I covered many great stories in 2025. Asking me to pick my favorite one is sort of like asking me to pick my favorite ice cream.
But if you twisted my arm over it, I’d have to land on the tale of Randy Svalina of Laramie
Since starting out in the news business in the early 1990s (or the mid-‘80s if you count my college newspaper experience) I’ve covered just about every beat and every kind of story imaginable.
Stories of hard-fought-and-won comebacks have always been my favorites.
Randy’s is one such story. After a decades-long battle with bone cancer, he ended up losing most of a leg recently. But he wasn’t about to let that stop him, or even slow him down much, from working, spending time with his family, or hunting.
Hunting is a life-long passion for Randy, as it is for so many of us here out West in the Rocky Mountains and High Plains country. Even while he was still trying to adjust to his new prosthetic leg, Randy went out on a successful antelope hunt.
And more than that, he and his doctor are trying to figure out how to configure his prosthetic leg so that it can double as a rifle rest.
My conversation with Randy was great. He’s a man of deep faith and fierce devotion to his family, which I can relate to. And he’s blessed a wry, smart-aleck sense of humor that I also appreciate.
Let’s hope Randy achieves his next goal; bagging a big game animal with a shot made from his prosthetic/rifle rest.
One-Legged Laramie Hunter Bags Antelope, Plans To Build Prosthetic Rifle Rest
