Parathletes find new opportunities with local adaptive sports program

The 2024 Paris Paralympics start this week with the opening ceremony along the Champs-Elysees and competition kicks off on Thursday.

There are a handful of athletes from Connecticut who will be representing at the games:

Swimming:

• Ali Truwit, Darien
• Matthew Torres, Ansonia

Wheelchair Fencing:

• Victoria Isaacson, Quinnipiac

Rowing:

• Ben Washburn, Madison
• Saige Harper, Sacred Heart University

Sitting Volleyball:

Just as every athlete is unique, their path to the Paralympics is as well. Often times, they can get their first taste of adaptive sports in a sports program, like the Gaylord Sports Association Adaptive Program in Wallingford.

“It is just as intense, just as competitive,” said Katie Joly, the program manager at Gaylord Sports. “These athletes are working just as hard as all the athletes who just competed in the Olympics.”

While none of this year’s athletes have come through Gaylord’s program, some have in the past. But for most of these parathletes, it’s not about competing at the highest level, but rather finding the fight to compete at all.

“Conventional physical therapy can only bring you so far,” said Korene Mosher Varano, an adaptive cyclist and paratriathlete whose left leg was amputated above the knee. “And then it’s done. And then they’re like ‘OK, go out and live.’ But at that point, I was still afraid to leave my house.”

Mosher Varano said it was the program at Gaylord that helped her first get on an adaptive bike. Now, she competes in paratriathlons and bought a farm with her husband.

“When I got into sports and started moving my body more and learning that I can balance on a bike, I feel like I was born out of the Gaylord Sports Association,” Varano said.

Rachel Grusse has tried just about every sport Gaylord has to offer. On this particular day, she was practicing wheelchair tennis.

She uses prosthetics, but said choosing to use a wheelchair has actually opened up more opportunities.

“I feel like I can move better, I couldn’t really run on my prosthetics,” Grusse said. “And you can play tennis with an able-bodied person in a wheelchair and that’s a beautiful thing to me. I want to be competitive and having the opportunity to use the wheelchair gives me that.”

Six of the sports offered at Gaylord are current Paralympic events. You can find more information here.