Millions of people of all ages, races and genders live their lives with some sort of disability. Many of those people do something amazing to lessen the impact that these injuries and diseases have on them by playing adaptive sports. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of what they are and who can play. Adaptive sports are all around us with events like the Paralympic Games (coming up in September!!!) and Special Olympics. They are played by thousands if not millions of athletes around the world, and they compete in local, national, and international tournaments in many different sports.
But what are adaptive sports?
Essentially, they allow people with nearly any disability (physical or mental) to participate either competitively or recreationally in a sport. Many adaptive sports are similar to common sports like soccer and basketball while others are unlike anything you've ever seen before!
Some common adaptive sports include power soccer, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. There are 31 Paralympic sports, 35 Special Olympic sports and many more played around the country and around the world.
To emphasize my position on adaptive sports I have a unique story to share:
It all started with a silly mistake. My brother, Anthony, has Becker Muscular Dystrophy. He’s been playing power soccer for about four years now after moving into a wheelchair five years ago. Three years ago, my mom bought an Under Armour shirt that said ‘Athletes Run’ on it. It sounds like a nice shirt, but she wasn’t wearing it because she ran-- only because she liked the pink color of it. She wore the shirt one day (because it matched her shoes) and we went to my brother’s power soccer game…she was horrified because my brother’s teammates and friends are all in wheelchairs so they can’t run but they are athletes too! She felt so embarrassed (even though not a single player noticed) but she had a brilliant idea. She snapped a picture of herself wearing the shirt in front of these adaptive athletes and sent it to Under Armour. She explained what happened and asked them to consider making shirts with ‘Athletes Roll’ on them instead.
A few months later, we got an email back from Under Armour’s Product Innovation Lab! They didn’t have room to take on a new brand, but they made my brother’s team, the Northeast Passage Wildcats, 'Athletes Roll' shirts. They told us the logo and brand were ours to use however we wished. This past spring we made new Athletes Roll shirts as a fundraiser for my brother’s team. But we didn’t just sell it to the usual fundraising targets (grandparents, cool aunts and uncles) but also to friends, friends of friends, some classmates and workout buddies (CrossFit Amoskeag was a big help). They sold ten times better than we could have ever hoped so we are putting together new fundraisers to continue to raise awareness for adaptive sports. We believe this can be something that not only gets people with disabilities interested in adaptive sports and that adaptive athletes can connect with, but also can bring awareness of these amazing sports to people who may have no previous connection to them.
I’ve been running the social media for Athletes Roll (going to events, posting updates, pictures, and videos and advertising ourselves and other like-minded organizations) since we started and it is truly insane the reaction we’ve seen so far! Yes, of course all of our family and friends are following along, but so are their family and friends, adaptive athletes around the country, and people in Brazil, England, and even Japan!
So why are adaptive sports important?
Adaptive sports are important for exactly the same reasons that sports are important for everyone. They teach teamwork and leadership and build character. Athletes learn the importance of practice and hard work and many form strong friendships with their teammates.
But adaptive sports are even more important because many kids with disabilities were not able to participate in the usual team sports growing up. Some may play until they are unable, but even when they played they may not feel like they deserved the victories their teams achieved. They may become managers of their teams or help out in some other way but there is nothing that quite compares to the feeling of playing on the field. This is the feeling that adaptive sports can give to people. They are able to go out and compete, have people cheer for and against them, and at the end of the day feel like they truly deserve what happened. If they scored a goal or won a game, they put in the effort to do that. If they win a trophy at a tournament, they can look back on the tournament and think about how they played. If they lost, that will motivate them to work harder and get better.
My point is that adaptive sports matter just as much (if not more) than any other sports. They are all around us, we just need to open our eyes to them and see what they mean to these athletes and their fans!
Oh and by the way, the competition is intense!!
