Tim Medvetz

speaker

173 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2025 last heard Apr 2025

Tim Medvetz’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

No recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

We're Out of Time · How Tim Medvetz Turned Pain Into Purpose | The Heroes Project · 22 Apr 2025 podcast

I was doing all this like, you know, adrenaline sports. And then it was, I'll never forget it, November 11th, Veterans Day. I'm sitting at home, going through the channels. All of a sudden there's some kind of big thing going on, ceremony at Arlington Cemetery.

And all these injured vets are getting up there and they're speaking, you know, and they're talking about how proud of American they were and they're missing legs. And this one guy out there was talking and he was, they, their, their Humvee ran over an IED, fire. He was trapped inside the Humvee, burned them. He didn't look like a human. survived. And here he is on this podium in Arlington.

He's talking about how proud of America, American he was, and he would go back tomorrow and he didn't regret one day. And I love this country, man. And like, and he's sitting there, I'm sitting on my couch, like, you know, getting all choked up and I'm like, you know, swallowing and trying to like, you know, I'm wiping the tears. And then it was this boom. It was like the light bulb went off.

I was like, man, like maybe I got something to offer these guys. Right. So started making some phone calls. And then me and a buddy, we went down to Balboa Naval Hospital, which is like the Walter Reed out here in California. And I went down there and got a little tour and met some people. And I remember just having a coffee sitting out in the courtyard.

And I remember at that time there was 112 inpatient amputees, all 18, 20 year old kids. Missing limbs going by me in gurneys, one after the other, after the other. Man, it disturbed me. And at that time, I remember like the biggest thing on the news was Jay-Z and Beyonce going to Cuba. I'm like, why is this not on the, why are we seeing this on the news?

Like, this is like, I just watched like three, four dozen 20 year old kids missing limbs. Like it was just, it was disturbing. And I got on my, fired up the bike, pulled out of the hospital, drove up the road, pulled into a gas station, bought a pack of Marlboro Reds, sat on the curb and just like chain smoked the whole pack. Just couldn't believe what my eyes just seen. And then that was it, man.

I was like, I'm going to do something about this. And so I made some phone calls and I met this kid, Keith, stepped on an IED, missing his leg well above the knee, about halfway up his thigh. And I was just like, hey, you want to go climb a mountain? He's like, I got no leg, man. Like, you know, real funny, big, big jokes for you are. I'm like, no, no, no, we'll figure it out, man. We can do this.

And then we started training. And fast forward, we're in Russia on a mountain called Mount Elbrus. And we're about in the whole month we're on that mountain. All he wants to do is go back. I want to go back. I want to go home. This is enough. I can't do this. I can't do this. Come on, man. You got this. We can do this. We can do this. And then finally, we're going up. It's summit day.

And we're going. And he's just... His stump is blistering and bleeding and he just wants to turn around and quit. And I'm like, just give me like just 30 more steps and we'll turn around, we'll go home. And then he goes 30 steps. Okay, let's turn around. I'm like, come on, you got 20 more in you. And then another 20 steps and then another 10 steps. Just come on, five more.

Just go a little bit there. We'll sit down, we'll take a break and then we'll go back home. And then finally we sit down, we come over this little ridge line. We sit down, I'm like, just relax, relax. He's like, that's it, I'm done. I'm not doing any more of your steps. We're going home. I'm tired of this. I can't do this. And I go, look over your shoulder.

And he turns around and he looks over and he goes, is that what I think it is? I said, yeah, that's the summit. I said, get up, man. He gets up and he puts the leg back on and I take the rope off him. He said, what are you doing? I'm like, you're okay, man. It's like, this is a real nice, easy path. You're not going to die on. I'm like, this ain't about the war. This ain't about your family.

This is all about you. I didn't carry you up here. You got your ass up here. So get up there and go take what's yours. Go get it. And he took those last hundred steps and I sat there and I watched him dragging that prosthetic leg and he got to the summit and he threw his arms up and he's screaming and he's yelling. I did it, man. I did it. And he screamed, he's crying.

And I'm sitting there like watching this like all unfold. And I'm like, holy. And I had a buddy of mine, a climbing buddy of mine came and filmed it. And after he's going through this whole thing, I'm like, all right, let's go. We got to get out of here. He's like, I ain't leaving. You better get up here. And it dawned on me.

I was like, because at this point, I've summited all the biggest mountains around the world at this point. And it was the first time in my climbing career, per se,

that the last thing on my mind was getting up to the summit and taking that picture and going back home and putting the picture of me on the summit of Elbrus in Russia on my mantle and telling my boys, you know, oh, yeah, I just climbed Mount Everest. That was the last thing on my mind. Watching him take those last 100 steps, it just changed my life.

Okay, you're making me cry like a right now, so we're stopping. Okay.

Well, I'll finish it up with this. That was the moment. When, because you got to understand something at this point in my life, you know, it was boxing, jujitsu, skydiving, motorcycle racing, all these things. I realized that these were all solo sports. It's all about Tim, the mother Tim show. And that moment on that summit, watching him take those last hundred steps.

That was the moment when the Tim show finally died. And that's when the heroes project was born. Yeah. Dude, you are a hero. Nah, I ain't the hero. These guys are the hero climbing a mountain with no legs. That's a hero and serving his country. And I never served my country. I was in Hell's Angels, different kind of military. You weren't in the military? Never. My dad was.

Dad is amazing. So is that your dad's dog tag? No. It's Cronhart's fancy. Oh, Cronhart's. Hollywood guy.

I love that. It's part of my look. I got it. Everybody needs a look. Yeah. Anyway, so the reason why the whole Heroes Project got started, it was just my way of of serving the guys who served me because I never served. And it was my way of being a proud American and giving back to these guys because I never signed the dotted line.

Showing 101–120 of 173 · page 6 of 9