Table tennis doubles duo James Segrest and Gabriel Diaz de Leon are part of a massive community of international para table tennis athletes, all gathering at The Podium in Spokane this week.

“It’s amazing how all these disabilities come together," Diaz de Leon said. "It’s very humbling at times as well, because you think you got all the training in and all that, and then you get here, and it’s like... It was..."

“Brutal," Segrest said.

“It is brutal," Diaz de Leon said.

Diaz de Leon has always been an athlete, but while serving in the U.S. Army, an ambush in Central America destroyed his vehicle. The crash heavily injured his spinal cord and paralyzed him, but he turned that into six paralympic medals, including gold for javelin in 1992 Barcelona.

“For me, this is the hardest sport I’

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