Melissa Stockwell lost her leg in the Iraq War. Now she has her sights set on the Tokyo Paralympics.

Earlier this month, military veteran Melissa Stockwell completed her first paratriathlon since the pandemic upended the world and brought sports to a halt. The Purple Heart recipient and mother of two has her eyes set on the delayed Tokyo Paralympics – but for now, she told CBS News that was just "thrilled to be back." 

"To have a race – everyone was on such a high, just so giddy being back on the race course," she said from Colorado Springs, Colorado on Monday. "This whole COVID time of training – it's been a year now, where we've been training in uncertain times. Will Tokyo happen? Will it not? How are we going to qualify to get there? But my teammates and I have continued to believe it's going to happen, we continue to get up every morning, put the work in."  The 41-year-old has come a long way to return to this stage. In 2004, the former Army officer became the first woman to lose a limb in active combat when an IED exploded during her daily convoy in Baghdad, Iraq – just a month after being deployed there.