August 6, 2024 • 45 mins
Sarah Adam is ready to make history with Team USA's Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby team. Wheelchair Rugby is a co-ed sport but Adam is the first women to make the American roster. She shares how she went from able-bodied volunteer to a cornerstone of the team after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Just over a few weeks away from the Paralympics, Adam's takes us inside the sport nicknamed 'Murderball' and how she's hoping her barrier-breaking sets the stage for women around the world.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're listening to this podcast, we know one thing
for absolute certain you are a fan of women's sports.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And there's nothing better than enjoying women's sports with community,
and no better place to find that community than the
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Bar in the world. The owner Jenny Wynn and her
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So next time you're in Portland, be sure to stop
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sports Bra will be featuring drinks picked out by our
powerful women. So stop by, have a sip, and enjoy
(00:39):
the summer sports season jam packed with women's sports at
the Sports Bra. Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
I'm your host Aja McCord.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who
are changing the game in and outside of their field
of play.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
These are women's stories.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Women who happen to be doing things that many of
us us can only dream of, but the lessons and
inspiration they share is universal.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Welcome back to the Powerful Podcast, where we are highlighting
a few of the amazing women competing for Team USA
this summer in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
I am so thrilled to be joined by our next guest.
This is a woman who is making history this summer.
She is a doctor of occupational therapy, a native of Illinois,
(01:27):
and the very first woman ever to make the US
Paralympic wheelchair rugby team. Sarah Adams, Welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, thanks for having appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So let's start with the history because I want to
get into your story and the sport that is known
as murder ball for those who follow it closely. But
first let's talk about you becoming the very first woman
to make the US Paralympic rugby team. Since the sport
joined the Paralympic Games in two thousand in Sydney, there
have been a handful of women, but you're the first
(02:01):
for Team USA. How did that feel when your name
got called that you were officially on the roster.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Honestly a surreal moment. You know, put in a lot
of hard work in those last couple of years, still
relatively new player, but very surreal, and then to be
named as the first woman, you know, especially with everything
that's going on in the world right now and in
the United States, with the growth of women in sports
and female and sports, with Kaitlyn Clark and all these
wonderful female athletes that are finally finally being highlighted in
(02:29):
the media in the way that I think we've deserved
for a really long time, and you know, to continue
to be a part of breaking down those barriers has
been just a surreal moment and really excited to be
named and head to Paris.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, let's talk about the moment that is happening right
now for women's sports, because obviously you and I have
been in it for a really long time. It's been
something that I've highlighted throughout my ten plus years in
broadcasting and tried to, you know, talk to the Sabrini
and Escuz, Satu, Sables, like the list goes on and
on of the women that we've gotten a chance to
work through. But what do you think has made this
(03:01):
moment in women's sports so contagious, so electric.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I think people are falling in love with our stories.
We're finally getting to tell our stories, the human side
of things. What we're doing off the court as well
as on the court. And then you know, really women
having the opportunities to elevate our game on the court
and show that we can be just as exciting, just
as competitive as our male counterparts. And you know, to
add to that that we're joining sports that have been
(03:29):
considered male dominated for years in saying no, we have
a place in this space as well. And that's I
think really what's unique for me with wheelchair ugby that
is so significantly male dominated. We've had a couple of
women's first here and there, and you know, even on
TMOSA we've had a couple of women that have made
the training squads. But to be able to really compete
and show that we can compete at that elite level
(03:51):
as females right alongside our male counterparts has been fun
and really exciting, I think really necessary to show right now.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, and that's something that is unique even to wheelchair rugby.
It is one of the few mixed gender sports that
we have in the Paralympics and the Olympics. So explain
to people who may not know about quote, I don't
even know if it's like the two thousand and five
documentary was called murder ball, and when you watch it
you understand why the collisions are fierce. So how would
(04:21):
you describe your sport of wheelchair rugby.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah, obviously called murder ball for a reason. It's the
only full contact wheelchair sport in the Paralympics. So we're
in chairs that are kind of fully armored up like
a mad mass and then it's it's like full speed
bumper cars. So very exciting to watch everybody going in
full speed hitting each other, flipping over in our chairs.
Really an opportunity to break down multiple stereotypes of you know,
(04:45):
people with disabilities, that they're fragile and we need to
protect them. And it's like I'm getting in a chair,
I'm going to go full speed head on with my
opponent with the goal, like one of the goals being
to flip them over in their chair, and that that
high speed, full collision is really exciting for anybody, even
if you don't know the ins and outs of the game.
Certainly fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, yeah, because with the wheelchairs that you guys are using, right,
it's not the same kind of wheelchair as what you
just get around in day to day. This is a
battering ram like this is a full force. Give me
like the specs of a wheelchair that is used in
wheelchair rugby, in terms of the adaptations that you put
on it to be prepared to go head on into
(05:27):
whoever is in your way and try to flip them over.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Yeah, And it's one of the things I love is
the evolution of the sport. We can't talk about the
evolution of the sport without talking about the equipment that
we use. And it certainly started with something that looks
similar to what you see in everyday wheelchair user using.
But obviously if I go out on the court in
my everyday chair and go hit somebody, it's probably gonna
break my chair and myself. So it's evolved not ideal,
not ideal, not ideal at all. It evolved to look
(05:53):
a little bit more. I know a lot of more
people are familiar with the wheelchair basketball and what those
wheelchairs look like, where it's just you know, a little
bit more base, a little bit wider, wider wheels, so
we can do these really quick turns without flipping ourselves over,
go really really fast, obviously in a straight line. But
even the basketball chairs were falling apart and breaking when
we were going full contact into each other, and so
(06:14):
we added a whole bunch of armor to the front,
in the back, and even on the wheels, there's some
armor on there to take that hit because the guys
are coming to really really fast, really hard, as well
as the females. But you know, there's something about a
two hundred pound male comeing full speed for you that
I appreciate a chair that's going to take most of
that hit, because I wondered, break on me certainly is okay.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So let's dive into that a little bit more. The
collisions that happen in wheelchair rugby. How did you develop
the instinct to a like absorb that blow but then
maybe even more impressively go out there and do the
flipping yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
So I think something that's a little bit unique about
my role on TMUSA and internationally is on one of
the first female high pointers. So within our sport, there's
a whole range of functional abilities to people who like myself,
have quite a bit of function in our hands and
our arms, so we can go really fast and we
can catch and throw, and then there's people with a
little bit less function. That's the whole purpose of the
(07:12):
Paralympics is to give people with various abilities the opportunity
to compete and compete at the high level. So there's
a lot of strategy and being able to utilize those
folks who are a little bit have a little less function,
less arm strength, less core strength, and they're in a
slightly different chair. And so a lot of our females
that have been in this sport are in those lower
(07:34):
function sort of defensive roles where they're not handling the
ball very much. So I'm one of the first ones
out there that is a primary ball candler for our team,
and so the other team has to come hit me
and try to get that ball out of my lap
before I go score that goal. And I have to
do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
My role on the team defensively is to go attack
their number one player and their most functional player and
try to get the ball off his lap or flip
him out of his chair. And so I think to me,
you know, it's a lot of strategy involved because I'm
not I'm not a very large individual. I think it's
pretty strong given my smart you are, but the strength
only gets you so far. So it's a lot of
(08:13):
the strategy in using my brain and thinking three steps
ahead and really thinking of rugby as a chess match
and kind of out smarten the guys. I guess I
would say, Okay, we.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Like that, we like the ability to outsmart your opponents
in addition to flip them over. So I want to
come back to just sort of how you have gone
from a good wheelchair rugby player to one who is
making this history. But first let's go all the way
back to the beginning. Because you talk a little bit about,
you know, just your athletic background and you played softball
growing up. You had brothers as well, which you know,
(08:44):
as an older sister, I definitely had a little bit
of an impact on my brother's ability to navigate in
the world because of the you know, sibling sibling razzing
that I put in there growing up as well as
my little sister. Give me a little bit of an idea,
what was it like growing up in the Adam household.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
That sounds very familiar to Maybe they were simply rivalry
going on, but it's certainly super competitive, very very competitive.
Our whole family was my mom and my dad or
were both athletes, really great athletes, and you know, a
lot of people in our family are my brother is
and so growing up I honestly played sports a lot
with him. He's a year older than I am and
(09:23):
playing on his team. So I was rounded by a
bunch of men playing soccer in basketball and baseball and
any sport that we could possibly get our hands on,
and that's what our family did on the weekends, where
you know, going to the baseball field or the soccer pitch,
are all over the place, And thankful to have those
opportunities and that outlet to be able to compete, and
then didn't switch to being mostly with females until honestly
(09:46):
late middle school early high school, and that was when
things got were able to be really competitive for me
throughout high school and then playing college softball for a year.
So I can't even imagine a world where sports isn't
a part of my life. So I think that was
really important for me when we talk about the diagnosis
with MS and I can no longer play REX softball
(10:07):
and rec kickball and had that sport outlet to be
able to play adaptive sports and reconnect with my identity
as an elite athlete was everything I needed that in
that moment and did I ever think it was going
to end up being an elite athlete at the TSA level.
Absolutely not, But such an honor and an amazing opportunity
(10:28):
to compete at the elite level as an adult. And
I've been reflecting on that quite a bit lately of
what that needs to deal with, a little bit of maturity,
more maturity under my belt and something that not a
lot of adults get to go do.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, let's talk about your transition from collegiate softball player
to then your introduction to wheelchair rugby, because it wasn't
first as a player.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it was actually I'd been playing one year of
college softball, threw my shoulder out, decided to go coach.
I love coaching to this day. I still love coaching
and the mentoring aspect. You see a lot of that
in the way that I teach as a professor at
Saint Louis University. But you know, I wanted when I
came down to Saint Louis for school for occupational therapy,
I wanted to combine that love of occupational therapy and
(11:12):
my love of sports and continue coaching in some way,
And for me, adaptive sports was the clear way to
do that, and so reached out to some local Saint
Louis organizations and connected with our local wheelchair rugby team
that just happens to be filled with Paralympic athletes. Were
starting house for the for Paralympic Usain Wilcha rugby. But
(11:32):
got to learn so much from them and being on
the sport and film in love with the sport as
enabled body before I even knew that I had MS.
It just had all those components again, of the highest
being collision, but also for me, it's kind of like
softball when you get to know it really intimately and
you know the game really really well. You see, there's
so much strategy involved in thinking three steps ahead and
using your brain and thinking to have the advantage the
(11:54):
small advantages over your opponents. And that's what I love
about wheelchair rugby and fall in love with as enabled body.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so you were volunteer, right, and then you were
training to be a coach when you got your diagnosis
in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
I started the diagnos in thirteen and then got officially
diagnosed okin of sixteen. It takes a while with MS.
They're ruling out other things. There's a lot of diagnostics
that have to happen at two sixteen.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So what were the first signs for you that you
started thinking, hey, something's not right here.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It took a while I had ignored a lot of
signs to actually think I was a pediatric case. I
was playing baseball when I was nine years old and
got hit in the mouth of the baseball kind of
turned my glove and then it hit me and the
teeth came out, and yeah, so I think when they
put those in, I got an infection, and that's what
they think may have sparked that overreaction with my body
(12:47):
which resulted in MS. So when I look back, there's
actually symptoms when I was in high school, like some
numbness in my hand. I stopped playing some of the
sports that required a lot of running, like basketball and
soccer stuff with just softball and golf and some of the.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And when I was in graduate school, they talk about
med school syndrome and people that are studying different conditions
think that they have it, and I was like the
complete opposite. I could explain away just about any symptom
that came my way. But you know, I was in
graduate school for OT and we were doing some assessments
on each other, and my professor said, hey, that what's
(13:21):
going on with your hand? I was treated for a
hand injury for a little while, and then some other
symptoms pop up that were clearly neurological that I couldn't
really ignore. And that's me down that pathway of an
MS diagnosis right in the middle of like all these
hopes and dreams and excitement of what am I going
to do as an occupacial therapist, And I was like, Wow,
this is going to be a big life change. But
(13:42):
I guess who better than an OT to handle such
a complex diagnosis and all the unknowns that kind of
come with that.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, how how did you process that? In the midst
of right grad school? Like you said, that's you go
there because you've got all these big dreams and you
think you have You're like, yes, this is it dialed
that I'm going to grad school for this and I
know this is what I'm going to do with my life,
and like this exciting sort of clarifying step and then
you get this diagnosis in the middle of it, and
(14:10):
you go, oh, I might have to rethink everything. Like
how do you navigate a life change like that?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, there is a moment of like what what now?
But I think for me, you know, once you get
through that denial phase, so this isn't what's really happening,
and like, Okay, this is actually happening. This is your
life at sports, if I can be honest, was what
helped me with dealing with it. You know, your whole
life in sports teaches you how to have an error
(14:36):
or your way behind, you're you know, you're trying to
catch up in the scoreboard, and it's just like this
is this is our situation. Let's you got a couple
innings to come back or you know, yeah, you made
an error and now you need to make up for it.
And I think that mentality of just like next play
mentality is what helped me get through my MS diagnosis
of like all right, next play. So I quickly switched
(14:58):
to getting my doctorate, knowing I wouldn't be able to
be a clinician for very long, and switched to teaching.
And I've mean, teaching was always probably going to be
in the cards, knowing I love coaching, I love mentoring,
and so having a little sooner than I expected but
a fantastic alternate for me. But Yeah, that sports. That
next play mentality I think was so important for me.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
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(15:41):
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(16:05):
something that I think doesn't get touched on with sports,
Like we always talk about the lessons within sports, right,
and that applies to right like. I didn't even compete
in college. I was a gymnast growing up, and that's
a sport that for the most part, at sixteen, you've
outgrown your shelf life for right, and so I didn't
even compete in college. But even outside of you know,
those childhood lessons you talk about that next play mentality.
(16:28):
It's something that I think in sports we always talk
about like, oh, yeah, you learn these lessons, but here
you are applying it in real time, in real life
to something that means way more than any game ever will.
Was that something that you realized in the moment, or
was it something that as you've moved forward with life
with this diagnosis, with seeing where it can go, you've
(16:51):
kind of looked back and realized like, oh, yeah, I
was leaning on this sports lesson that I learned at
twelve years old when we were trailing by two and
we only had six at back, you know, six strikeouts
left to get back in the game. Or was that
something that you had to wait until later to kind
of let sink in or were you aware enough of
what was happening at the time to be like, ah, cool,
(17:11):
I actually know how to deal with this.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah. I think it's just so ingrained in us as athletes.
The lesson happens over and over and over. If next play,
next play, and next play, you can't moull on what
just happened. We need to move forward. You need to
figure you know, take what you've got and figure it out.
That that has just become who I am and how
I deal with things. And I didn't necessarily notice that
(17:33):
that maybe came from sports until I really sat and
reflected on, you know, when I was doing some of
the coaching and now as a professor, a lot of
my teaching philosophy is based on my coaching philosophies and
just thought about what is the deeper meaning for sports?
And our head coach, Joe Delagrave, has us to reflect
on that a lot like you aren't just Paralympic athletes
(17:54):
are what else are you doing? How are you allowing
this sport to change your life and what you can
do within your community and for yourself and your families,
and how are you going to let it impact you?
And that's been a huge reflection for me and honestly
a part of why I love advocating for females and
sports and girls to have opportunities because it's that, I
(18:15):
mean sports and participating in sports and participating in competitive
sports helps develop so many leadership skills and opportunities to
fail and know that you're gonna be okay, and that
you can learn from that failure and come out better
on the other side, and so many valuable, valuable life
lessons that I think we need to continue to have
(18:36):
opportunities for athletes, any athlete, but for me obviously with
my platform, for girls to have that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well in the statistics show, right that a lot of
like just the reality is less women, less girls are
staying in sport longer than their male counterparts, just because
of the opportunities, because of the resources available and things
like that, and so I it's so interesting to hear
you talk about that because I think that as an athlete,
(19:05):
it is so important to reflect on the lessons we learned,
you know, like I think about gymnastics and now surfing
for me, and I think about the perfectionism that I
believe is possible. That's one of the things that I've
almost had to unlearn from my sport is that if
I can get a perfect ten, that means I can
be perfect, right, But there's also an element of like
I have to unlearn that while at the same time
(19:27):
lean into the lessons that I did learn that we're
really valuable, Like hey, yeah, you made a mistake on
this tumbling pass, but guess what, you got another one
and you can do it again. And so it's cool
to hear you realize in the moment of a life
altering diagnosis that those lessons that maybe you didn't even
know you were learning as a kid come into play.
(19:49):
So as you move through this diagnosis, when did it
go from Okay, this is a diagnosis that I have
to learn to live with to oh, wait a minute,
this is a diagnosis that can actually get me somewhere
that I never would have been able to go had
I not gotten this diagnosis. To the point of representing
Team USA.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I think there's been a couple moments throughout the journey
where it's like, oh, this, this diagnosis and what I've
gone through can actually help me relate to others and
help others, you know. The biggest one, the first one
I ny of it, would have been when I was
a professor started becoming as in twenty twenty one fall
of twenty twenty one and utilizing some of those experiences
(20:29):
to relate to my students and some of the things
that they were going through and helping them understand my
lived experience so they could help their future patients. And
then I think everything from then, because that was really
for me a shift in twenty twenty one of accepting
my disability identity as a person with MS, as a
person with the disability, and saying, all right, this is
the situation. What are you going to do with it?
(20:51):
What are the positive things that can come out of it?
Not just my whole life is surrounded on focusing on
my limitations because of my MS. Really, once that shift happened,
everything is just it feels like it's just fallen in
my lap. I'm sure someone I've worked for, but I'm amazing,
amazing opportunities that just keep coming my way to be
(21:13):
able to use those experiences and some of the stepbacks
and some of the victories and share those with others
who maybe need to hear that, hear those moments right now.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
So you said twenty twenty one was the year that
you really went from like, Okay, I can live with
this diagnosis or I can thrive with this diagnosis, and
here's how I'm choosing to do it. Very fortuitous, if
you will. I don't even know if that's the right word,
but it's I'll say Fortuitists who have already volunteered with
Wheelchair Rugby to now with this diagnosis, you transition to
(21:49):
not a volunteer but an actual participant. What was it
like the first time you went from volunteer and watching
these players compete to getting in the chair and competing yourself?
What was the thing that you were like? Oh, like,
what was that moment like for you?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, it certainly turned some heads. So a lot of
people were double takes of like, wait, wasn't she the
volunteer that was up and running not so long ago?
And so part of it was that having to deal
with some of that, honestly, and like maybe more of
a negative aspect of having to help educate others people
understand my transition and being open and vulnerable and sharing
(22:27):
my story of how did I end up becoming a player?
But once I had that opportunity to play and jump
in the chair, and you know, it's kind of neat
to have most new players, they don't really know what's
going on out there, they don't know what they're doing,
and so nobody really bothers too much with them. And
so I was I remember very vividly being in my
first competition, true competition, and I'm in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
(22:50):
and on the court, nobody's paying attention to me whatsoever.
On that nobody's guarding me. It's like, oh, it's just
this new player, and it maybe to come three plays
to be where's the girl. You need to find the girl.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Find the girl. She's gonna be a problem.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah. Yeah, So I think, you know, that's really kind
of a rewarding feeling to have that respect on the
court and have it so quickly and now luckily, I
don't think I'm known as the girl anymore. I think
most people as Sarah. But you know, the opportunity to
build relationships in the last couple of years, both in
our rugby community here in the United States as well
as internationally, it has been a really fun thing to
(23:30):
do as a player and feel kind of connected to
the game in a different way.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
It was interesting I was reading after the Paralympic roster
officially got announced. I was reading some of the articles
that came out and Chuck your team captain. He had
a quote that essentially went, you know, hey, you can
see Sarah on the roster and be like, oh, okay,
maybe like she's the only woman for Team Usay, what
are they trying to do here? And he was like,
do not make the mistake of discounting Sarah as a player,
(23:57):
because this woman has earned her spot and she's going
to be an asset for us in Paris twenty twenty four.
How has it felt to almost go back to your
roots a little bit of having a team of all guys, right,
similar to growing up and playing with your brother. How
has it gone? How has it felt to almost go
back to a feeling that you knew and have really
(24:17):
fond memories of as a child to now that's a
part of your Team USA story.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, And if I can go back just briefly to
talk about that comment from our captain Chuck Aoki of
you know that Sarah is earned her spot on this
team and is somebody that you know, this team counts
on has been really important to me, particularly if I'm
going to be the first female name of this team,
that I want to make sure that I'm somebody who
is contributing that it's not just this story and we've
(24:43):
got this female and she's on the team and go
us and I'm sitting at the end of the bench
all the time, you know, I work my butt off
to make sure if I'm going to be named and
I want to be named it, I want to be
relevant and I want to show I think that's what
goes towards showing that that females can really make an
impact and be a valuable resource for teams, even if
their teams that are often considered male dominant. So I
think that's been a little bit of a motivator in
(25:05):
the back of my head of not just trying to
like prove the guys wrong, but to make sure that
I'm contributing, that I was show the world I was
chosen to be on this team because I can play
rugby n yeah, as enough female.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, and that's one of the things that I think
is So it's like frustratingly necessary in a way, right,
because like you want to just be like, of course,
Sarah Adam made this team because she is a boss
rugby player, because she's going to help us win gold
for the first time since two thousand and eight in
our dream world, Right, But what do you think what
does it say about sort of the necessity of saying, hey,
(25:43):
as the first I want I want you to know
I'm not a token. I'm not here to like check
this box for you. I'm here to make an impact.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Yeah, that's always in the background, right, is that we
know there's some people that are going to look at
it and question why are they on this team? Did
they earn this? Are they as good as if they
were a male? Would they have been selected for this team?
And I hate that that's how it is, but I
think that's where we're still at a little bit. We're coming,
We're on the upswing out of it, and I think
(26:12):
that's really important is that people are starting to see
us for the athletes that we show ourselves to be
on the court and show that you can't question it.
We're a good athlete. Whether we're shooting from the women's
three point or the men's three point, we're gonna still
compete and we're you know, show that we're valuable on
that court.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, listen, I've seen the highlights. I'm not one who
needs to be convinced, like I cannot wait to see
you in Paris, But for those who have not gotten
a chance to see you play wheelchair rugby, who is
Sarah Adam the player?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I think for me, you know, on a couple of
our lineups that they can be on the court. It's
kind of like hockey, where you have different lines that
are coming on and off the court and that gel together.
And fortunate enough to have gel with a lot of
my teammates on that court that helped create these lines
that are just deadly lines that are really going to
be very competitive against some of these teams like Australia
(27:06):
and Japan, and just fit right in with the styles
of my teammates that have been on this team for
years and years. Kind of molded my style of play
to be able to fit into a lot of those
lines as well. But I think I'm someone who's gonna
go out there and be pretty fierce. I like talking
in the court. So you see me talking a lot
(27:27):
communicating with my teammates.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I was gonna say, is it trash talk or is
it communicating?
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I wish I was good at chirping. I can't trash talk.
I leave that to to some of our other players
and our captain team team captain Eric Newby's pretty good
at that. Soul at him the trash talk. But I
like leading and talking to my teammates out there and
kind of directing traffic really important. Chuck Aoki who's obviously
our star player. He's in all he's he never leaves
(27:53):
the court. He's just that good. He's that big of
a difference maker. And so for me, when I'm out
there with Chuck, I want my role to be to
take off some of that pressure off of him, take
some of that mental load off of him, and be
able to carry the ball for a couple of plays,
give him a little break, make sure I can be
the leader on that court and communicating and directing and
talking so that the Lions can run the way that
(28:13):
they need to run.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
How would you describe your playing style? You keep talking
about how you've sort of adapted to the players that
are already on Team USA, maybe leaning into some of
your own athletic background. How would you describe your playing
style as a wheelchair rugby athlete.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I would say my playing style cerebrale. It has to
be because I'm not this huge, bulky guy. I have
to feel a little bit smarter, play smart, like calm
and methodical, which works really well with the offense that
we run. The USA offense is run calm, methodical, slow,
work your way up the court, and then our defense
is just kind of balls out go hard, cut great
(28:50):
chaos to the other team, and so it works perfectly
into the type of player that I enjoy being. We
have a lot of great passers, great hands out there,
So using my soft ball background for a lot of
the passing catching game that allows us to that ball
at the court, but certainly keeping it high speed when
it needs to be. You can put the pedal of
the metal when you need to. But also understanding there's
(29:12):
a lot of benefit for us and our team in
the way that we play to like slow things down,
keep things going out there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Describe to me how it feels, right cause, I mean,
I'm five for right around one twenty, same thing, And
I tend to like if there's a game i'm playing,
I don't care. I don't care who's playing against me.
I don't care what the competitive like. I don't care
if it's all guys who outweighed me by one hundred pounds.
Like I'm going in and I'm going hard. What does
it feel like for you to have a collision that
(29:40):
you come out on top of against some of these guys.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
I've had a couple. It's actually in Japan last year
that I took out one of the main players for
Australia and broke the front wheel on his chair to
crashing right in half, which doesn't happen very often. So
and I think it kind of shocked him too when
I hit him and like ste that, oh, this girl
will just flipped me in my chair. So it's a
(30:04):
little humbling for him. Yeah, because it feels great to
be able to It's a it's a key strategic part
of the game to be sure be able to throw
your hips into it and knock somebody over. And so
for me, to be honest, it's just me being able
to do my role on this team and do my
part for this team, and part of that is going
(30:25):
and hitting someone and hitting him hard and give him
the wake up call.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
One of the things that I thought was so interesting
in that murder Ball documentary was the reality that everyone
is going to get flipped over and you're probably going
to land on your head at some point or another.
How don't tell sorry, mom, don't tell mom, mom, I
was saying this podcast, Yeah, how often? I mean, I
(30:49):
explain to somebody who has never been in one of
these collisions, what does it feel like?
Speaker 4 (30:55):
To be honest, I say, the chair plays most of
it most of the time. I mean it's really you
feel like rattle through your whole body when you're hitting
so many poll speed head on and when you flip over. Yeah,
there's there's been a lot of injuries, concussions and fingers
getting jammed and.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Hit, and it's it's a little brutal.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
It becomes a bit of a punching match, so you're
technically not supposed to. It's a foul if you touch
the body of the other person. So they can like
try to get the ball out of my lap, but
if they're grabbing and yanking on my arms, that's a foul.
But you could imagine, and I like that they do this,
But the referees kind of play it like hockey rules.
We wan't think aim to keep going. We don't want
to have to blow in the whistle and putting someone
in the penalty box all the time, so they let
(31:36):
a lot of things go and that means getting you know,
punched in the face and hit, and to me, it
just kind of fuels that fire. I have a very like,
don't tell me what I can't do type of mentality,
and and go out there and play fiercely and throw
a couple of punches back every day.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It, Yes, we would throw a couple of punches back.
I cannot wait to see that. So I told you
that Paralympics. Obviously, wheelchair rugby got added to the roster
in two thousand. Since then, Team USA has meddled at
every single games, but has not won gold since Beijing.
What is it going to take for this team twenty
(32:16):
twenty four in Paris to get back to the top
of that metal stand.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, there's a couple veterans on this team, six of
them that have been to several of those where they're
this close and getting silver. And I can't even imagine
the heartbreak of working that hard, honestly, not just that year,
but for four years leading into it, all the work
that you put in and to come up short. And
I think the sting of a lot of that is
part of what's fueling it. There's a lot of veterans
(32:41):
that this may be their last year and wanting to
kind of come out on top before they head out.
But I also just think right now we have a
brand new coach, head coach Jo del Grade that took
over after Tokyo. He was a player, phenomenal player, for
the team and is now our coach in just a
brilliant rugby mind that is implementing some new things that
the rugby world has never seen before. And I think
(33:04):
it's it's a winning recipe and everybody's bought in the
entire team absolutely run through a brick wall for that
guy and what his strategy and tactics are in the plan.
And some great leaders with Chuck Aok and Eric newb
our team captains that are helping kind of facilitate not
only that plan, but the team culture as well. One
that's just we're in this together. We're going to put
(33:25):
the work in off the court, build the relationships, study
the game, come out being, you know, a really cerebral
team as one that that's going to be the key
to beating some of these other teams that work off
a brute force.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
So you think this is the year, This could be
the one that Team USA gets.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Back all the pieces of the puzzler there. We just
need to kind of keep it together. It's five games
in five days, which is a lot. It's a lot
for our bodies to take, that's a lot for our
minds to have to you know, get through one game
and then switch to a opponent, and a lot of
that prep happens now so that we can make sure
during the games we can kind of take a mental
break for a little bit and then just jump right
(34:04):
back in. But I think all the pieces are absolutely
there if we just stick to our game plan and
support each other through the mistakes that are are bound
to happen and quickly recover.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And like I said, neality, yeah, exactly awesome. We're gonna
switch heres now on the podcast because like remote, this
podcast is, the media partner is the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon,
and so there's gonna be a power brunch on the
Sunday before this episode drops worldwide, and it's gonna be
in person in Portland. So one of the things that
(34:37):
we ask each guest is for your favorite cocktail or mocktail,
because that is going to be the featured drink at
the Bra the week of your episode.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Okay, first off, love a good brunch. Maybe one of
my favorites.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
On a Sunday power brunch, right or even better?
Speaker 4 (34:52):
Yeah, but if we're talking at a brunch, favorite one
is the Bloody Mary.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay, we're not talking.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Don't stack it high with the whole bunch a fluff,
Like I just want a good, solid, spicy, bloody mary. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So what is without fluff?
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Well, there's some that they start adding, like cheeseburgers and
hot fun things that are coming out the top, like
we just I don't want the food, I want to
I want the drink.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I just want the drink. Okay. So if it's a
bunch cog and what if it's a right, what if
it's an everyday cocktail?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, a regular coctile known for for enjoying Bourbon, big
fourbon whiskey myself. Yeah, i'd say straight most of the time,
but a good Manhattan every now and then.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, okay, I like it. Okay, So we'll work that
into the sports Brad the week of this episode. So
now we'll do quick rapid fire questions, okay, And I
will tell you that if we do this actually rapid fire,
it'll be the first time all season because I tend
to love the story of the answer of the rapid fire.
So we'll see how this goes. Okay, short answer, yep, yep,
short answer, because otherwise your girl's gonna want to know
(35:52):
all the background, all the history.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And if we did there it's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
I like a little long winded at time, so I'll
try to restrain myself.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
No, listen, this is it's fine. It's fine. We're gonna
get through it. Okay. Coffee or tea.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Coffee, gotta have the caffeine with or without creamer black.
You never know when you're gonna have cream availables black.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I really wish I could get behind that. Here we
go story. I can't do it without creamer. It's it's
one of my it's one of my vices. Okay, favorite
ice cream. Okay, we'll work on it.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Favorite ice cream flavor, mid chocolate chit. Put it in
all my protein shakes. Eat it all the time.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Oh okay, go to meal before or after playing wheelchair Rugby.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Peanut butter and jelly. We actually have like a staff
member that just constantly making peanut butter and jelly is
the entire competition. I don't know how many we go through,
but we should count sometime.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Okay, you do that count for me. I want to
know how many you go through? Are you a night
owl and early bird?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Night owl?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Night owl? Okay, where's your favorite place that your sport
has taken.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
You We're just in Cardiff in Wales. It's pretty amazing,
beautiful town, beautiful like castles and churches and yeah, weather
it was, I mean still cold and windy we're in whales,
but beautiful awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
If you were not a wheelchair rugby paralympian, what sport
would you want to be competing in?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I so badly want to try bob sudding. So if
anybody has a hookup, I would absolutely I gotta be
in the front, like we're not. There's no running to
get in because we won't want in the front steering.
I think they steer in the front too, solo.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Okay, yeah, okay, So we're putting that out in the universe.
We're going from we're going to do, We're gonna do
summer and winter athlete. It wouldn't be the first, but
that would be unique to be wheelchair rugby and bob sled. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Well I needed to be winter because I got to
stick with the rugby short summer.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
So exactly. So we love Okay, cross train, cross training,
oh for sure, cerebral, but the front of the bob
slid it seems cerebral. If you're asking me. I grew
up in San Diego and I don't know anything about
it like much at all, but that's mine.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Anything with the ball is just go fast. I'm here
for that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That's your thing.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Okay, what is your favorite dessert?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
You gotta be honest, No people want to this. I
don't really like desserts that much. I could go with
other than yeah, with the shakes, okay now, but every
now and then do just like a warm brownie with
Vanilae me on top. Something about that warm cold como.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
And the gooiness. Yeah, it just has to be a
gooey brownie very much. So I'm with you, language, very
with you, all right. What is your dream vacation.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Spot anywhere on a beach? Give me warm, relaxed, no decisions.
That's my big one vacation. I want to make no decisions.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I do think. Have you tried surfing yet?
Speaker 4 (38:36):
I have not tried surfing. I absolutely would, though.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I think that's the next one. I think. I think
we're gonna do that. I think we're gonna get you
to my hometown of San Diego exactly, and we're gonna
we're gonna get Elena Nichols out there, and we're gonna
get you We're gonna get you surfing, because if you
like going fast, nothing's better than going fast and not
having to do anything to go for you. Come on,
this is next Okay, you go in the gold. Then
we'll meet you in Syan. We'll have a surf session.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
What is the best piece of advice you have ever gotten?
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Just keep moving forward, even when you can't see the
full picture of things. You don't know what's coming down
the road. Just take that next step and then go
from there. Make a decision.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We talked a little bit about the collisions that happened
in wheelchair rugby. What is the wildest mishaf you have
ever had while playing your sport?
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Wildest mishaf?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I mean trying to.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Make it not be like most dangerous. Try to yeah,
try to eat the language there a little bit.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Like I said, I still have a mother who every
time I get go down, she makes me when I
come up and it's being televised, to give her the
thumbs up that I'm.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Okay abby wand vac used to do that.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, Well, if that's all I got to do to
keep mom happy, then we're probably doing okay. I think
my biggest rugby mishaf though would be early on in
my career, and thank god it was just in a
training session, but I got the ball and sport in
the wrong goal and I to this day, anytime that
we at halftime, my teammates are like, there were is
going that way. It's been years and it's still fair.
(40:01):
We're scoring that way.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Oh no, we love a mistake that won't get let go.
Yeah okay, So when you're in the huddle in Paris
and we're watching and your entire team is pointing at
the goal that you're scoring.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
That's them. Give me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, okay, duly noted. And then the last thing for
you two part question, what does powerful mean to you?
Speaker 4 (40:26):
I think it's finding that one activity or many activities
that just make you feel comfortable in your own skin
and confident and excited and passionate and like just can't
wait to get back to doing it. And for me,
you know, that's being on the rugby court, like I
just feel so confident and everything just will feel so
(40:47):
smooth and easy and fun and challenging in all the
right ways. And yeah, I think to me that's what
that powerful means.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So you kind of answered that the second part of
that question. But when is the time that you feel
the most powerful.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Yeah, Like I said, either being on the rugby court,
when I'm teaching my students too. It's just like that
everything kind of connects where you just feel really prepared.
You know, this is what you're good at. You found
the thing you love doing, the thing that you are
passionate and excited about, and you can see it, and
you know, I can feel it in myself when it happens,
and I love seeing it in others as well, when
they find that one thing that they're just like, this
(41:23):
is this is my jam, this is what I love doing,
this is what I'm really good at, and you kind
of get in that flow. State's exciting.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
What do you want people to know about the Paralympic
movement coming into twenty twenty four?
Speaker 4 (41:34):
I think you know, the Paralympic movement continues to grow
in popularity and visibility. We've got a lot more work
to do, but for people to see us as elite athletes,
elite athletes that are no different than our Olympic counterparts.
We are all training extremely hard to compete in our sport.
It's just yes, our sport looks different than what people
(41:55):
are used to seeing, but they're just as exciting to
watch and to fall in with. And I think the
more visibility that we can have and support, we know
people are going to fall in love with our stories.
We know people are going to fall in love with
our sports. We just need the opportunity to tell those stories.
And I think that's what's happening in the media today
is more opportunities, more visibility, and it's important beyond just
(42:19):
us that are currently as athletes, as para athletes. It's
for the higher meaning of It is for the kid
that just had a spinal cord injury and is in
rehab it's twenty two years old and things, what am
I going to do with my life? What now? Or
the parent who has a three year old with fina
bifida and it doesn't know what their future is going
to look like? What are they going to do to
(42:40):
be able to see this route of adaptive sports that
can reconnect you with some level of what we know
as normalcy and something to be passionate about and strive for,
and the lessons that you can learn from being able
to participate in the adaptive sport It's just so important
to get people exposed to it, to know that it's
out there. Know, there's a lot of different sports, and
(43:02):
you can find anybody of any functional ability can find
one that fits them and that they're passionate about and
that makes them feel powerful.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So I want to give you an opportunity here to
talk directly to that person, that twenty two year old
who just had a spinal cord injury and is wondering
what are we going to do with the rest of
our lives, To the girl who's in a wheelchair and
really crazy passionate about rugby and sees you the very
first woman competing for Team USA and wheelchair Paralympic rugby.
(43:30):
What do you want to say to them?
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I want to say, just step out of that comfort
zone and try it. Whatever it is that you've kind
of got your eye on and you're maybe a little interested,
and you've been scrolling on social media and you see
it and it looks kind of interesting and exciting, just
put yourself out there and try it. Particularly any pair
of community, para athlete community is just so welcoming and
(43:52):
excited to share what we love with others and get
others involved. And passionate about it as well, and you know,
trying to work at that next generation. Then it goes
beyond sport. It goes into being able to know how
do I get back to school, how do I get
back to driving? How do I go travel the world?
And it not be this big plus and to do
(44:14):
it it can be simple, and you can really like
our diagnosis, our disability, our functional limitations don't have to
limit our lives in what they are composed of. There's
just this whole world that still exists, and you just
need to find those connections and those people that can
help show you that. And I think the best way,
(44:36):
by far and away, the best way to get connected
to that and get connected to disability communities to adapt
to sports.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Awesome, Sarah, Thank you so much for joining this episode
of the Powerful Podcast. Cannot wait to root you and
Team USA on in just a few weeks here in Paris,
twenty twenty four. Here's hopeing y'all bring home that gold.
But we are so proud of who you are as
a person, and we're so grateful for you spending the
time I'm with us here today.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
This is a reminder to check us out every Tuesday,
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you really enjoy this and don't want to miss an episode,
be sure to hit that subscribe button,
If you're listening to this podcast, we know one thing
for absolute certain you are a fan of women's sports.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And there's nothing better than enjoying women's sports with community,
and no better place to find that community than the
Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, the very first women's sports.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Bar in the world. The owner Jenny Wynn and her
team have created the best atmosphere combined with top tier
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So next time you're in Portland, be sure to stop
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(00:39):
the summer sports season jam packed with women's sports at
the Sports Bra. Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
I'm your host Aja McCord.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In this podcast, we introduce you to powerful women who
are changing the game in and outside of their field
of play.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
These are women's stories.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Women who happen to be doing things that many of
us us can only dream of, but the lessons and
inspiration they share is universal.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Welcome back to the Powerful Podcast, where we are highlighting
a few of the amazing women competing for Team USA
this summer in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
I am so thrilled to be joined by our next guest.
This is a woman who is making history this summer.
She is a doctor of occupational therapy, a native of Illinois,
(01:27):
and the very first woman ever to make the US
Paralympic wheelchair rugby team. Sarah Adams, Welcome to the Powerful Podcast.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, thanks for having appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So let's start with the history because I want to
get into your story and the sport that is known
as murder ball for those who follow it closely. But
first let's talk about you becoming the very first woman
to make the US Paralympic rugby team. Since the sport
joined the Paralympic Games in two thousand in Sydney, there
have been a handful of women, but you're the first
(02:01):
for Team USA. How did that feel when your name
got called that you were officially on the roster.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Honestly a surreal moment. You know, put in a lot
of hard work in those last couple of years, still
relatively new player, but very surreal, and then to be
named as the first woman, you know, especially with everything
that's going on in the world right now and in
the United States, with the growth of women in sports
and female and sports, with Kaitlyn Clark and all these
wonderful female athletes that are finally finally being highlighted in
(02:29):
the media in the way that I think we've deserved
for a really long time, and you know, to continue
to be a part of breaking down those barriers has
been just a surreal moment and really excited to be
named and head to Paris.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, let's talk about the moment that is happening right
now for women's sports, because obviously you and I have
been in it for a really long time. It's been
something that I've highlighted throughout my ten plus years in
broadcasting and tried to, you know, talk to the Sabrini
and Escuz, Satu, Sables, like the list goes on and
on of the women that we've gotten a chance to
work through. But what do you think has made this
(03:01):
moment in women's sports so contagious, so electric.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I think people are falling in love with our stories.
We're finally getting to tell our stories, the human side
of things. What we're doing off the court as well
as on the court. And then you know, really women
having the opportunities to elevate our game on the court
and show that we can be just as exciting, just
as competitive as our male counterparts. And you know, to
add to that that we're joining sports that have been
(03:29):
considered male dominated for years in saying no, we have
a place in this space as well. And that's I
think really what's unique for me with wheelchair ugby that
is so significantly male dominated. We've had a couple of
women's first here and there, and you know, even on
TMOSA we've had a couple of women that have made
the training squads. But to be able to really compete
and show that we can compete at that elite level
(03:51):
as females right alongside our male counterparts has been fun
and really exciting, I think really necessary to show right now.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, and that's something that is unique even to wheelchair rugby.
It is one of the few mixed gender sports that
we have in the Paralympics and the Olympics. So explain
to people who may not know about quote, I don't
even know if it's like the two thousand and five
documentary was called murder ball, and when you watch it
you understand why the collisions are fierce. So how would
(04:21):
you describe your sport of wheelchair rugby.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah, obviously called murder ball for a reason. It's the
only full contact wheelchair sport in the Paralympics. So we're
in chairs that are kind of fully armored up like
a mad mass and then it's it's like full speed
bumper cars. So very exciting to watch everybody going in
full speed hitting each other, flipping over in our chairs.
Really an opportunity to break down multiple stereotypes of you know,
(04:45):
people with disabilities, that they're fragile and we need to
protect them. And it's like I'm getting in a chair,
I'm going to go full speed head on with my
opponent with the goal, like one of the goals being
to flip them over in their chair, and that that
high speed, full collision is really exciting for anybody, even
if you don't know the ins and outs of the game.
Certainly fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, yeah, because with the wheelchairs that you guys are using, right,
it's not the same kind of wheelchair as what you
just get around in day to day. This is a
battering ram like this is a full force. Give me
like the specs of a wheelchair that is used in
wheelchair rugby, in terms of the adaptations that you put
on it to be prepared to go head on into
(05:27):
whoever is in your way and try to flip them over.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Yeah, And it's one of the things I love is
the evolution of the sport. We can't talk about the
evolution of the sport without talking about the equipment that
we use. And it certainly started with something that looks
similar to what you see in everyday wheelchair user using.
But obviously if I go out on the court in
my everyday chair and go hit somebody, it's probably gonna
break my chair and myself. So it's evolved not ideal,
not ideal, not ideal at all. It evolved to look
(05:53):
a little bit more. I know a lot of more
people are familiar with the wheelchair basketball and what those
wheelchairs look like, where it's just you know, a little
bit more base, a little bit wider, wider wheels, so
we can do these really quick turns without flipping ourselves over,
go really really fast, obviously in a straight line. But
even the basketball chairs were falling apart and breaking when
we were going full contact into each other, and so
(06:14):
we added a whole bunch of armor to the front,
in the back, and even on the wheels, there's some
armor on there to take that hit because the guys
are coming to really really fast, really hard, as well
as the females. But you know, there's something about a
two hundred pound male comeing full speed for you that
I appreciate a chair that's going to take most of
that hit, because I wondered, break on me certainly is okay.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So let's dive into that a little bit more. The
collisions that happen in wheelchair rugby. How did you develop
the instinct to a like absorb that blow but then
maybe even more impressively go out there and do the
flipping yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
So I think something that's a little bit unique about
my role on TMUSA and internationally is on one of
the first female high pointers. So within our sport, there's
a whole range of functional abilities to people who like myself,
have quite a bit of function in our hands and
our arms, so we can go really fast and we
can catch and throw, and then there's people with a
little bit less function. That's the whole purpose of the
(07:12):
Paralympics is to give people with various abilities the opportunity
to compete and compete at the high level. So there's
a lot of strategy and being able to utilize those
folks who are a little bit have a little less function,
less arm strength, less core strength, and they're in a
slightly different chair. And so a lot of our females
that have been in this sport are in those lower
(07:34):
function sort of defensive roles where they're not handling the
ball very much. So I'm one of the first ones
out there that is a primary ball candler for our team,
and so the other team has to come hit me
and try to get that ball out of my lap
before I go score that goal. And I have to
do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
My role on the team defensively is to go attack
their number one player and their most functional player and
try to get the ball off his lap or flip
him out of his chair. And so I think to me,
you know, it's a lot of strategy involved because I'm
not I'm not a very large individual. I think it's
pretty strong given my smart you are, but the strength
only gets you so far. So it's a lot of
(08:13):
the strategy in using my brain and thinking three steps
ahead and really thinking of rugby as a chess match
and kind of out smarten the guys. I guess I
would say, Okay, we.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Like that, we like the ability to outsmart your opponents
in addition to flip them over. So I want to
come back to just sort of how you have gone
from a good wheelchair rugby player to one who is
making this history. But first let's go all the way
back to the beginning. Because you talk a little bit about,
you know, just your athletic background and you played softball
growing up. You had brothers as well, which you know,
(08:44):
as an older sister, I definitely had a little bit
of an impact on my brother's ability to navigate in
the world because of the you know, sibling sibling razzing
that I put in there growing up as well as
my little sister. Give me a little bit of an idea,
what was it like growing up in the Adam household.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
That sounds very familiar to Maybe they were simply rivalry
going on, but it's certainly super competitive, very very competitive.
Our whole family was my mom and my dad or
were both athletes, really great athletes, and you know, a
lot of people in our family are my brother is
and so growing up I honestly played sports a lot
with him. He's a year older than I am and
(09:23):
playing on his team. So I was rounded by a
bunch of men playing soccer in basketball and baseball and
any sport that we could possibly get our hands on,
and that's what our family did on the weekends, where
you know, going to the baseball field or the soccer pitch,
are all over the place, And thankful to have those
opportunities and that outlet to be able to compete, and
then didn't switch to being mostly with females until honestly
(09:46):
late middle school early high school, and that was when
things got were able to be really competitive for me
throughout high school and then playing college softball for a year.
So I can't even imagine a world where sports isn't
a part of my life. So I think that was
really important for me when we talk about the diagnosis
with MS and I can no longer play REX softball
(10:07):
and rec kickball and had that sport outlet to be
able to play adaptive sports and reconnect with my identity
as an elite athlete was everything I needed that in
that moment and did I ever think it was going
to end up being an elite athlete at the TSA level.
Absolutely not, But such an honor and an amazing opportunity
(10:28):
to compete at the elite level as an adult. And
I've been reflecting on that quite a bit lately of
what that needs to deal with, a little bit of maturity,
more maturity under my belt and something that not a
lot of adults get to go do.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, let's talk about your transition from collegiate softball player
to then your introduction to wheelchair rugby, because it wasn't
first as a player.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it was actually I'd been playing one year of
college softball, threw my shoulder out, decided to go coach.
I love coaching to this day. I still love coaching
and the mentoring aspect. You see a lot of that
in the way that I teach as a professor at
Saint Louis University. But you know, I wanted when I
came down to Saint Louis for school for occupational therapy,
I wanted to combine that love of occupational therapy and
(11:12):
my love of sports and continue coaching in some way,
And for me, adaptive sports was the clear way to
do that, and so reached out to some local Saint
Louis organizations and connected with our local wheelchair rugby team
that just happens to be filled with Paralympic athletes. Were
starting house for the for Paralympic Usain Wilcha rugby. But
(11:32):
got to learn so much from them and being on
the sport and film in love with the sport as
enabled body before I even knew that I had MS.
It just had all those components again, of the highest
being collision, but also for me, it's kind of like
softball when you get to know it really intimately and
you know the game really really well. You see, there's
so much strategy involved in thinking three steps ahead and
using your brain and thinking to have the advantage the
(11:54):
small advantages over your opponents. And that's what I love
about wheelchair rugby and fall in love with as enabled body.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, so you were volunteer, right, and then you were
training to be a coach when you got your diagnosis
in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
I started the diagnos in thirteen and then got officially
diagnosed okin of sixteen. It takes a while with MS.
They're ruling out other things. There's a lot of diagnostics
that have to happen at two sixteen.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So what were the first signs for you that you
started thinking, hey, something's not right here.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It took a while I had ignored a lot of
signs to actually think I was a pediatric case. I
was playing baseball when I was nine years old and
got hit in the mouth of the baseball kind of
turned my glove and then it hit me and the
teeth came out, and yeah, so I think when they
put those in, I got an infection, and that's what
they think may have sparked that overreaction with my body
(12:47):
which resulted in MS. So when I look back, there's
actually symptoms when I was in high school, like some
numbness in my hand. I stopped playing some of the
sports that required a lot of running, like basketball and
soccer stuff with just softball and golf and some of the.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
And when I was in graduate school, they talk about
med school syndrome and people that are studying different conditions
think that they have it, and I was like the
complete opposite. I could explain away just about any symptom
that came my way. But you know, I was in
graduate school for OT and we were doing some assessments
on each other, and my professor said, hey, that what's
(13:21):
going on with your hand? I was treated for a
hand injury for a little while, and then some other
symptoms pop up that were clearly neurological that I couldn't
really ignore. And that's me down that pathway of an
MS diagnosis right in the middle of like all these
hopes and dreams and excitement of what am I going
to do as an occupacial therapist, And I was like, Wow,
this is going to be a big life change. But
(13:42):
I guess who better than an OT to handle such
a complex diagnosis and all the unknowns that kind of
come with that.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, how how did you process that? In the midst
of right grad school? Like you said, that's you go
there because you've got all these big dreams and you
think you have You're like, yes, this is it dialed
that I'm going to grad school for this and I
know this is what I'm going to do with my life,
and like this exciting sort of clarifying step and then
you get this diagnosis in the middle of it, and
(14:10):
you go, oh, I might have to rethink everything. Like
how do you navigate a life change like that?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, there is a moment of like what what now?
But I think for me, you know, once you get
through that denial phase, so this isn't what's really happening,
and like, Okay, this is actually happening. This is your
life at sports, if I can be honest, was what
helped me with dealing with it. You know, your whole
life in sports teaches you how to have an error
(14:36):
or your way behind, you're you know, you're trying to
catch up in the scoreboard, and it's just like this
is this is our situation. Let's you got a couple
innings to come back or you know, yeah, you made
an error and now you need to make up for it.
And I think that mentality of just like next play
mentality is what helped me get through my MS diagnosis
of like all right, next play. So I quickly switched
(14:58):
to getting my doctorate, knowing I wouldn't be able to
be a clinician for very long, and switched to teaching.
And I've mean, teaching was always probably going to be
in the cards, knowing I love coaching, I love mentoring,
and so having a little sooner than I expected but
a fantastic alternate for me. But Yeah, that sports. That
next play mentality I think was so important for me.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
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worn my set to the gym, out on hikes, even
(15:41):
done some cliff diving in Al Salvador in it, and
it has never faltered and remained so so comfortable. They
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high quality, breathable, and honestly so cute, which just adds
to my obsession. So check my girls out at shoractive
dot com and get your new favorite set today. That's
(16:05):
something that I think doesn't get touched on with sports,
Like we always talk about the lessons within sports, right,
and that applies to right like. I didn't even compete
in college. I was a gymnast growing up, and that's
a sport that for the most part, at sixteen, you've
outgrown your shelf life for right, and so I didn't
even compete in college. But even outside of you know,
those childhood lessons you talk about that next play mentality.
(16:28):
It's something that I think in sports we always talk
about like, oh, yeah, you learn these lessons, but here
you are applying it in real time, in real life
to something that means way more than any game ever will.
Was that something that you realized in the moment, or
was it something that as you've moved forward with life
with this diagnosis, with seeing where it can go, you've
(16:51):
kind of looked back and realized like, oh, yeah, I
was leaning on this sports lesson that I learned at
twelve years old when we were trailing by two and
we only had six at back, you know, six strikeouts
left to get back in the game. Or was that
something that you had to wait until later to kind
of let sink in or were you aware enough of
what was happening at the time to be like, ah, cool,
(17:11):
I actually know how to deal with this.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah. I think it's just so ingrained in us as athletes.
The lesson happens over and over and over. If next play,
next play, and next play, you can't moull on what
just happened. We need to move forward. You need to
figure you know, take what you've got and figure it out.
That that has just become who I am and how
I deal with things. And I didn't necessarily notice that
(17:33):
that maybe came from sports until I really sat and
reflected on, you know, when I was doing some of
the coaching and now as a professor, a lot of
my teaching philosophy is based on my coaching philosophies and
just thought about what is the deeper meaning for sports?
And our head coach, Joe Delagrave, has us to reflect
on that a lot like you aren't just Paralympic athletes
(17:54):
are what else are you doing? How are you allowing
this sport to change your life and what you can
do within your community and for yourself and your families,
and how are you going to let it impact you?
And that's been a huge reflection for me and honestly
a part of why I love advocating for females and
sports and girls to have opportunities because it's that, I
(18:15):
mean sports and participating in sports and participating in competitive
sports helps develop so many leadership skills and opportunities to
fail and know that you're gonna be okay, and that
you can learn from that failure and come out better
on the other side, and so many valuable, valuable life
lessons that I think we need to continue to have
(18:36):
opportunities for athletes, any athlete, but for me obviously with
my platform, for girls to have that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well in the statistics show, right that a lot of
like just the reality is less women, less girls are
staying in sport longer than their male counterparts, just because
of the opportunities, because of the resources available and things
like that, and so I it's so interesting to hear
you talk about that because I think that as an athlete,
(19:05):
it is so important to reflect on the lessons we learned,
you know, like I think about gymnastics and now surfing
for me, and I think about the perfectionism that I
believe is possible. That's one of the things that I've
almost had to unlearn from my sport is that if
I can get a perfect ten, that means I can
be perfect, right, But there's also an element of like
I have to unlearn that while at the same time
(19:27):
lean into the lessons that I did learn that we're
really valuable, Like hey, yeah, you made a mistake on
this tumbling pass, but guess what, you got another one
and you can do it again. And so it's cool
to hear you realize in the moment of a life
altering diagnosis that those lessons that maybe you didn't even
know you were learning as a kid come into play.
(19:49):
So as you move through this diagnosis, when did it
go from Okay, this is a diagnosis that I have
to learn to live with to oh, wait a minute,
this is a diagnosis that can actually get me somewhere
that I never would have been able to go had
I not gotten this diagnosis. To the point of representing
Team USA.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I think there's been a couple moments throughout the journey
where it's like, oh, this, this diagnosis and what I've
gone through can actually help me relate to others and
help others, you know. The biggest one, the first one
I ny of it, would have been when I was
a professor started becoming as in twenty twenty one fall
of twenty twenty one and utilizing some of those experiences
(20:29):
to relate to my students and some of the things
that they were going through and helping them understand my
lived experience so they could help their future patients. And
then I think everything from then, because that was really
for me a shift in twenty twenty one of accepting
my disability identity as a person with MS, as a
person with the disability, and saying, all right, this is
the situation. What are you going to do with it?
(20:51):
What are the positive things that can come out of it?
Not just my whole life is surrounded on focusing on
my limitations because of my MS. Really, once that shift happened,
everything is just it feels like it's just fallen in
my lap. I'm sure someone I've worked for, but I'm amazing,
amazing opportunities that just keep coming my way to be
(21:13):
able to use those experiences and some of the stepbacks
and some of the victories and share those with others
who maybe need to hear that, hear those moments right now.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
So you said twenty twenty one was the year that
you really went from like, Okay, I can live with
this diagnosis or I can thrive with this diagnosis, and
here's how I'm choosing to do it. Very fortuitous, if
you will. I don't even know if that's the right word,
but it's I'll say Fortuitists who have already volunteered with
Wheelchair Rugby to now with this diagnosis, you transition to
(21:49):
not a volunteer but an actual participant. What was it
like the first time you went from volunteer and watching
these players compete to getting in the chair and competing yourself?
What was the thing that you were like? Oh, like,
what was that moment like for you?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, it certainly turned some heads. So a lot of
people were double takes of like, wait, wasn't she the
volunteer that was up and running not so long ago?
And so part of it was that having to deal
with some of that, honestly, and like maybe more of
a negative aspect of having to help educate others people
understand my transition and being open and vulnerable and sharing
(22:27):
my story of how did I end up becoming a player?
But once I had that opportunity to play and jump
in the chair, and you know, it's kind of neat
to have most new players, they don't really know what's
going on out there, they don't know what they're doing,
and so nobody really bothers too much with them. And
so I was I remember very vividly being in my
first competition, true competition, and I'm in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
(22:50):
and on the court, nobody's paying attention to me whatsoever.
On that nobody's guarding me. It's like, oh, it's just
this new player, and it maybe to come three plays
to be where's the girl. You need to find the girl.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Find the girl. She's gonna be a problem.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah. Yeah, So I think, you know, that's really kind
of a rewarding feeling to have that respect on the
court and have it so quickly and now luckily, I
don't think I'm known as the girl anymore. I think
most people as Sarah. But you know, the opportunity to
build relationships in the last couple of years, both in
our rugby community here in the United States as well
as internationally, it has been a really fun thing to
(23:30):
do as a player and feel kind of connected to
the game in a different way.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
It was interesting I was reading after the Paralympic roster
officially got announced. I was reading some of the articles
that came out and Chuck your team captain. He had
a quote that essentially went, you know, hey, you can
see Sarah on the roster and be like, oh, okay,
maybe like she's the only woman for Team Usay, what
are they trying to do here? And he was like,
do not make the mistake of discounting Sarah as a player,
(23:57):
because this woman has earned her spot and she's going
to be an asset for us in Paris twenty twenty four.
How has it felt to almost go back to your
roots a little bit of having a team of all guys, right,
similar to growing up and playing with your brother. How
has it gone? How has it felt to almost go
back to a feeling that you knew and have really
(24:17):
fond memories of as a child to now that's a
part of your Team USA story.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, And if I can go back just briefly to
talk about that comment from our captain Chuck Aoki of
you know that Sarah is earned her spot on this
team and is somebody that you know, this team counts
on has been really important to me, particularly if I'm
going to be the first female name of this team,
that I want to make sure that I'm somebody who
is contributing that it's not just this story and we've
(24:43):
got this female and she's on the team and go
us and I'm sitting at the end of the bench
all the time, you know, I work my butt off
to make sure if I'm going to be named and
I want to be named it, I want to be
relevant and I want to show I think that's what
goes towards showing that that females can really make an
impact and be a valuable resource for teams, even if
their teams that are often considered male dominant. So I
think that's been a little bit of a motivator in
(25:05):
the back of my head of not just trying to
like prove the guys wrong, but to make sure that
I'm contributing, that I was show the world I was
chosen to be on this team because I can play
rugby n yeah, as enough female.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, and that's one of the things that I think
is So it's like frustratingly necessary in a way, right,
because like you want to just be like, of course,
Sarah Adam made this team because she is a boss
rugby player, because she's going to help us win gold
for the first time since two thousand and eight in
our dream world, Right, But what do you think what
does it say about sort of the necessity of saying, hey,
(25:43):
as the first I want I want you to know
I'm not a token. I'm not here to like check
this box for you. I'm here to make an impact.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Yeah, that's always in the background, right, is that we
know there's some people that are going to look at
it and question why are they on this team? Did
they earn this? Are they as good as if they
were a male? Would they have been selected for this team?
And I hate that that's how it is, but I
think that's where we're still at a little bit. We're coming,
We're on the upswing out of it, and I think
(26:12):
that's really important is that people are starting to see
us for the athletes that we show ourselves to be
on the court and show that you can't question it.
We're a good athlete. Whether we're shooting from the women's
three point or the men's three point, we're gonna still
compete and we're you know, show that we're valuable on
that court.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, listen, I've seen the highlights. I'm not one who
needs to be convinced, like I cannot wait to see
you in Paris, But for those who have not gotten
a chance to see you play wheelchair rugby, who is
Sarah Adam the player?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I think for me, you know, on a couple of
our lineups that they can be on the court. It's
kind of like hockey, where you have different lines that
are coming on and off the court and that gel together.
And fortunate enough to have gel with a lot of
my teammates on that court that helped create these lines
that are just deadly lines that are really going to
be very competitive against some of these teams like Australia
(27:06):
and Japan, and just fit right in with the styles
of my teammates that have been on this team for
years and years. Kind of molded my style of play
to be able to fit into a lot of those
lines as well. But I think I'm someone who's gonna
go out there and be pretty fierce. I like talking
in the court. So you see me talking a lot
(27:27):
communicating with my teammates.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I was gonna say, is it trash talk or is
it communicating?
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I wish I was good at chirping. I can't trash talk.
I leave that to to some of our other players
and our captain team team captain Eric Newby's pretty good
at that. Soul at him the trash talk. But I
like leading and talking to my teammates out there and
kind of directing traffic really important. Chuck Aoki who's obviously
our star player. He's in all he's he never leaves
(27:53):
the court. He's just that good. He's that big of
a difference maker. And so for me, when I'm out
there with Chuck, I want my role to be to
take off some of that pressure off of him, take
some of that mental load off of him, and be
able to carry the ball for a couple of plays,
give him a little break, make sure I can be
the leader on that court and communicating and directing and
talking so that the Lions can run the way that
(28:13):
they need to run.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
How would you describe your playing style? You keep talking
about how you've sort of adapted to the players that
are already on Team USA, maybe leaning into some of
your own athletic background. How would you describe your playing
style as a wheelchair rugby athlete.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I would say my playing style cerebrale. It has to
be because I'm not this huge, bulky guy. I have
to feel a little bit smarter, play smart, like calm
and methodical, which works really well with the offense that
we run. The USA offense is run calm, methodical, slow,
work your way up the court, and then our defense
is just kind of balls out go hard, cut great
(28:50):
chaos to the other team, and so it works perfectly
into the type of player that I enjoy being. We
have a lot of great passers, great hands out there,
So using my soft ball background for a lot of
the passing catching game that allows us to that ball
at the court, but certainly keeping it high speed when
it needs to be. You can put the pedal of
the metal when you need to. But also understanding there's
(29:12):
a lot of benefit for us and our team in
the way that we play to like slow things down,
keep things going out there.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Describe to me how it feels, right cause, I mean,
I'm five for right around one twenty, same thing, And
I tend to like if there's a game i'm playing,
I don't care. I don't care who's playing against me.
I don't care what the competitive like. I don't care
if it's all guys who outweighed me by one hundred pounds.
Like I'm going in and I'm going hard. What does
it feel like for you to have a collision that
(29:40):
you come out on top of against some of these guys.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
I've had a couple. It's actually in Japan last year
that I took out one of the main players for
Australia and broke the front wheel on his chair to
crashing right in half, which doesn't happen very often. So
and I think it kind of shocked him too when
I hit him and like ste that, oh, this girl
will just flipped me in my chair. So it's a
(30:04):
little humbling for him. Yeah, because it feels great to
be able to It's a it's a key strategic part
of the game to be sure be able to throw
your hips into it and knock somebody over. And so
for me, to be honest, it's just me being able
to do my role on this team and do my
part for this team, and part of that is going
(30:25):
and hitting someone and hitting him hard and give him
the wake up call.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
One of the things that I thought was so interesting
in that murder Ball documentary was the reality that everyone
is going to get flipped over and you're probably going
to land on your head at some point or another.
How don't tell sorry, mom, don't tell mom, mom, I
was saying this podcast, Yeah, how often? I mean, I
(30:49):
explain to somebody who has never been in one of
these collisions, what does it feel like?
Speaker 4 (30:55):
To be honest, I say, the chair plays most of
it most of the time. I mean it's really you
feel like rattle through your whole body when you're hitting
so many poll speed head on and when you flip over. Yeah,
there's there's been a lot of injuries, concussions and fingers
getting jammed and.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Hit, and it's it's a little brutal.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
It becomes a bit of a punching match, so you're
technically not supposed to. It's a foul if you touch
the body of the other person. So they can like
try to get the ball out of my lap, but
if they're grabbing and yanking on my arms, that's a foul.
But you could imagine, and I like that they do this,
But the referees kind of play it like hockey rules.
We wan't think aim to keep going. We don't want
to have to blow in the whistle and putting someone
in the penalty box all the time, so they let
(31:36):
a lot of things go and that means getting you know,
punched in the face and hit, and to me, it
just kind of fuels that fire. I have a very like,
don't tell me what I can't do type of mentality,
and and go out there and play fiercely and throw
a couple of punches back every day.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It, Yes, we would throw a couple of punches back.
I cannot wait to see that. So I told you
that Paralympics. Obviously, wheelchair rugby got added to the roster
in two thousand. Since then, Team USA has meddled at
every single games, but has not won gold since Beijing.
What is it going to take for this team twenty
(32:16):
twenty four in Paris to get back to the top
of that metal stand.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, there's a couple veterans on this team, six of
them that have been to several of those where they're
this close and getting silver. And I can't even imagine
the heartbreak of working that hard, honestly, not just that year,
but for four years leading into it, all the work
that you put in and to come up short. And
I think the sting of a lot of that is
part of what's fueling it. There's a lot of veterans
(32:41):
that this may be their last year and wanting to
kind of come out on top before they head out.
But I also just think right now we have a
brand new coach, head coach Jo del Grade that took
over after Tokyo. He was a player, phenomenal player, for
the team and is now our coach in just a
brilliant rugby mind that is implementing some new things that
the rugby world has never seen before. And I think
(33:04):
it's it's a winning recipe and everybody's bought in the
entire team absolutely run through a brick wall for that
guy and what his strategy and tactics are in the plan.
And some great leaders with Chuck Aok and Eric newb
our team captains that are helping kind of facilitate not
only that plan, but the team culture as well. One
that's just we're in this together. We're going to put
(33:25):
the work in off the court, build the relationships, study
the game, come out being, you know, a really cerebral
team as one that that's going to be the key
to beating some of these other teams that work off
a brute force.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
So you think this is the year, This could be
the one that Team USA gets.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Back all the pieces of the puzzler there. We just
need to kind of keep it together. It's five games
in five days, which is a lot. It's a lot
for our bodies to take, that's a lot for our
minds to have to you know, get through one game
and then switch to a opponent, and a lot of
that prep happens now so that we can make sure
during the games we can kind of take a mental
break for a little bit and then just jump right
(34:04):
back in. But I think all the pieces are absolutely
there if we just stick to our game plan and
support each other through the mistakes that are are bound
to happen and quickly recover.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And like I said, neality, yeah, exactly awesome. We're gonna
switch heres now on the podcast because like remote, this
podcast is, the media partner is the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon,
and so there's gonna be a power brunch on the
Sunday before this episode drops worldwide, and it's gonna be
in person in Portland. So one of the things that
(34:37):
we ask each guest is for your favorite cocktail or mocktail,
because that is going to be the featured drink at
the Bra the week of your episode.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Okay, first off, love a good brunch. Maybe one of
my favorites.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
On a Sunday power brunch, right or even better?
Speaker 4 (34:52):
Yeah, but if we're talking at a brunch, favorite one
is the Bloody Mary.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay, we're not talking.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Don't stack it high with the whole bunch a fluff,
Like I just want a good, solid, spicy, bloody mary. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So what is without fluff?
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Well, there's some that they start adding, like cheeseburgers and
hot fun things that are coming out the top, like
we just I don't want the food, I want to
I want the drink.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I just want the drink. Okay. So if it's a
bunch cog and what if it's a right, what if
it's an everyday cocktail?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, a regular coctile known for for enjoying Bourbon, big
fourbon whiskey myself. Yeah, i'd say straight most of the time,
but a good Manhattan every now and then.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, okay, I like it. Okay, So we'll work that
into the sports Brad the week of this episode. So
now we'll do quick rapid fire questions, okay, And I
will tell you that if we do this actually rapid fire,
it'll be the first time all season because I tend
to love the story of the answer of the rapid fire.
So we'll see how this goes. Okay, short answer, yep, yep,
short answer, because otherwise your girl's gonna want to know
(35:52):
all the background, all the history.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And if we did there it's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
I like a little long winded at time, so I'll
try to restrain myself.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
No, listen, this is it's fine. It's fine. We're gonna
get through it. Okay. Coffee or tea.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Coffee, gotta have the caffeine with or without creamer black.
You never know when you're gonna have cream availables black.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I really wish I could get behind that. Here we
go story. I can't do it without creamer. It's it's
one of my it's one of my vices. Okay, favorite
ice cream. Okay, we'll work on it.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Favorite ice cream flavor, mid chocolate chit. Put it in
all my protein shakes. Eat it all the time.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Oh okay, go to meal before or after playing wheelchair Rugby.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Peanut butter and jelly. We actually have like a staff
member that just constantly making peanut butter and jelly is
the entire competition. I don't know how many we go through,
but we should count sometime.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Okay, you do that count for me. I want to
know how many you go through? Are you a night
owl and early bird?
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Night owl?
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Night owl? Okay, where's your favorite place that your sport
has taken.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
You We're just in Cardiff in Wales. It's pretty amazing,
beautiful town, beautiful like castles and churches and yeah, weather
it was, I mean still cold and windy we're in whales,
but beautiful awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
If you were not a wheelchair rugby paralympian, what sport
would you want to be competing in?
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I so badly want to try bob sudding. So if
anybody has a hookup, I would absolutely I gotta be
in the front, like we're not. There's no running to
get in because we won't want in the front steering.
I think they steer in the front too, solo.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Okay, yeah, okay, So we're putting that out in the universe.
We're going from we're going to do, We're gonna do
summer and winter athlete. It wouldn't be the first, but
that would be unique to be wheelchair rugby and bob sled. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Well I needed to be winter because I got to
stick with the rugby short summer.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
So exactly. So we love Okay, cross train, cross training,
oh for sure, cerebral, but the front of the bob
slid it seems cerebral. If you're asking me. I grew
up in San Diego and I don't know anything about
it like much at all, but that's mine.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Anything with the ball is just go fast. I'm here
for that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That's your thing.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Okay, what is your favorite dessert?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
You gotta be honest, No people want to this. I
don't really like desserts that much. I could go with
other than yeah, with the shakes, okay now, but every
now and then do just like a warm brownie with
Vanilae me on top. Something about that warm cold como.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
And the gooiness. Yeah, it just has to be a
gooey brownie very much. So I'm with you, language, very
with you, all right. What is your dream vacation.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Spot anywhere on a beach? Give me warm, relaxed, no decisions.
That's my big one vacation. I want to make no decisions.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I do think. Have you tried surfing yet?
Speaker 4 (38:36):
I have not tried surfing. I absolutely would, though.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I think that's the next one. I think. I think
we're gonna do that. I think we're gonna get you
to my hometown of San Diego exactly, and we're gonna
we're gonna get Elena Nichols out there, and we're gonna
get you We're gonna get you surfing, because if you
like going fast, nothing's better than going fast and not
having to do anything to go for you. Come on,
this is next Okay, you go in the gold. Then
we'll meet you in Syan. We'll have a surf session.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
What is the best piece of advice you have ever gotten?
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Just keep moving forward, even when you can't see the
full picture of things. You don't know what's coming down
the road. Just take that next step and then go
from there. Make a decision.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We talked a little bit about the collisions that happened
in wheelchair rugby. What is the wildest mishaf you have
ever had while playing your sport?
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Wildest mishaf?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I mean trying to.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Make it not be like most dangerous. Try to yeah,
try to eat the language there a little bit.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Like I said, I still have a mother who every
time I get go down, she makes me when I
come up and it's being televised, to give her the
thumbs up that I'm.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Okay abby wand vac used to do that.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, Well, if that's all I got to do to
keep mom happy, then we're probably doing okay. I think
my biggest rugby mishaf though would be early on in
my career, and thank god it was just in a
training session, but I got the ball and sport in
the wrong goal and I to this day, anytime that
we at halftime, my teammates are like, there were is
going that way. It's been years and it's still fair.
(40:01):
We're scoring that way.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Oh no, we love a mistake that won't get let go.
Yeah okay, So when you're in the huddle in Paris
and we're watching and your entire team is pointing at
the goal that you're scoring.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
That's them. Give me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, okay, duly noted. And then the last thing for
you two part question, what does powerful mean to you?
Speaker 4 (40:26):
I think it's finding that one activity or many activities
that just make you feel comfortable in your own skin
and confident and excited and passionate and like just can't
wait to get back to doing it. And for me,
you know, that's being on the rugby court, like I
just feel so confident and everything just will feel so
(40:47):
smooth and easy and fun and challenging in all the
right ways. And yeah, I think to me that's what
that powerful means.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So you kind of answered that the second part of
that question. But when is the time that you feel
the most powerful.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Yeah, Like I said, either being on the rugby court,
when I'm teaching my students too. It's just like that
everything kind of connects where you just feel really prepared.
You know, this is what you're good at. You found
the thing you love doing, the thing that you are
passionate and excited about, and you can see it, and
you know, I can feel it in myself when it happens,
and I love seeing it in others as well, when
they find that one thing that they're just like, this
(41:23):
is this is my jam, this is what I love doing,
this is what I'm really good at, and you kind
of get in that flow. State's exciting.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
What do you want people to know about the Paralympic
movement coming into twenty twenty four?
Speaker 4 (41:34):
I think you know, the Paralympic movement continues to grow
in popularity and visibility. We've got a lot more work
to do, but for people to see us as elite athletes,
elite athletes that are no different than our Olympic counterparts.
We are all training extremely hard to compete in our sport.
It's just yes, our sport looks different than what people
(41:55):
are used to seeing, but they're just as exciting to
watch and to fall in with. And I think the
more visibility that we can have and support, we know
people are going to fall in love with our stories.
We know people are going to fall in love with
our sports. We just need the opportunity to tell those stories.
And I think that's what's happening in the media today
is more opportunities, more visibility, and it's important beyond just
(42:19):
us that are currently as athletes, as para athletes. It's
for the higher meaning of It is for the kid
that just had a spinal cord injury and is in
rehab it's twenty two years old and things, what am
I going to do with my life? What now? Or
the parent who has a three year old with fina
bifida and it doesn't know what their future is going
to look like? What are they going to do to
(42:40):
be able to see this route of adaptive sports that
can reconnect you with some level of what we know
as normalcy and something to be passionate about and strive for,
and the lessons that you can learn from being able
to participate in the adaptive sport It's just so important
to get people exposed to it, to know that it's
out there. Know, there's a lot of different sports, and
(43:02):
you can find anybody of any functional ability can find
one that fits them and that they're passionate about and
that makes them feel powerful.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So I want to give you an opportunity here to
talk directly to that person, that twenty two year old
who just had a spinal cord injury and is wondering
what are we going to do with the rest of
our lives, To the girl who's in a wheelchair and
really crazy passionate about rugby and sees you the very
first woman competing for Team USA and wheelchair Paralympic rugby.
(43:30):
What do you want to say to them?
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I want to say, just step out of that comfort
zone and try it. Whatever it is that you've kind
of got your eye on and you're maybe a little interested,
and you've been scrolling on social media and you see
it and it looks kind of interesting and exciting, just
put yourself out there and try it. Particularly any pair
of community, para athlete community is just so welcoming and
(43:52):
excited to share what we love with others and get
others involved. And passionate about it as well, and you know,
trying to work at that next generation. Then it goes
beyond sport. It goes into being able to know how
do I get back to school, how do I get
back to driving? How do I go travel the world?
And it not be this big plus and to do
(44:14):
it it can be simple, and you can really like
our diagnosis, our disability, our functional limitations don't have to
limit our lives in what they are composed of. There's
just this whole world that still exists, and you just
need to find those connections and those people that can
help show you that. And I think the best way,
(44:36):
by far and away, the best way to get connected
to that and get connected to disability communities to adapt
to sports.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Awesome, Sarah, Thank you so much for joining this episode
of the Powerful Podcast. Cannot wait to root you and
Team USA on in just a few weeks here in Paris,
twenty twenty four. Here's hopeing y'all bring home that gold.
But we are so proud of who you are as
a person, and we're so grateful for you spending the
time I'm with us here today.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
This is a reminder to check us out every Tuesday,
all summer long, everywhere you get your podcasts, And if
you really enjoy this and don't want to miss an episode,
be sure to hit that subscribe button,
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