Adelaide para-athlete reunited with prosthetic leg
Related Story: SA para-rowing program sees athletes compete at national level
It's not everyday that you see a professional sporting organisation put out the call to help find one of its athlete's legs.
But when one of its own up-and-coming stars lost his prosthetic leg, Rowing Australia, as well as the South Australian community, rallied behind an Adelaide athlete in need.
Adelaide para-athlete, Jed Altschwager, went for a training row on Saturday at Birkenhead, before returning to West Lakes to find his walking prosthetic had gone missing from his bag.
Mr Altschwager had to have his leg amputated after a construction accident in 2015, and during his rehab he discovered a passion for fitness and a natural ability in rowing.
Fast-forward to 2018 and Altschwager is preparing to represent Australia on the international stage.
"I go through rehabilitation for a really solid sort of eight months and then I guess from there I developed a passion for fitness," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"From there I really got into CrossFit and there's a guy, Tim Matthews who is located in Melbourne, his job for the Paralympics Committee is basically to look Australia-wide for talent.
"He sort of pinpointed me, I got a call from him one day and from there, I really like the water so that's kind of how it came to be.
"I gave rowing a crack, set some personal benchmarks and it's been really good since."
So, how did the prosthetic leg go missing?
Mr Altschwager explained that his prosthetic leg went missing during a training session last Saturday — and he was reunited with it after calling out for help on Facebook.
The Adelaide community, as well as Rowing South Australia and Rowing Australia also helped to track down the disappearing prosthetic limb.
He said the leg he used for training was mistakenly put into another boat and ended up in the Adelaide CBD.
He described the disappearance at Birkenhead as "quite an odd" experience.
"I basically rowed Saturday morning on the Port River and that was the last session on water and then went to a session on Monday morning and my leg, because I'm an amputee, my leg was missing, the one I use to row with," he said.
"So it was a little bit of a moment there for a few days, I was trying to find it."
Mr Altschwager said during training a tinnie would follow the rowers during a session and his prosthetic leg had been put into another tinnie by accident.
"I've initially probably left it there, and that's kind of how it's all gone down.
"Usually we train at West Lakes … but we went there [Birkenhead] to do some longer stuff and basically … we had a tinnie that was following us, that tinnie was ours and they've put it in the wrong tinnie."
Leg amputated following construction accident
Mr Altschwager lost his leg following a construction accident in 2015 — while operating an excavator in his job as a construction supervisor.
The excavator tipped and while operating it he put his foot outside of the machine and it was crushed between the carriage and the road.
Doctors amputated his leg below the knee and two weeks later Altschwager started rehabilitation.
Representing Australia on the international stage
Mr Altschwager is currently training for the 2018 World Rowing Championships where he will represent Australia in the men's pair event.
He said he had set goals for the upcoming event and had plans to represent his country at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics as well.
"The Australian Rowing Team, the senior men's team, they train all together in Canberra, the para-team, being a little different, we're kind of spread out.
"We all go to the same world champs which is in September this year, in Bulgaria.
"To perform there is the next goal, then the next goal is to make the national team for 2019 and then again for 2020 and then obviously for Tokyo Paralympics that year."
He said losing his prosthetic leg could have impacted his training at an important time of his career and he was thankful that the South Australian community rallied behind him.
Through the power of social media, the community of Adelaide, as well as Rowing SA and Rowing Australia — it took just a few days to find it.
"I guess just everyone's support, from Rowing SA to SASI to all the community, especially on the Peninsula there where I lost it.
"[It was] amazing and I really appreciate everyone trying to look for my leg."
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