On May 27, 2012, during one of his unit’s most dangerous missions, Marine Mike Egan took a step that changed his life forever. He stepped on a deeply buried improvised explosive device, and it took both of his legs. He survived because of how deep the bomb was buried and how quickly his team acted.
More than 40 surgeries followed. After he medically retired in 2014, Egan barely left his house for almost a year. Then he decided it was time to start living.
On Nov. 10, 2025 — the Marine Corps birthday — USAA joined Egan as he set out to break the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance covered in a wheelchair in 24 hours. He had trained for a year to beat the 113-mile record. By 6 a.m. on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, he had broken it. He kept going anyway, pushing toward 150 miles.
“It took a community of individuals to help me realize I’m not done,” Egan says. “This was a ‘thank you’ to a lot of those people.”
Veteran. Husband. Father. Adaptive CrossFit Games athlete. Guinness World Record holder.