Redefining Disability

On October 23, 2005, Army Sergeant Bryan Anderson was nine months into his second deployment to Iraq when his vehicle went over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The Purple Heart recipient and triple amputee has always been an athlete, but after his rehabilitation at Walter Reed he got away from sports a bit, doing stunt work, acting, writing a book, and other activities. But wheelchair rugby...

After studying occupational therapy in college, Dawn Hameline went to work with the VA and is still involved with summer and winter adaptive sports clinics for disabled veterans. She is now a Clinical Education and Outreach Specialist with Mobius Mobility. So we chat with her about the iBOT, a unique and versatile mobility device.

SFC Jay Martin was medically retired from the Army after a bicycle accident left him paralyzed. As an adaptive athlete, he has picked up air rifle as a sport and competes in Move United’s Adaptive Shooting League. His goal is to make the national para shooting team and is also a volunteer and coach for other military veterans and individuals with disabilities getting into the sport.

Barbi Baum competed in swimming and track and field at the international level in the 1980’s and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1982. She was president of their Disabled Sports Organization and a Paralympic athlete. She has been a disabled athlete most of her life and has shared her time and talents endlessly encouraging those with disabilities to participate. She was one of the foun...

Darian Haynes is an adaptive athlete who competes in para snowboarding, surfing, and skateboarding. Growing up surfing in Hawaii, she was a fixture on Team Hawaii and then Team USA, earning 8 individual & team World Championship medals. She has competed locally and internationally at over 30 surfing events. After moving to the mainland in 2021, she relocated to Silverthorn Colorado and began train...

At age 17, Noah Elliott had his left leg amputated above the knee. He would learn about Paralympic snowboarding through attending a camp for children with cancer. Although the Paralympic gold medalist is known for his success on the snow, we chat with him about his passion for skateboarding as well.

Natalie Grazian has a congenital limb difference, meaning her right arm did not fully develop before birth. Exercising has always been a passion and that prompted her to find modifications to help her do the activities she cares about. But when it came to some yoga positions and weight-bearing exercises, her limb difference presented a unique challenge. So the University of Washington graduate stu...

Pete Peterson, aka Pickleball Pete as he is known at GLASA, is a certified pickleball instructor and helps lead the adaptive pickleball program at Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, a Move United member organization in the Chicago area. So we chat with him about the sport.

Daniel Gale is a founder and current executive director of Adaptive Action Sports, a Move United member organization based in Colorado. He has been a sports organizer for ESPN and the Summer X Games, the Adaptive Skateboard Park Jam, Adaptive Sno-Cross, and more. He also serves as the general manager for para skateboarding with USA Skateboarding.

Justin Phongsavanh made his international debut for the United States at the 2019 Parapan American Games, where he won a gold medal in javelin. He represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, winning a bronze medal. In June 2021, during the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials for Track and Field, Justin set the javelin throw world record with a distance of 33.29 meters and is aiming for g...

3X Paralympian Patty Cisneros Prevo, who won two gold medals as part of the national women’s wheelchair basketball team and is a disability advocate focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, has published a new children’s book called “Tenacious: Fifteen Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes.” She is on a book tour now and will be signing copies at The Hartford Nationals on Sunday, July 9th.

Michael Rosenkrantz is the Executive Director of So Cal Adaptive Sports, a Move United member organization. He has coached wheelchair basketball at the collegiate level, serving as an Assistant Coach with the University of Arizona women’s team and is a Level II Certified Archery instructor. We are here today to talk about adaptive pickleball, another sport he coaches.

Born with spina bifida, Hannah Dederick was abandoned at the steps of a hospital in China and adopted from an orphanage by a family in the United States. Through Shriners Children’s Hospital, she learned about wheelchair track in 2015 and connected with ParaSport Spokane, a Move United member organization in Washington. Having already competed at one Paralympics, Hannah is looking for more in the...

Dr. Mary Hums is a professor of Sport Administration at the University of Louisville. She has been active in the Olympic and Paralympic movement since the 1996 Summer Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She has co-authored the textbook for sports management and co-edited Women as Leaders in Sport: Impact and Influence. Her other scholarly work includes contributions to The Journal of Sport and S...

When Bailey Moody was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and underwent an amputation of her leg. Within just two months of completing chemotherapy, she was back on the basketball court. In 2014, Bailey started playing wheelchair basketball with BlazeSports, a Move United member organization based in Georgia. She has been a member of the women’s national team since 2018, winning a br...

Earlier this year, Jonathan Clemins was appointed to the position of the USA Archery Paralympic Head Coach. Clemins served as an Assistant Coach for the 2022 World Archery Para Championships and as the Head Coach for the 2022 World Games para team and the Para Pan Am Championships. He is also the assistant coach at the University of Pikeville and a USA Archery Level 4 Coach.

Alycia Anderson is an international TEDx motivational speaker, CEO, inclusion champion, and advocate. She received a master’s degree in adapted physical activity and has been an avid wheelchair tennis player and cyclist. Let’s chat with her.

Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan, where he also serves as the Director of Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services, Division of Student Life and oversees the Adaptive Sports & Fitness program. He was recently appointed to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Dr. O is also presenting at the Move United Ed...

Dayne Law is a Coast Guard veteran, social worker, queer/transgender man, kayaker, and a member of Move United’s DEI task force. In 2002, Dayne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and found that his passion for paddling could help him on his journey to healing and wellness. He is also an instructor and volunteer with Team River Runner, a Move United member organization, and will be presenting a...

Ricardo Castaneda became blind at the age of 15 and has participated in judo, wrestling, goalball, track & field, and beep baseball. He earned MVP honors at the Northwest Regional track competition in 2017 and was defensive MVP in beep baseball at a tournament in Chicago in 2021. He also served as captain of the Texas School for the Blind wrestling team where he qualified for regionals in 2018 and...

Dana Mathewson was 10 years old when she contracted a rare autoimmune disease which impacted her spinal cord. Dana's mom wanted her to give adaptive sports a try and she ended up falling in love with the sport of wheelchair tennis. Dana would go on to attend the University of Arizona on scholarship to compete on their wheelchair tennis team. The 2X Paralympian is now the number 1 ranked female whe...

Matthew Stutzman was born without arms and uses his legs and feet for most of his activities, including archery. Matt is a 3x Paralympian, winning a silver medal in 2012. He holds a world record for the longest accurate shot in the sport and won the gold medal in his event at the 2022 World Para Archery Championships held in Dubai.

Nicky Nieves started playing sports in the 6th grade, including volleyball, track and field, and cheerleading. In volleyball, she earned Conference Player of the Year honors her senior year of high school and went on to play at the college level. Born without a left hand, she was invited by USA Volleyball to a national sitting volleyball development camp in 2011. Now that she has one Paralympic go...

Brandon Rush became paralyzed at the age of 14 as the result of a biking accident. He was introduced to the sport of wheelchair basketball during his rehab and hasn’t looked back since. Not only did Brandon play throughout high school but also played the sport at the collegiate level and beyond. Today, he is still active with the same Charlottesville Cardinals team but also coaches a team at Sport...

Tracy Otto became paralyzed from the chest down when an ex-boyfriend attacked her in 2019. She was in a really bad place for a long time and wanted to find something to lift her up. Randomly, she decided she wanted to shoot archery and found a program near her through Move United member organization, Hillsborough County Adaptive Sports. She not only has a goal of competing at the Paralympics but h...