recruited student-athlete this time around. Emt was a walk-on — unproven yet determined to earn every second.
"Being a walk-on comes with grit," he said. "You might not get acknowledged and you might not get the swag, but you are expected to give 100% in practice."
To Emt, the lack of guarantees wasn't discouraging; it was clarifying. The work, the effort and the resiliency would be his reward.
Before Emt ever stepped foot onto the court at Gampel Pavilion, he was called into the office of Jim Calhoun, then head coach of the men's basketball team. The conversation came as a bit of a surprise to Emt because it had nothing to do with basketball. Coach Calhoun, who also lost his father at a young age, wanted Emt to know that he saw him — really saw him.
"He didn't act like my father figure; he just was," Emt said. "He understood exactly what I was going through and stepped into that father-figure role right away."
This connection reignited something deep within Emt and anchored him. He began to excel academically and waited patiently for his shot — literally. His moment arrived during one practice session where the team needed a 10th body, and Emt didn't hesitate.
"I remember that moment clearly, guarding Donyell Marshall, a future NBA first-round pick, and refusing to back down," Emt said. "I gained their respect right away. They called me Soldier my two years there — never Steve, always Soldier."
The nickname stuck, a blending of the respect and recognition for the walk-on from Army West Point who never quits.
At practices over the next two years, Emt challenged storied student-athletes like Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie and Marshall in the low post. UConn honed everything Emt had learned at Army West Point — humility, persistence and competitiveness. The mentality was one he would need to lean on once again, as life demanded every ounce of resiliency he'd developed.
The crash
Emt entered 1995 a 25-year-old ready for his season year, but a poor decision changed his path. He climbed behind the wheel after drinking and was in a horrific car crash, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Everything was different. The identity he'd forged through his love for basketball, his love for sport, forever changed. The support from his team and his head coach, however, would remain the same.
He recalls wearing his Big East Championship jacket that night, but the crash ripped his prized possession to shreds.
"Coach Calhoun came to my hospital room and gave me his personal conference championship jacket," Emt said. "He didn't have to do that, but that's the kind of person he is — treating me like he would treat the All-Americans."
This support would once again ground Emt mentally as he grieved the loss of his athlete identity, embraced life with a wheelchair and accepted accountability for the night that forever changed his life.
How the student-athlete mindset saved him
After the crash, Emt decided he needed to shift his mentality. "Adversity is an opportunity to succeed," he said — a mantra that turned grief into action. The reps he would take weren't jump shots or sprints; instead they were therapy appointments, strength sessions, hours of painstaking work to rebuild his life. Army West Point's standards and UConn's uncompromising practice culture blended into a recovery strategy for Emt.
Emt credits the mental toughness he developed as a student-athlete for the ability to shift his mindset and get through the hard days.
"The mental part of sport, the discipline — 99% of it is getting your head in the right place," Emt said. "At West Point, you wake up at 4 a.m., get ready for inspection, you do things right and in the right amount of time. At UConn with coach Calhoun, you had to be ready to accept what was coming and go at it before it came at you."
Finding purpose again
Purpose for Emt returned in the form of teaching middle school math and coaching basketball at his high school alma mater.
"Being a student-athlete at the highest level prepared me for the day I was asked to coach high school basketball," Emt said.
His former coach, Frank Schmidt, approached him less than a year after the crash. At first, Emt balked at the idea — how could he demonstrate a layup or run a drill? Schmidt cut straight through the doubt, telling Emt that he was exactly what these athletes needed.
"You've got it all up here. These kids need that."
Emt delegated the on-court demonstrations to assistant coaches and captains, so he could focus on the part that mattered most — standards, communication and belief.
Emt spent the next 20 years coaching and teaching, and he enjoyed every minute of it. During this time, he also began his public speaking work, empowering audiences to become the hero in their own lives and sharing the dangers of drunk driving. It's a mission he continues to this day.
While he got fulfillment from seeing his students succeed on and off the court, he felt a void. That competitive fire still burned within him, and he desperately needed a sport to compete in. He tried wheelchair tennis, road racing and marathons — including the New York City Marathon — but nothing filled the space left by his former days as a men's basketball student-athlete.
"There were 17 years after the crash where I didn't have a sport," he said. "I'm competitive, almost to a fault. I needed to be part of something bigger than myself again."
Discovering wheelchair curling and Paralympic success
Steve Emt competes in mixed wheelchair curling at the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics. (Photo by Zhe Ji / Getty Images)
Then one day Emt was approached by a stranger on a pier in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. "With your build, I can make you an Olympian in a year," the man said, explaining that he trained with the Paralympic curling team.
Emt said, "I heard 'Olympics' and got goosebumps. But I didn't know what curling was." He went home, looked up the sport, drove back a couple of weeks later and tried his hand at sliding the large round stones over ice to their targets. "I fell in love with it right away."
The connection made sense. Curling demanded patience, precision and tactical evaluation, which he'd sharpened on the court at UConn, and the discipline that Army West Point had drilled into him.
"It was the sport I was meant to pursue," he said.
He excelled and earned a spot on the 2015 world team. Emt spent the next decade honing his skills — becoming a 10-time U.S. national champion, competing in eight world championships and representing Team USA in two Paralympic Games.
Related: Team USA Paralympians with NCAA ties.
Emt and partner Laura Dwyer enter the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games as the 2025 wheelchair mixed doubles national champions, ready to compete in an event that makes its debut at the Games this month.
For Emt, the medals and milestones are great, but the sense of belonging matters more. Curling gave him back what he'd been missing for 17 years.
"Having a competitive outlet is everything. It saved my life," Emt said. "Having this sport available changed me 100%."
