Sylvester Flis was born on June 20, 1974, in Stalowa Wola. Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with meningocele[2]. In 1994, he moved with his family to Chicago, United States.
In December 1995, he discovered sledge hockey, and a year later he made the U.S. national team. Due to his lack of citizenship, Sylvester did not travel to the 1998 Winter Paralympic Games in Nagano. In 1999, he founded the RIC Blackhawks club team at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the largest rehabilitation hospital in the U.S. The newly founded team’s successes began with its first trip to a tournament.
In 2001, he became a U.S. citizen, which allowed him to compete at the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City representing the U.S, winning a gold medal. As the Paralympic top scorer (11 goals, 7 assists), he is named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Sylvester also enters the Guinness Book of World Records in two categories: for the most goals scored (7) in a single Paralympic event and for the most points (18)[3]. Following his Paralympic success, Flis moves to Anchorage, Alaska, to build a team of disabled hockey players there in collaboration with the charity Challenge Alaska[4].
