Nick Roumonada is hardcore when it comes to exercise and sports. He regularly runs 30 to 40 miles a week, trains for marathons, and plays on a basketball team sponsored by the New York Knicks. It seems as though nothing can slow him down -- even the loss of his leg.

In 1992, when he was only 13 years old, Roumonada contracted spinal meningitis, a bacterial infection. As Dr. Jeffrey Heckman of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine tells Asylum, "The distal portions of a person's body -- fingers, feet, etc. -- can become infected and lose blood supply."

One of Roumonada's only options was amputation, and he was left with a prosthetic leg as a result.

Fortunately, he was able to stay positive with the help of his family, his friends and basketball. The sport has been Roumonada's salvation in more ways than one. As a teen getting used to a prosthetic, he shot baskets standing at the free-throw line.

"My friends would toss me the ball and I would just shoot," he tells Asylum. "You're constantly adjusting your weight, and that really helped."

Last year, Roumonada became a member of the New York Rollin' Knicks, a wheelchair basketball team sponsored by Spike Lee's favorite NBA franchise. Read on to learn how Roumonada adjusted to his prosthetic, and to hear about the physical and emotional obstacles he has had to overcome since losing his leg.

At the time of the infection, Roumonada was playing soccer and basketball, as well as trumpet and drums in the school band. "I lived in California at the time, and marching band was a huge deal," he says. "Not being able to march was kind of a scary thing."

Roumonada wanted to get active as soon as possible, and in order to get used to his prosthetic, he would watch people walk at the mall. "I didn't want to walk with a limp," he says. "I'm kind of vain that way."

So Roumonada began studying people's movements in order to perfect his own -- and he soon came to a funny realization. "Dude, everyone limps," he says. "Nobody walks normal."

With the help of Challenged Athletes Foundation, he was able to obtain a long-distance running leg. With it, Roumonada has run in the New York City Half Marathon as well as the North Face Trail Runs (endurance-running challenges across rugged terrain).

When Roumonada moved to New York City, a friend of his from Seattle put him in touch with Jess Markt, a paraplegic who is also a member of the Rollin' Knicks. He invited Roumonada to a practice.

Roumonada saw being in a wheelchair as a step backwards, but when he saw the team play, he changed his mind. "They're all incredible basketball players [who] legitimately can take a standing-still 3-pointer using nothing but their arms," he says.

Soon enough, Roumonada found himself devoting two days a week practicing in Flushing, Queens. "I had to take the Access-a-Ride [bus] out there," he says. "It was such a pain." But the hassles paid off when he got an email to officially join the Rollin' Knicks in August 2009.

The very first game he played was a blur. "We were literally on the court [at Madison Square Garden] for, like, eight minutes," he recalls. "I air-balled my first shot and I made my next two, but to be totally honest, somebody had to tell me that because my heart was racing." Roumonada's teammates affectionately called him "Rookie" during his first season.

Since the team is currently in its off-season, Roumonada is back to running. While his main goal for 2010 is to conquer the New York City Marathon, even more pressing is the NYC Triathlon.

In this grueling competition, held on July 18, he'll swim nearly a mile in the Hudson River, bike 25 miles along city parkways, and run six miles through Central Park. Whether Roumonada's Rollin' Knicks teammates change his nickname to "Iron Man" next year remains to be seen.