Adaptive Sports

In early November, all the eyes of the power soccer world were on Paris, France as the Halle Carpentier hosted the 2011 Federation International Power Football Association (FIPFA) World Cup. Team USA was primed and ready to defend their world championship against worthy opponents from nine other countries. In an exciting final match-up against England, Team…

By Lisa Wells, Cure Medical Anative of El Campo, Texas, Chad Waligura is the CEO/Editor of Able Outdoors magazine that provides adaptive product information and adventure articles for people in the outdoor world who have disabilities. By providing information on hunting, fishing, travel and other activities like adaptive clay shooting, Chad aims to bring the entire accessible outside…

We all can think of times when we’ve made a decision or taken an action that has radically changed our lives. One such time was when I broke my neck snow skiing. In a split second, I was paralyzed from the shoulders down and my life was forever changed. Another time was when I discovered…

By Amanda Sullivan, New York Metro Abilities Expo Ambassador I was run over by a car over four years ago, injuring everything from my skull to my toes. I’m still recovering from numerous traumatic brain injuries, have herniated and bulged discs poking my spinal cord, extensive nerve damage throughout my body and my right leg…

By Christine McMahon, Handicapped SCUBA Asssociation Perched precariously on the edge of a tiny, well-worn dive boat off of Little Corn Island, Nicaragua, on the western rim of the Caribbean is an unusual place for a person with a disability to find herself. This is a new challenge, I think. Looking into the face of…

By Carole Praxmarer, No Limits Mark Wellman, adventure athlete and motivational speaker, a former Paralympian and Park Ranger, will demonstrate his innovative climbing techniques and sports gear adaptation for excited Expo attendees in both Atlanta and Los Angeles. Then, armed with this know-how and outfitted in adaptive equipment, adventurers of all abilities will blaze their…

By Carolyn Mueller and Austin Bruhl, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago World-class wheelchair athlete, James Lilly, didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer when gang violence left him paralyzed at the age of 15. His perception of his own disability began to change, as he realized that his struggles and frustrations were experienced by others. He set…

By Sheila Radziewicz Take a moment and think about your view of sports. Many of us give little though to the impact of sports in our lives. Most of us have been involved with sports in some way, either in gym class or in a team sport or as an adult professionally as a job.…

By Mike Ervin, Chicago Abilities Expo Ambassador Doug Blevins was only four years old on New Year’s Eve, 1967, when the Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys in the final seconds of the National Football League championship game. That legendary game has come to be known as the Ice Bowl because it was played…

By Rabbi Sensei Gary Moskowitz, Martial Arts Therapy The more we move forward in time with breakthroughs in technology, the more we need to understand how to use and build on ancient wisdom as well. The Indian and Oriental cultures have contributed much to healthy living, rehabilitation and pain management. Martial Arts Therapy (MAT) utilizes this wisdom…

Meet Gianna Rojas of Oak Ridge, New Jersey, known globally as the “One Handed Lady Golfer.”  Yes, you read that right, Gianna was born with no fingers on her left hand, although you would never know it after 30 seconds of meeting her. But there is much more than meets the eye. Ten years ago,…

It seemed to happen overnight, constantly running into fellow co-eds on my University of San Francisco campus who were either a hot sweaty mess or all Zen’d out or both. Only about a year after my above-the-knee amputation, I considered myself very active and was ever eager to find new sports and movements I could…