Speaker 1: If you're listening to this podcast, we know one thing
Speaker 1: for absolute certain you are a fan of women's sports.
Speaker 2: And there's nothing better than enjoying women's sports with community,
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Speaker 1: the Sports Bra. Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Aja McCord.
Speaker 3: In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who
Speaker 3: are changing the game in and outside of their field
Speaker 3: of play.
Speaker 1: These are women's stories.
Speaker 3: Women who happen to be doing things that many of
Speaker 3: us us can only dream of, but the lessons and
Speaker 3: inspiration they share is universal.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Powerful Podcast, where we are highlighting
Speaker 1: a few of the amazing women competing for Team USA
Speaker 1: this summer in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
Speaker 1: I am so thrilled to be joined by our next guest.
Speaker 1: This is a woman who is making history this summer.
Speaker 1: She is a doctor of occupational therapy, a native of Illinois,
Speaker 1: and the very first woman ever to make the US
Speaker 1: Paralympic wheelchair rugby team. Sarah Adams, Welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for having appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the history because I want to
Speaker 1: get into your story and the sport that is known
Speaker 1: as murder ball for those who follow it closely. But
Speaker 1: first let's talk about you becoming the very first woman
Speaker 1: to make the US Paralympic rugby team. Since the sport
Speaker 1: joined the Paralympic Games in two thousand in Sydney, there
Speaker 1: have been a handful of women, but you're the first
Speaker 1: for Team USA. How did that feel when your name
Speaker 1: got called that you were officially on the roster.
Speaker 4: Honestly a surreal moment. You know, put in a lot
Speaker 4: of hard work in those last couple of years, still
Speaker 4: relatively new player, but very surreal, and then to be
Speaker 4: named as the first woman, you know, especially with everything
Speaker 4: that's going on in the world right now and in
Speaker 4: the United States, with the growth of women in sports
Speaker 4: and female and sports, with Kaitlyn Clark and all these
Speaker 4: wonderful female athletes that are finally finally being highlighted in
Speaker 4: the media in the way that I think we've deserved
Speaker 4: for a really long time, and you know, to continue
Speaker 4: to be a part of breaking down those barriers has
Speaker 4: been just a surreal moment and really excited to be
Speaker 4: named and head to Paris.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about the moment that is happening right
Speaker 1: now for women's sports, because obviously you and I have
Speaker 1: been in it for a really long time. It's been
Speaker 1: something that I've highlighted throughout my ten plus years in
Speaker 1: broadcasting and tried to, you know, talk to the Sabrini
Speaker 1: and Escuz, Satu, Sables, like the list goes on and
Speaker 1: on of the women that we've gotten a chance to
Speaker 1: work through. But what do you think has made this
Speaker 1: moment in women's sports so contagious, so electric.
Speaker 4: I think people are falling in love with our stories.
Speaker 4: We're finally getting to tell our stories, the human side
Speaker 4: of things. What we're doing off the court as well
Speaker 4: as on the court. And then you know, really women
Speaker 4: having the opportunities to elevate our game on the court
Speaker 4: and show that we can be just as exciting, just
Speaker 4: as competitive as our male counterparts. And you know, to
Speaker 4: add to that that we're joining sports that have been
Speaker 4: considered male dominated for years in saying no, we have
Speaker 4: a place in this space as well. And that's I
Speaker 4: think really what's unique for me with wheelchair ugby that
Speaker 4: is so significantly male dominated. We've had a couple of
Speaker 4: women's first here and there, and you know, even on
Speaker 4: TMOSA we've had a couple of women that have made
Speaker 4: the training squads. But to be able to really compete
Speaker 4: and show that we can compete at that elite level
Speaker 4: as females right alongside our male counterparts has been fun
Speaker 4: and really exciting, I think really necessary to show right now.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's something that is unique even to wheelchair rugby.
Speaker 1: It is one of the few mixed gender sports that
Speaker 1: we have in the Paralympics and the Olympics. So explain
Speaker 1: to people who may not know about quote, I don't
Speaker 1: even know if it's like the two thousand and five
Speaker 1: documentary was called murder ball, and when you watch it
Speaker 1: you understand why the collisions are fierce. So how would
Speaker 1: you describe your sport of wheelchair rugby.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously called murder ball for a reason. It's the
Speaker 4: only full contact wheelchair sport in the Paralympics. So we're
Speaker 4: in chairs that are kind of fully armored up like
Speaker 4: a mad mass and then it's it's like full speed
Speaker 4: bumper cars. So very exciting to watch everybody going in
Speaker 4: full speed hitting each other, flipping over in our chairs.
Speaker 4: Really an opportunity to break down multiple stereotypes of you know,
Speaker 4: people with disabilities, that they're fragile and we need to
Speaker 4: protect them. And it's like I'm getting in a chair,
Speaker 4: I'm going to go full speed head on with my
Speaker 4: opponent with the goal, like one of the goals being
Speaker 4: to flip them over in their chair, and that that
Speaker 4: high speed, full collision is really exciting for anybody, even
Speaker 4: if you don't know the ins and outs of the game.
Speaker 4: Certainly fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because with the wheelchairs that you guys are using, right,
Speaker 1: it's not the same kind of wheelchair as what you
Speaker 1: just get around in day to day. This is a
Speaker 1: battering ram like this is a full force. Give me
Speaker 1: like the specs of a wheelchair that is used in
Speaker 1: wheelchair rugby, in terms of the adaptations that you put
Speaker 1: on it to be prepared to go head on into
Speaker 1: whoever is in your way and try to flip them over.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's one of the things I love is
Speaker 4: the evolution of the sport. We can't talk about the
Speaker 4: evolution of the sport without talking about the equipment that
Speaker 4: we use. And it certainly started with something that looks
Speaker 4: similar to what you see in everyday wheelchair user using.
Speaker 4: But obviously if I go out on the court in
Speaker 4: my everyday chair and go hit somebody, it's probably gonna
Speaker 4: break my chair and myself. So it's evolved not ideal,
Speaker 4: not ideal, not ideal at all. It evolved to look
Speaker 4: a little bit more. I know a lot of more
Speaker 4: people are familiar with the wheelchair basketball and what those
Speaker 4: wheelchairs look like, where it's just you know, a little
Speaker 4: bit more base, a little bit wider, wider wheels, so
Speaker 4: we can do these really quick turns without flipping ourselves over,
Speaker 4: go really really fast, obviously in a straight line. But
Speaker 4: even the basketball chairs were falling apart and breaking when
Speaker 4: we were going full contact into each other, and so
Speaker 4: we added a whole bunch of armor to the front,
Speaker 4: in the back, and even on the wheels, there's some
Speaker 4: armor on there to take that hit because the guys
Speaker 4: are coming to really really fast, really hard, as well
Speaker 4: as the females. But you know, there's something about a
Speaker 4: two hundred pound male comeing full speed for you that
Speaker 4: I appreciate a chair that's going to take most of
Speaker 4: that hit, because I wondered, break on me certainly is okay.
Speaker 1: So let's dive into that a little bit more. The
Speaker 1: collisions that happen in wheelchair rugby. How did you develop
Speaker 1: the instinct to a like absorb that blow but then
Speaker 1: maybe even more impressively go out there and do the
Speaker 1: flipping yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I think something that's a little bit unique about
Speaker 4: my role on TMUSA and internationally is on one of
Speaker 4: the first female high pointers. So within our sport, there's
Speaker 4: a whole range of functional abilities to people who like myself,
Speaker 4: have quite a bit of function in our hands and
Speaker 4: our arms, so we can go really fast and we
Speaker 4: can catch and throw, and then there's people with a
Speaker 4: little bit less function. That's the whole purpose of the
Speaker 4: Paralympics is to give people with various abilities the opportunity
Speaker 4: to compete and compete at the high level. So there's
Speaker 4: a lot of strategy and being able to utilize those
Speaker 4: folks who are a little bit have a little less function,
Speaker 4: less arm strength, less core strength, and they're in a
Speaker 4: slightly different chair. And so a lot of our females
Speaker 4: that have been in this sport are in those lower
Speaker 4: function sort of defensive roles where they're not handling the
Speaker 4: ball very much. So I'm one of the first ones
Speaker 4: out there that is a primary ball candler for our team,
Speaker 4: and so the other team has to come hit me
Speaker 4: and try to get that ball out of my lap
Speaker 4: before I go score that goal. And I have to
Speaker 4: do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: My role on the team defensively is to go attack
Speaker 4: their number one player and their most functional player and
Speaker 4: try to get the ball off his lap or flip
Speaker 4: him out of his chair. And so I think to me,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a lot of strategy involved because I'm
Speaker 4: not I'm not a very large individual. I think it's
Speaker 4: pretty strong given my smart you are, but the strength
Speaker 4: only gets you so far. So it's a lot of
Speaker 4: the strategy in using my brain and thinking three steps
Speaker 4: ahead and really thinking of rugby as a chess match
Speaker 4: and kind of out smarten the guys. I guess I
Speaker 4: would say, Okay, we.
Speaker 1: Like that, we like the ability to outsmart your opponents
Speaker 1: in addition to flip them over. So I want to
Speaker 1: come back to just sort of how you have gone
Speaker 1: from a good wheelchair rugby player to one who is
Speaker 1: making this history. But first let's go all the way
Speaker 1: back to the beginning. Because you talk a little bit about,
Speaker 1: you know, just your athletic background and you played softball
Speaker 1: growing up. You had brothers as well, which you know,
Speaker 1: as an older sister, I definitely had a little bit
Speaker 1: of an impact on my brother's ability to navigate in
Speaker 1: the world because of the you know, sibling sibling razzing
Speaker 1: that I put in there growing up as well as
Speaker 1: my little sister. Give me a little bit of an idea,
Speaker 1: what was it like growing up in the Adam household.
Speaker 4: That sounds very familiar to Maybe they were simply rivalry
Speaker 4: going on, but it's certainly super competitive, very very competitive.
Speaker 4: Our whole family was my mom and my dad or
Speaker 4: were both athletes, really great athletes, and you know, a
Speaker 4: lot of people in our family are my brother is
Speaker 4: and so growing up I honestly played sports a lot
Speaker 4: with him. He's a year older than I am and
Speaker 4: playing on his team. So I was rounded by a
Speaker 4: bunch of men playing soccer in basketball and baseball and
Speaker 4: any sport that we could possibly get our hands on,
Speaker 4: and that's what our family did on the weekends, where
Speaker 4: you know, going to the baseball field or the soccer pitch,
Speaker 4: are all over the place, And thankful to have those
Speaker 4: opportunities and that outlet to be able to compete, and
Speaker 4: then didn't switch to being mostly with females until honestly
Speaker 4: late middle school early high school, and that was when
Speaker 4: things got were able to be really competitive for me
Speaker 4: throughout high school and then playing college softball for a year.
Speaker 4: So I can't even imagine a world where sports isn't
Speaker 4: a part of my life. So I think that was
Speaker 4: really important for me when we talk about the diagnosis
Speaker 4: with MS and I can no longer play REX softball
Speaker 4: and rec kickball and had that sport outlet to be
Speaker 4: able to play adaptive sports and reconnect with my identity
Speaker 4: as an elite athlete was everything I needed that in
Speaker 4: that moment and did I ever think it was going
Speaker 4: to end up being an elite athlete at the TSA level.
Speaker 4: Absolutely not, But such an honor and an amazing opportunity
Speaker 4: to compete at the elite level as an adult. And
Speaker 4: I've been reflecting on that quite a bit lately of
Speaker 4: what that needs to deal with, a little bit of maturity,
Speaker 4: more maturity under my belt and something that not a
Speaker 4: lot of adults get to go do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about your transition from collegiate softball player
Speaker 1: to then your introduction to wheelchair rugby, because it wasn't
Speaker 1: first as a player.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was actually I'd been playing one year of
Speaker 4: college softball, threw my shoulder out, decided to go coach.
Speaker 4: I love coaching to this day. I still love coaching
Speaker 4: and the mentoring aspect. You see a lot of that
Speaker 4: in the way that I teach as a professor at
Speaker 4: Saint Louis University. But you know, I wanted when I
Speaker 4: came down to Saint Louis for school for occupational therapy,
Speaker 4: I wanted to combine that love of occupational therapy and
Speaker 4: my love of sports and continue coaching in some way,
Speaker 4: And for me, adaptive sports was the clear way to
Speaker 4: do that, and so reached out to some local Saint
Speaker 4: Louis organizations and connected with our local wheelchair rugby team
Speaker 4: that just happens to be filled with Paralympic athletes. Were
Speaker 4: starting house for the for Paralympic Usain Wilcha rugby. But
Speaker 4: got to learn so much from them and being on
Speaker 4: the sport and film in love with the sport as
Speaker 4: enabled body before I even knew that I had MS.
Speaker 4: It just had all those components again, of the highest
Speaker 4: being collision, but also for me, it's kind of like
Speaker 4: softball when you get to know it really intimately and
Speaker 4: you know the game really really well. You see, there's
Speaker 4: so much strategy involved in thinking three steps ahead and
Speaker 4: using your brain and thinking to have the advantage the
Speaker 4: small advantages over your opponents. And that's what I love
Speaker 4: about wheelchair rugby and fall in love with as enabled body.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you were volunteer, right, and then you were
Speaker 1: training to be a coach when you got your diagnosis
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4: I started the diagnos in thirteen and then got officially
Speaker 4: diagnosed okin of sixteen. It takes a while with MS.
Speaker 4: They're ruling out other things. There's a lot of diagnostics
Speaker 4: that have to happen at two sixteen.
Speaker 1: So what were the first signs for you that you
Speaker 1: started thinking, hey, something's not right here.
Speaker 4: It took a while I had ignored a lot of
Speaker 4: signs to actually think I was a pediatric case. I
Speaker 4: was playing baseball when I was nine years old and
Speaker 4: got hit in the mouth of the baseball kind of
Speaker 4: turned my glove and then it hit me and the
Speaker 4: teeth came out, and yeah, so I think when they
Speaker 4: put those in, I got an infection, and that's what
Speaker 4: they think may have sparked that overreaction with my body
Speaker 4: which resulted in MS. So when I look back, there's
Speaker 4: actually symptoms when I was in high school, like some
Speaker 4: numbness in my hand. I stopped playing some of the
Speaker 4: sports that required a lot of running, like basketball and
Speaker 4: soccer stuff with just softball and golf and some of the.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: And when I was in graduate school, they talk about
Speaker 4: med school syndrome and people that are studying different conditions
Speaker 4: think that they have it, and I was like the
Speaker 4: complete opposite. I could explain away just about any symptom
Speaker 4: that came my way. But you know, I was in
Speaker 4: graduate school for OT and we were doing some assessments
Speaker 4: on each other, and my professor said, hey, that what's
Speaker 4: going on with your hand? I was treated for a
Speaker 4: hand injury for a little while, and then some other
Speaker 4: symptoms pop up that were clearly neurological that I couldn't
Speaker 4: really ignore. And that's me down that pathway of an
Speaker 4: MS diagnosis right in the middle of like all these
Speaker 4: hopes and dreams and excitement of what am I going
Speaker 4: to do as an occupacial therapist, And I was like, Wow,
Speaker 4: this is going to be a big life change. But
Speaker 4: I guess who better than an OT to handle such
Speaker 4: a complex diagnosis and all the unknowns that kind of
Speaker 4: come with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how how did you process that? In the midst
Speaker 1: of right grad school? Like you said, that's you go
Speaker 1: there because you've got all these big dreams and you
Speaker 1: think you have You're like, yes, this is it dialed
Speaker 1: that I'm going to grad school for this and I
Speaker 1: know this is what I'm going to do with my life,
Speaker 1: and like this exciting sort of clarifying step and then
Speaker 1: you get this diagnosis in the middle of it, and
Speaker 1: you go, oh, I might have to rethink everything. Like
Speaker 1: how do you navigate a life change like that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there is a moment of like what what now?
Speaker 4: But I think for me, you know, once you get
Speaker 4: through that denial phase, so this isn't what's really happening,
Speaker 4: and like, Okay, this is actually happening. This is your
Speaker 4: life at sports, if I can be honest, was what
Speaker 4: helped me with dealing with it. You know, your whole
Speaker 4: life in sports teaches you how to have an error
Speaker 4: or your way behind, you're you know, you're trying to
Speaker 4: catch up in the scoreboard, and it's just like this
Speaker 4: is this is our situation. Let's you got a couple
Speaker 4: innings to come back or you know, yeah, you made
Speaker 4: an error and now you need to make up for it.
Speaker 4: And I think that mentality of just like next play
Speaker 4: mentality is what helped me get through my MS diagnosis
Speaker 4: of like all right, next play. So I quickly switched
Speaker 4: to getting my doctorate, knowing I wouldn't be able to
Speaker 4: be a clinician for very long, and switched to teaching.
Speaker 4: And I've mean, teaching was always probably going to be
Speaker 4: in the cards, knowing I love coaching, I love mentoring,
Speaker 4: and so having a little sooner than I expected but
Speaker 4: a fantastic alternate for me. But Yeah, that sports. That
Speaker 4: next play mentality I think was so important for me.
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Speaker 1: something that I think doesn't get touched on with sports,
Speaker 1: Like we always talk about the lessons within sports, right,
Speaker 1: and that applies to right like. I didn't even compete
Speaker 1: in college. I was a gymnast growing up, and that's
Speaker 1: a sport that for the most part, at sixteen, you've
Speaker 1: outgrown your shelf life for right, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: even compete in college. But even outside of you know,
Speaker 1: those childhood lessons you talk about that next play mentality.
Speaker 1: It's something that I think in sports we always talk
Speaker 1: about like, oh, yeah, you learn these lessons, but here
Speaker 1: you are applying it in real time, in real life
Speaker 1: to something that means way more than any game ever will.
Speaker 1: Was that something that you realized in the moment, or
Speaker 1: was it something that as you've moved forward with life
Speaker 1: with this diagnosis, with seeing where it can go, you've
Speaker 1: kind of looked back and realized like, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was leaning on this sports lesson that I learned at
Speaker 1: twelve years old when we were trailing by two and
Speaker 1: we only had six at back, you know, six strikeouts
Speaker 1: left to get back in the game. Or was that
Speaker 1: something that you had to wait until later to kind
Speaker 1: of let sink in or were you aware enough of
Speaker 1: what was happening at the time to be like, ah, cool,
Speaker 1: I actually know how to deal with this.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think it's just so ingrained in us as athletes.
Speaker 4: The lesson happens over and over and over. If next play,
Speaker 4: next play, and next play, you can't moull on what
Speaker 4: just happened. We need to move forward. You need to
Speaker 4: figure you know, take what you've got and figure it out.
Speaker 4: That that has just become who I am and how
Speaker 4: I deal with things. And I didn't necessarily notice that
Speaker 4: that maybe came from sports until I really sat and
Speaker 4: reflected on, you know, when I was doing some of
Speaker 4: the coaching and now as a professor, a lot of
Speaker 4: my teaching philosophy is based on my coaching philosophies and
Speaker 4: just thought about what is the deeper meaning for sports?
Speaker 4: And our head coach, Joe Delagrave, has us to reflect
Speaker 4: on that a lot like you aren't just Paralympic athletes
Speaker 4: are what else are you doing? How are you allowing
Speaker 4: this sport to change your life and what you can
Speaker 4: do within your community and for yourself and your families,
Speaker 4: and how are you going to let it impact you?
Speaker 4: And that's been a huge reflection for me and honestly
Speaker 4: a part of why I love advocating for females and
Speaker 4: sports and girls to have opportunities because it's that, I
Speaker 4: mean sports and participating in sports and participating in competitive
Speaker 4: sports helps develop so many leadership skills and opportunities to
Speaker 4: fail and know that you're gonna be okay, and that
Speaker 4: you can learn from that failure and come out better
Speaker 4: on the other side, and so many valuable, valuable life
Speaker 4: lessons that I think we need to continue to have
Speaker 4: opportunities for athletes, any athlete, but for me obviously with
Speaker 4: my platform, for girls to have that opportunity.
Speaker 1: Well in the statistics show, right that a lot of
Speaker 1: like just the reality is less women, less girls are
Speaker 1: staying in sport longer than their male counterparts, just because
Speaker 1: of the opportunities, because of the resources available and things
Speaker 1: like that, and so I it's so interesting to hear
Speaker 1: you talk about that because I think that as an athlete,
Speaker 1: it is so important to reflect on the lessons we learned,
Speaker 1: you know, like I think about gymnastics and now surfing
Speaker 1: for me, and I think about the perfectionism that I
Speaker 1: believe is possible. That's one of the things that I've
Speaker 1: almost had to unlearn from my sport is that if
Speaker 1: I can get a perfect ten, that means I can
Speaker 1: be perfect, right, But there's also an element of like
Speaker 1: I have to unlearn that while at the same time
Speaker 1: lean into the lessons that I did learn that we're
Speaker 1: really valuable, Like hey, yeah, you made a mistake on
Speaker 1: this tumbling pass, but guess what, you got another one
Speaker 1: and you can do it again. And so it's cool
Speaker 1: to hear you realize in the moment of a life
Speaker 1: altering diagnosis that those lessons that maybe you didn't even
Speaker 1: know you were learning as a kid come into play.
Speaker 1: So as you move through this diagnosis, when did it
Speaker 1: go from Okay, this is a diagnosis that I have
Speaker 1: to learn to live with to oh, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this is a diagnosis that can actually get me somewhere
Speaker 1: that I never would have been able to go had
Speaker 1: I not gotten this diagnosis. To the point of representing
Speaker 1: Team USA.
Speaker 4: I think there's been a couple moments throughout the journey
Speaker 4: where it's like, oh, this, this diagnosis and what I've
Speaker 4: gone through can actually help me relate to others and
Speaker 4: help others, you know. The biggest one, the first one
Speaker 4: I ny of it, would have been when I was
Speaker 4: a professor started becoming as in twenty twenty one fall
Speaker 4: of twenty twenty one and utilizing some of those experiences
Speaker 4: to relate to my students and some of the things
Speaker 4: that they were going through and helping them understand my
Speaker 4: lived experience so they could help their future patients. And
Speaker 4: then I think everything from then, because that was really
Speaker 4: for me a shift in twenty twenty one of accepting
Speaker 4: my disability identity as a person with MS, as a
Speaker 4: person with the disability, and saying, all right, this is
Speaker 4: the situation. What are you going to do with it?
Speaker 4: What are the positive things that can come out of it?
Speaker 4: Not just my whole life is surrounded on focusing on
Speaker 4: my limitations because of my MS. Really, once that shift happened,
Speaker 4: everything is just it feels like it's just fallen in
Speaker 4: my lap. I'm sure someone I've worked for, but I'm amazing,
Speaker 4: amazing opportunities that just keep coming my way to be
Speaker 4: able to use those experiences and some of the stepbacks
Speaker 4: and some of the victories and share those with others
Speaker 4: who maybe need to hear that, hear those moments right now.
Speaker 1: So you said twenty twenty one was the year that
Speaker 1: you really went from like, Okay, I can live with
Speaker 1: this diagnosis or I can thrive with this diagnosis, and
Speaker 1: here's how I'm choosing to do it. Very fortuitous, if
Speaker 1: you will. I don't even know if that's the right word,
Speaker 1: but it's I'll say Fortuitists who have already volunteered with
Speaker 1: Wheelchair Rugby to now with this diagnosis, you transition to
Speaker 1: not a volunteer but an actual participant. What was it
Speaker 1: like the first time you went from volunteer and watching
Speaker 1: these players compete to getting in the chair and competing yourself?
Speaker 1: What was the thing that you were like? Oh, like,
Speaker 1: what was that moment like for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it certainly turned some heads. So a lot of
Speaker 4: people were double takes of like, wait, wasn't she the
Speaker 4: volunteer that was up and running not so long ago?
Speaker 4: And so part of it was that having to deal
Speaker 4: with some of that, honestly, and like maybe more of
Speaker 4: a negative aspect of having to help educate others people
Speaker 4: understand my transition and being open and vulnerable and sharing
Speaker 4: my story of how did I end up becoming a player?
Speaker 4: But once I had that opportunity to play and jump
Speaker 4: in the chair, and you know, it's kind of neat
Speaker 4: to have most new players, they don't really know what's
Speaker 4: going on out there, they don't know what they're doing,
Speaker 4: and so nobody really bothers too much with them. And
Speaker 4: so I was I remember very vividly being in my
Speaker 4: first competition, true competition, and I'm in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
Speaker 4: and on the court, nobody's paying attention to me whatsoever.
Speaker 4: On that nobody's guarding me. It's like, oh, it's just
Speaker 4: this new player, and it maybe to come three plays
Speaker 4: to be where's the girl. You need to find the girl.
Speaker 1: Find the girl. She's gonna be a problem.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So I think, you know, that's really kind
Speaker 4: of a rewarding feeling to have that respect on the
Speaker 4: court and have it so quickly and now luckily, I
Speaker 4: don't think I'm known as the girl anymore. I think
Speaker 4: most people as Sarah. But you know, the opportunity to
Speaker 4: build relationships in the last couple of years, both in
Speaker 4: our rugby community here in the United States as well
Speaker 4: as internationally, it has been a really fun thing to
Speaker 4: do as a player and feel kind of connected to
Speaker 4: the game in a different way.
Speaker 1: It was interesting I was reading after the Paralympic roster
Speaker 1: officially got announced. I was reading some of the articles
Speaker 1: that came out and Chuck your team captain. He had
Speaker 1: a quote that essentially went, you know, hey, you can
Speaker 1: see Sarah on the roster and be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe like she's the only woman for Team Usay, what
Speaker 1: are they trying to do here? And he was like,
Speaker 1: do not make the mistake of discounting Sarah as a player,
Speaker 1: because this woman has earned her spot and she's going
Speaker 1: to be an asset for us in Paris twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: How has it felt to almost go back to your
Speaker 1: roots a little bit of having a team of all guys, right,
Speaker 1: similar to growing up and playing with your brother. How
Speaker 1: has it gone? How has it felt to almost go
Speaker 1: back to a feeling that you knew and have really
Speaker 1: fond memories of as a child to now that's a
Speaker 1: part of your Team USA story.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And if I can go back just briefly to
Speaker 4: talk about that comment from our captain Chuck Aoki of
Speaker 4: you know that Sarah is earned her spot on this
Speaker 4: team and is somebody that you know, this team counts
Speaker 4: on has been really important to me, particularly if I'm
Speaker 4: going to be the first female name of this team,
Speaker 4: that I want to make sure that I'm somebody who
Speaker 4: is contributing that it's not just this story and we've
Speaker 4: got this female and she's on the team and go
Speaker 4: us and I'm sitting at the end of the bench
Speaker 4: all the time, you know, I work my butt off
Speaker 4: to make sure if I'm going to be named and
Speaker 4: I want to be named it, I want to be
Speaker 4: relevant and I want to show I think that's what
Speaker 4: goes towards showing that that females can really make an
Speaker 4: impact and be a valuable resource for teams, even if
Speaker 4: their teams that are often considered male dominant. So I
Speaker 4: think that's been a little bit of a motivator in
Speaker 4: the back of my head of not just trying to
Speaker 4: like prove the guys wrong, but to make sure that
Speaker 4: I'm contributing, that I was show the world I was
Speaker 4: chosen to be on this team because I can play
Speaker 4: rugby n yeah, as enough female.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: is So it's like frustratingly necessary in a way, right,
Speaker 1: because like you want to just be like, of course,
Speaker 1: Sarah Adam made this team because she is a boss
Speaker 1: rugby player, because she's going to help us win gold
Speaker 1: for the first time since two thousand and eight in
Speaker 1: our dream world, Right, But what do you think what
Speaker 1: does it say about sort of the necessity of saying, hey,
Speaker 1: as the first I want I want you to know
Speaker 1: I'm not a token. I'm not here to like check
Speaker 1: this box for you. I'm here to make an impact.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's always in the background, right, is that we
Speaker 4: know there's some people that are going to look at
Speaker 4: it and question why are they on this team? Did
Speaker 4: they earn this? Are they as good as if they
Speaker 4: were a male? Would they have been selected for this team?
Speaker 4: And I hate that that's how it is, but I
Speaker 4: think that's where we're still at a little bit. We're coming,
Speaker 4: We're on the upswing out of it, and I think
Speaker 4: that's really important is that people are starting to see
Speaker 4: us for the athletes that we show ourselves to be
Speaker 4: on the court and show that you can't question it.
Speaker 4: We're a good athlete. Whether we're shooting from the women's
Speaker 4: three point or the men's three point, we're gonna still
Speaker 4: compete and we're you know, show that we're valuable on
Speaker 4: that court.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I've seen the highlights. I'm not one who
Speaker 1: needs to be convinced, like I cannot wait to see
Speaker 1: you in Paris, But for those who have not gotten
Speaker 1: a chance to see you play wheelchair rugby, who is
Speaker 1: Sarah Adam the player?
Speaker 4: I think for me, you know, on a couple of
Speaker 4: our lineups that they can be on the court. It's
Speaker 4: kind of like hockey, where you have different lines that
Speaker 4: are coming on and off the court and that gel together.
Speaker 4: And fortunate enough to have gel with a lot of
Speaker 4: my teammates on that court that helped create these lines
Speaker 4: that are just deadly lines that are really going to
Speaker 4: be very competitive against some of these teams like Australia
Speaker 4: and Japan, and just fit right in with the styles
Speaker 4: of my teammates that have been on this team for
Speaker 4: years and years. Kind of molded my style of play
Speaker 4: to be able to fit into a lot of those
Speaker 4: lines as well. But I think I'm someone who's gonna
Speaker 4: go out there and be pretty fierce. I like talking
Speaker 4: in the court. So you see me talking a lot
Speaker 4: communicating with my teammates.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, is it trash talk or is
Speaker 1: it communicating?
Speaker 4: I wish I was good at chirping. I can't trash talk.
Speaker 4: I leave that to to some of our other players
Speaker 4: and our captain team team captain Eric Newby's pretty good
Speaker 4: at that. Soul at him the trash talk. But I
Speaker 4: like leading and talking to my teammates out there and
Speaker 4: kind of directing traffic really important. Chuck Aoki who's obviously
Speaker 4: our star player. He's in all he's he never leaves
Speaker 4: the court. He's just that good. He's that big of
Speaker 4: a difference maker. And so for me, when I'm out
Speaker 4: there with Chuck, I want my role to be to
Speaker 4: take off some of that pressure off of him, take
Speaker 4: some of that mental load off of him, and be
Speaker 4: able to carry the ball for a couple of plays,
Speaker 4: give him a little break, make sure I can be
Speaker 4: the leader on that court and communicating and directing and
Speaker 4: talking so that the Lions can run the way that
Speaker 4: they need to run.
Speaker 1: How would you describe your playing style? You keep talking
Speaker 1: about how you've sort of adapted to the players that
Speaker 1: are already on Team USA, maybe leaning into some of
Speaker 1: your own athletic background. How would you describe your playing
Speaker 1: style as a wheelchair rugby athlete.
Speaker 4: I would say my playing style cerebrale. It has to
Speaker 4: be because I'm not this huge, bulky guy. I have
Speaker 4: to feel a little bit smarter, play smart, like calm
Speaker 4: and methodical, which works really well with the offense that
Speaker 4: we run. The USA offense is run calm, methodical, slow,
Speaker 4: work your way up the court, and then our defense
Speaker 4: is just kind of balls out go hard, cut great
Speaker 4: chaos to the other team, and so it works perfectly
Speaker 4: into the type of player that I enjoy being. We
Speaker 4: have a lot of great passers, great hands out there,
Speaker 4: So using my soft ball background for a lot of
Speaker 4: the passing catching game that allows us to that ball
Speaker 4: at the court, but certainly keeping it high speed when
Speaker 4: it needs to be. You can put the pedal of
Speaker 4: the metal when you need to. But also understanding there's
Speaker 4: a lot of benefit for us and our team in
Speaker 4: the way that we play to like slow things down,
Speaker 4: keep things going out there.
Speaker 1: Describe to me how it feels, right cause, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm five for right around one twenty, same thing, And
Speaker 1: I tend to like if there's a game i'm playing,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care who's playing against me.
Speaker 1: I don't care what the competitive like. I don't care
Speaker 1: if it's all guys who outweighed me by one hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: Like I'm going in and I'm going hard. What does
Speaker 1: it feel like for you to have a collision that
Speaker 1: you come out on top of against some of these guys.
Speaker 4: I've had a couple. It's actually in Japan last year
Speaker 4: that I took out one of the main players for
Speaker 4: Australia and broke the front wheel on his chair to
Speaker 4: crashing right in half, which doesn't happen very often. So
Speaker 4: and I think it kind of shocked him too when
Speaker 4: I hit him and like ste that, oh, this girl
Speaker 4: will just flipped me in my chair. So it's a
Speaker 4: little humbling for him. Yeah, because it feels great to
Speaker 4: be able to It's a it's a key strategic part
Speaker 4: of the game to be sure be able to throw
Speaker 4: your hips into it and knock somebody over. And so
Speaker 4: for me, to be honest, it's just me being able
Speaker 4: to do my role on this team and do my
Speaker 4: part for this team, and part of that is going
Speaker 4: and hitting someone and hitting him hard and give him
Speaker 4: the wake up call.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I thought was so interesting
Speaker 1: in that murder Ball documentary was the reality that everyone
Speaker 1: is going to get flipped over and you're probably going
Speaker 1: to land on your head at some point or another.
Speaker 1: How don't tell sorry, mom, don't tell mom, mom, I
Speaker 1: was saying this podcast, Yeah, how often? I mean, I
Speaker 1: explain to somebody who has never been in one of
Speaker 1: these collisions, what does it feel like?
Speaker 4: To be honest, I say, the chair plays most of
Speaker 4: it most of the time. I mean it's really you
Speaker 4: feel like rattle through your whole body when you're hitting
Speaker 4: so many poll speed head on and when you flip over. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's there's been a lot of injuries, concussions and fingers
Speaker 4: getting jammed and.
Speaker 1: Hit, and it's it's a little brutal.
Speaker 4: It becomes a bit of a punching match, so you're
Speaker 4: technically not supposed to. It's a foul if you touch
Speaker 4: the body of the other person. So they can like
Speaker 4: try to get the ball out of my lap, but
Speaker 4: if they're grabbing and yanking on my arms, that's a foul.
Speaker 4: But you could imagine, and I like that they do this,
Speaker 4: But the referees kind of play it like hockey rules.
Speaker 4: We wan't think aim to keep going. We don't want
Speaker 4: to have to blow in the whistle and putting someone
Speaker 4: in the penalty box all the time, so they let
Speaker 4: a lot of things go and that means getting you know,
Speaker 4: punched in the face and hit, and to me, it
Speaker 4: just kind of fuels that fire. I have a very like,
Speaker 4: don't tell me what I can't do type of mentality,
Speaker 4: and and go out there and play fiercely and throw
Speaker 4: a couple of punches back every day.
Speaker 1: It, Yes, we would throw a couple of punches back.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to see that. So I told you
Speaker 1: that Paralympics. Obviously, wheelchair rugby got added to the roster
Speaker 1: in two thousand. Since then, Team USA has meddled at
Speaker 1: every single games, but has not won gold since Beijing.
Speaker 1: What is it going to take for this team twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four in Paris to get back to the top
Speaker 1: of that metal stand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a couple veterans on this team, six of
Speaker 4: them that have been to several of those where they're
Speaker 4: this close and getting silver. And I can't even imagine
Speaker 4: the heartbreak of working that hard, honestly, not just that year,
Speaker 4: but for four years leading into it, all the work
Speaker 4: that you put in and to come up short. And
Speaker 4: I think the sting of a lot of that is
Speaker 4: part of what's fueling it. There's a lot of veterans
Speaker 4: that this may be their last year and wanting to
Speaker 4: kind of come out on top before they head out.
Speaker 4: But I also just think right now we have a
Speaker 4: brand new coach, head coach Jo del Grade that took
Speaker 4: over after Tokyo. He was a player, phenomenal player, for
Speaker 4: the team and is now our coach in just a
Speaker 4: brilliant rugby mind that is implementing some new things that
Speaker 4: the rugby world has never seen before. And I think
Speaker 4: it's it's a winning recipe and everybody's bought in the
Speaker 4: entire team absolutely run through a brick wall for that
Speaker 4: guy and what his strategy and tactics are in the plan.
Speaker 4: And some great leaders with Chuck Aok and Eric newb
Speaker 4: our team captains that are helping kind of facilitate not
Speaker 4: only that plan, but the team culture as well. One
Speaker 4: that's just we're in this together. We're going to put
Speaker 4: the work in off the court, build the relationships, study
Speaker 4: the game, come out being, you know, a really cerebral
Speaker 4: team as one that that's going to be the key
Speaker 4: to beating some of these other teams that work off
Speaker 4: a brute force.
Speaker 1: So you think this is the year, This could be
Speaker 1: the one that Team USA gets.
Speaker 4: Back all the pieces of the puzzler there. We just
Speaker 4: need to kind of keep it together. It's five games
Speaker 4: in five days, which is a lot. It's a lot
Speaker 4: for our bodies to take, that's a lot for our
Speaker 4: minds to have to you know, get through one game
Speaker 4: and then switch to a opponent, and a lot of
Speaker 4: that prep happens now so that we can make sure
Speaker 4: during the games we can kind of take a mental
Speaker 4: break for a little bit and then just jump right
Speaker 4: back in. But I think all the pieces are absolutely
Speaker 4: there if we just stick to our game plan and
Speaker 4: support each other through the mistakes that are are bound
Speaker 4: to happen and quickly recover.
Speaker 1: And like I said, neality, yeah, exactly awesome. We're gonna
Speaker 1: switch heres now on the podcast because like remote, this
Speaker 1: podcast is, the media partner is the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon,
Speaker 1: and so there's gonna be a power brunch on the
Speaker 1: Sunday before this episode drops worldwide, and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: in person in Portland. So one of the things that
Speaker 1: we ask each guest is for your favorite cocktail or mocktail,
Speaker 1: because that is going to be the featured drink at
Speaker 1: the Bra the week of your episode.
Speaker 4: Okay, first off, love a good brunch. Maybe one of
Speaker 4: my favorites.
Speaker 1: On a Sunday power brunch, right or even better?
Speaker 4: Yeah, but if we're talking at a brunch, favorite one
Speaker 4: is the Bloody Mary.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're not talking.
Speaker 4: Don't stack it high with the whole bunch a fluff,
Speaker 4: Like I just want a good, solid, spicy, bloody mary. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what is without fluff?
Speaker 4: Well, there's some that they start adding, like cheeseburgers and
Speaker 4: hot fun things that are coming out the top, like
Speaker 4: we just I don't want the food, I want to
Speaker 4: I want the drink.
Speaker 1: I just want the drink. Okay. So if it's a
Speaker 1: bunch cog and what if it's a right, what if
Speaker 1: it's an everyday cocktail?
Speaker 4: Yeah, a regular coctile known for for enjoying Bourbon, big
Speaker 4: fourbon whiskey myself. Yeah, i'd say straight most of the time,
Speaker 4: but a good Manhattan every now and then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I like it. Okay, So we'll work that
Speaker 1: into the sports Brad the week of this episode. So
Speaker 1: now we'll do quick rapid fire questions, okay, And I
Speaker 1: will tell you that if we do this actually rapid fire,
Speaker 1: it'll be the first time all season because I tend
Speaker 1: to love the story of the answer of the rapid fire.
Speaker 1: So we'll see how this goes. Okay, short answer, yep, yep,
Speaker 1: short answer, because otherwise your girl's gonna want to know
Speaker 1: all the background, all the history.
Speaker 4: And if we did there it's fine.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: I like a little long winded at time, so I'll
Speaker 4: try to restrain myself.
Speaker 1: No, listen, this is it's fine. It's fine. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get through it. Okay. Coffee or tea.
Speaker 4: Coffee, gotta have the caffeine with or without creamer black.
Speaker 4: You never know when you're gonna have cream availables black.
Speaker 1: I really wish I could get behind that. Here we
Speaker 1: go story. I can't do it without creamer. It's it's
Speaker 1: one of my it's one of my vices. Okay, favorite
Speaker 1: ice cream. Okay, we'll work on it.
Speaker 4: Favorite ice cream flavor, mid chocolate chit. Put it in
Speaker 4: all my protein shakes. Eat it all the time.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, go to meal before or after playing wheelchair Rugby.
Speaker 4: Peanut butter and jelly. We actually have like a staff
Speaker 4: member that just constantly making peanut butter and jelly is
Speaker 4: the entire competition. I don't know how many we go through,
Speaker 4: but we should count sometime.
Speaker 1: Okay, you do that count for me. I want to
Speaker 1: know how many you go through? Are you a night
Speaker 1: owl and early bird?
Speaker 4: Night owl?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Night owl? Okay, where's your favorite place that your sport
Speaker 1: has taken.
Speaker 4: You We're just in Cardiff in Wales. It's pretty amazing,
Speaker 4: beautiful town, beautiful like castles and churches and yeah, weather
Speaker 4: it was, I mean still cold and windy we're in whales,
Speaker 4: but beautiful awesome.
Speaker 1: If you were not a wheelchair rugby paralympian, what sport
Speaker 1: would you want to be competing in?
Speaker 4: I so badly want to try bob sudding. So if
Speaker 4: anybody has a hookup, I would absolutely I gotta be
Speaker 4: in the front, like we're not. There's no running to
Speaker 4: get in because we won't want in the front steering.
Speaker 4: I think they steer in the front too, solo.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, okay, So we're putting that out in the universe.
Speaker 1: We're going from we're going to do, We're gonna do
Speaker 1: summer and winter athlete. It wouldn't be the first, but
Speaker 1: that would be unique to be wheelchair rugby and bob sled. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well I needed to be winter because I got to
Speaker 4: stick with the rugby short summer.
Speaker 1: So exactly. So we love Okay, cross train, cross training,
Speaker 1: oh for sure, cerebral, but the front of the bob
Speaker 1: slid it seems cerebral. If you're asking me. I grew
Speaker 1: up in San Diego and I don't know anything about
Speaker 1: it like much at all, but that's mine.
Speaker 4: Anything with the ball is just go fast. I'm here
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 1: That's your thing.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is your favorite dessert?
Speaker 4: You gotta be honest, No people want to this. I
Speaker 4: don't really like desserts that much. I could go with
Speaker 4: other than yeah, with the shakes, okay now, but every
Speaker 4: now and then do just like a warm brownie with
Speaker 4: Vanilae me on top. Something about that warm cold como.
Speaker 1: And the gooiness. Yeah, it just has to be a
Speaker 1: gooey brownie very much. So I'm with you, language, very
Speaker 1: with you, all right. What is your dream vacation.
Speaker 4: Spot anywhere on a beach? Give me warm, relaxed, no decisions.
Speaker 4: That's my big one vacation. I want to make no decisions.
Speaker 1: I do think. Have you tried surfing yet?
Speaker 4: I have not tried surfing. I absolutely would, though.
Speaker 1: I think that's the next one. I think. I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna do that. I think we're gonna get you
Speaker 1: to my hometown of San Diego exactly, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna get Elena Nichols out there, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get you We're gonna get you surfing, because if you
Speaker 1: like going fast, nothing's better than going fast and not
Speaker 1: having to do anything to go for you. Come on,
Speaker 1: this is next Okay, you go in the gold. Then
Speaker 1: we'll meet you in Syan. We'll have a surf session.
Speaker 2: Yea.
Speaker 1: What is the best piece of advice you have ever gotten?
Speaker 4: Just keep moving forward, even when you can't see the
Speaker 4: full picture of things. You don't know what's coming down
Speaker 4: the road. Just take that next step and then go
Speaker 4: from there. Make a decision.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about the collisions that happened
Speaker 1: in wheelchair rugby. What is the wildest mishaf you have
Speaker 1: ever had while playing your sport?
Speaker 4: Wildest mishaf?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 4: I mean trying to.
Speaker 1: Make it not be like most dangerous. Try to yeah,
Speaker 1: try to eat the language there a little bit.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I still have a mother who every
Speaker 4: time I get go down, she makes me when I
Speaker 4: come up and it's being televised, to give her the
Speaker 4: thumbs up that I'm.
Speaker 1: Okay abby wand vac used to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, if that's all I got to do to
Speaker 4: keep mom happy, then we're probably doing okay. I think
Speaker 4: my biggest rugby mishaf though would be early on in
Speaker 4: my career, and thank god it was just in a
Speaker 4: training session, but I got the ball and sport in
Speaker 4: the wrong goal and I to this day, anytime that
Speaker 4: we at halftime, my teammates are like, there were is
Speaker 4: going that way. It's been years and it's still fair.
Speaker 4: We're scoring that way.
Speaker 1: Oh no, we love a mistake that won't get let go.
Speaker 1: Yeah okay, So when you're in the huddle in Paris
Speaker 1: and we're watching and your entire team is pointing at
Speaker 1: the goal that you're scoring.
Speaker 4: That's them. Give me a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, duly noted. And then the last thing for
Speaker 1: you two part question, what does powerful mean to you?
Speaker 4: I think it's finding that one activity or many activities
Speaker 4: that just make you feel comfortable in your own skin
Speaker 4: and confident and excited and passionate and like just can't
Speaker 4: wait to get back to doing it. And for me,
Speaker 4: you know, that's being on the rugby court, like I
Speaker 4: just feel so confident and everything just will feel so
Speaker 4: smooth and easy and fun and challenging in all the
Speaker 4: right ways. And yeah, I think to me that's what
Speaker 4: that powerful means.
Speaker 1: So you kind of answered that the second part of
Speaker 1: that question. But when is the time that you feel
Speaker 1: the most powerful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I said, either being on the rugby court,
Speaker 4: when I'm teaching my students too. It's just like that
Speaker 4: everything kind of connects where you just feel really prepared.
Speaker 4: You know, this is what you're good at. You found
Speaker 4: the thing you love doing, the thing that you are
Speaker 4: passionate and excited about, and you can see it, and
Speaker 4: you know, I can feel it in myself when it happens,
Speaker 4: and I love seeing it in others as well, when
Speaker 4: they find that one thing that they're just like, this
Speaker 4: is this is my jam, this is what I love doing,
Speaker 4: this is what I'm really good at, and you kind
Speaker 4: of get in that flow. State's exciting.
Speaker 1: What do you want people to know about the Paralympic
Speaker 1: movement coming into twenty twenty four?
Speaker 4: I think you know, the Paralympic movement continues to grow
Speaker 4: in popularity and visibility. We've got a lot more work
Speaker 4: to do, but for people to see us as elite athletes,
Speaker 4: elite athletes that are no different than our Olympic counterparts.
Speaker 4: We are all training extremely hard to compete in our sport.
Speaker 4: It's just yes, our sport looks different than what people
Speaker 4: are used to seeing, but they're just as exciting to
Speaker 4: watch and to fall in with. And I think the
Speaker 4: more visibility that we can have and support, we know
Speaker 4: people are going to fall in love with our stories.
Speaker 4: We know people are going to fall in love with
Speaker 4: our sports. We just need the opportunity to tell those stories.
Speaker 4: And I think that's what's happening in the media today
Speaker 4: is more opportunities, more visibility, and it's important beyond just
Speaker 4: us that are currently as athletes, as para athletes. It's
Speaker 4: for the higher meaning of It is for the kid
Speaker 4: that just had a spinal cord injury and is in
Speaker 4: rehab it's twenty two years old and things, what am
Speaker 4: I going to do with my life? What now? Or
Speaker 4: the parent who has a three year old with fina
Speaker 4: bifida and it doesn't know what their future is going
Speaker 4: to look like? What are they going to do to
Speaker 4: be able to see this route of adaptive sports that
Speaker 4: can reconnect you with some level of what we know
Speaker 4: as normalcy and something to be passionate about and strive for,
Speaker 4: and the lessons that you can learn from being able
Speaker 4: to participate in the adaptive sport It's just so important
Speaker 4: to get people exposed to it, to know that it's
Speaker 4: out there. Know, there's a lot of different sports, and
Speaker 4: you can find anybody of any functional ability can find
Speaker 4: one that fits them and that they're passionate about and
Speaker 4: that makes them feel powerful.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you an opportunity here to
Speaker 1: talk directly to that person, that twenty two year old
Speaker 1: who just had a spinal cord injury and is wondering
Speaker 1: what are we going to do with the rest of
Speaker 1: our lives, To the girl who's in a wheelchair and
Speaker 1: really crazy passionate about rugby and sees you the very
Speaker 1: first woman competing for Team USA and wheelchair Paralympic rugby.
Speaker 1: What do you want to say to them?
Speaker 4: I want to say, just step out of that comfort
Speaker 4: zone and try it. Whatever it is that you've kind
Speaker 4: of got your eye on and you're maybe a little interested,
Speaker 4: and you've been scrolling on social media and you see
Speaker 4: it and it looks kind of interesting and exciting, just
Speaker 4: put yourself out there and try it. Particularly any pair
Speaker 4: of community, para athlete community is just so welcoming and
Speaker 4: excited to share what we love with others and get
Speaker 4: others involved. And passionate about it as well, and you know,
Speaker 4: trying to work at that next generation. Then it goes
Speaker 4: beyond sport. It goes into being able to know how
Speaker 4: do I get back to school, how do I get
Speaker 4: back to driving? How do I go travel the world?
Speaker 4: And it not be this big plus and to do
Speaker 4: it it can be simple, and you can really like
Speaker 4: our diagnosis, our disability, our functional limitations don't have to
Speaker 4: limit our lives in what they are composed of. There's
Speaker 4: just this whole world that still exists, and you just
Speaker 4: need to find those connections and those people that can
Speaker 4: help show you that. And I think the best way,
Speaker 4: by far and away, the best way to get connected
Speaker 4: to that and get connected to disability communities to adapt
Speaker 4: to sports.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Sarah, Thank you so much for joining this episode
Speaker 1: of the Powerful Podcast. Cannot wait to root you and
Speaker 1: Team USA on in just a few weeks here in Paris,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Here's hopeing y'all bring home that gold.
Speaker 1: But we are so proud of who you are as
Speaker 1: a person, and we're so grateful for you spending the
Speaker 1: time I'm with us here today.
Speaker 4: Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1: This is a reminder to check us out every Tuesday,
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