Dubai-it: Doctors said he’d never walk again. 12 years later, Sebastian Bates is training for IRONMAN Oman

Dubai: In July 2014, British national Sebastian Bates was BASE jumping in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. The lead-up to the jump was fine. The wingsuit flight was normal. The weather conditions were perfect. Then, disaster struck. “My canopy collapsed. I was still strapped into the wingsuit, so I couldn't free my arms to slow the descent. I dropped 50 feet.” Bates broke both his legs and feet. His heel bone exploded, and the tendons tore off his left foot. “At one point there was a real chance I'd lose that foot.” The doctors told him he would never walk again. He was only 24. Bates said: “Later, I was referred to the pain clinic. It's the Alamo of rehabilitation: they teach you how to live with pain for the rest of your life. Most of the people in that room were in their 70s. I decided that wasn't going to be my life.” He stayed true to his promise to himself. Today, 12 years later, 36-year-old Bates’ grit and resilience is in complete sync with the Dubai-it spirit to excel. He is founder and CEO of The Warrior Academy – the largest martial arts academy network in the Middle East. He also established The Bates Foundation, which sponsors thousands of vulnerable children across nine countries. And, in complete defiance of the idea that he would never walk again, Bates is also training for his first IRONMAN Oman, which is happening next month – he plans to complete a marathon run, along with a 3.8km swim and a 180km ride. Thinking about the 24-year-old version of him, lying in the hospital bed, Bates said: “He wouldn't believe it. I’m dedicating race day to him, the version of me who almost believed he’d never walk again. I'm not chasing a time. I'm taking him with me to the finish line.” Born from necessity Bates is founder and CEO of The Warrior Academy – the largest martial arts academy network in the Middle East. Picture credit: Supplied Bates hails from Somerset, England. It’s where he developed his passion for martial arts – a practice born from necessity. He said: “I was bullied from the age of seven and spent a lot of break times hiding in the school library. My parents put me into martial arts to build my confidence, and it worked.” At age 19, in 2011, Bates knew he wanted his future to involve martial arts, so he started a small club, in the village of Rode in Somerset. “That club became The Warrior Academy.” He has now been in martial arts for 25 years, even once participating in a paid professional fight in Thailand. But in the early days of the Academy, its growth was hard-won. He said: “There were no investors. It was funded by bank loans, credit cards and putting my own money back in, year after year.” When the accident happened, he faced a betrayal that forever changed how he works: “While I was lying in a hospital bed in Switzerland, my business partner tried to take the business from me. It changed how I build. Today, The Warrior Academy runs on systems and a leadership team, not on any one person, me included.” Anger, gratitude, and character Bates’ recovery progressed slowly and steadily. It took him two years to walk without a limp. He said: “For a long time, I was angry with the 24-year-old who jumped. Then, I realised the part of me that took the risk is the same part that refused to accept the words ‘You'll never walk again’. So, if I'm angry with him, I also have to be grateful to him.” It’s why Bates said he strongly believes in building character – it’s at the core of his martial arts training programme, which focuses on building confidence, resilience, focus and self-discipline. He said: “You don't get to choose what happens to you. You do get to choose whether it becomes your story or your excuse. That idea sits at the heart of what we teach children every week. A child who is being bullied can't always choose what happens at school, but they can learn how to respond, and that changes everything.” Even as he focused on recovery, Bates hired his first employee in 2015, and went on to write two bestselling books. The Dubai chapter He also made a decision that would expand The Warrior Academy beyond expectations. It was 2019, and it was time to move to Dubai. “We had grown The Warrior Academy across the English countryside. When I visited Dubai, I saw that nobody was teaching children martial arts with our focus on character development. So, we took the big move and launched here, to give expat children something that didn't exist yet.” The move came on the heels of his wedding to his long-time partner Vicky, whom he met just three weeks before his accident. They got married in Italy in 2019 and moved “straight to Dubai instead of having a honeymoon”. They arrived in the city with their daughter, Molly, who was born on July 17, 2017, “the exact anniversary of my accident. That was the day I stopped jumping for good”. Even today, the family still lives in the same house they first moved into, in Jebel Ali, Dubai, in 2019. When they arrived in the emirate, the business was making “a few