Para sports curious? We’ve got episodes for that!
by Alison Brown
July is Disability Pride Month and we are certainly proud of the amazing guests we have featured from so many Paralympic sports. Did you watch the Paris 2024 Paralympics and get hooked? You aren’t alone. According to Nielsen Sport, 193.6 million people watched a cumulative 763.3 million hours of broadcast coverage. That is a lot of fans for para sports!
Want to learn more? We pulled together the ultimate playlist to celebrate para sports and the Paralympics. Listen on to get up to speed on para sport and dive deeper into the world of the Paralympics:
Need a history lesson?
If you want to know more about how the Paralympic movement developed, we can help you there. Giles Long explains the classification system, or why there are so many different versions of the same race. Alexis Schaefer, former Commercial and Marketing Director, IPC and Craig Spence, Chief Brand and Communication Officer, IPC, share great insight into the history of the International Paralympic Committee.
History doesn’t have to be dry. Watch a movie! Zero to Hero is the biopic of So Wa Wai, Hong Kong’s first Paralympic gold medalist and Murderball is a documentary on Team USA wheelchair rugby, Alison’s favorite Paralympic sport!
If you want to understand the earliest roots of the Paralympic movement, listen to David Davis, author of Wheels of Courage, about the development of wheelchair basketball.
We also talk with athletes from Paralympics gone by:
- Rob Snoek – 1992, 1996, 2000 Paralympian in para athletics and current day broadcaster
- John Register – 1996 and 2000 Paralympian in para athletics (and our favorite Velvet Voice)
- Lo Nigrosh – member of Team USA’s first women’s sitting volleyball team in 2004
Stars from Paris 2024
We have some of the biggest stars for Team USA from Paris 2024. Yes, every single one of these is a certified Paralympic medalist. Some of them have whole collections!
- Chuck Aoki – wheelchair rugby
- Brian Bell – wheelchair basketball
- Samantha Bosco – para cycling
- Olivia Chambers – para swimming
- McKenzie Coan – para swimming
- Jessica Long – para swimming
- Grace Norman – para triathlon
- Noelle Malkamaki – para athletics/shot put
- Ellie Marks – para swimming
- Evan Medell – para taekwondo
- Lora Webster – sitting volleyball
- Daniel Romanchuk – para athletics/wheelchair track and marathon
- Matt Stutzman – para archery
Getting Ready for Milano-Cortina 2026: Winter para sports
The next Winter Paralympics is only about nine months away, so you need to learn more! We spoke with Steve Emt about wheelchair curling and Monica Quimby about sled hockey. We read
Driven to Ride by Mike Schultz, two-time Paralympian in para snowboard and The Hard Parts by Oksana Masters, Team USA’s most decorated Paralympian.
Getting Ready for LA28
The United States gets to host the next Summer Paralympics which means as the host nation, the USOPC has lots of opportunities to expand para sport. We spoke with Molly Quinn, CEO of United States Association of Blind Athletes, about what it takes to put together the first US team in blind football. We also chatted with LA28 hopeful in wheelchair tennis,Charlie Cooper about what his Road to LA looks like.
Which Paralympians would help you in a fight?
No need to worry about safety. We have talked to some of the strongest and toughest Paralympians, plus people who are really good at throwing things and shooting.
- Bobby Body – para powerlifting
- Marco de la Rosa – shooting para sport
- McKenna Geer – shooting para sport
- Ellen Geddes – wheelchair fencing
- Liana Mutia – para judo
- Justin Phongsavanh – para athletics/javelin
- Alison Levine – boccia
- Louise Sugden – para powerlifting
Why are you obsessed with Para Dressage?
Why do we keep talking about para dressage? Because all these riders have horses and service dogs and Alison loves animals. We talked to riders Beatrice de Lavalette and Sydney Collier, and discussed Sydney’s book Beyond Expectations.
Paralympics Daily Coverage: The best of para sports
Of course, you won’t want to miss our daily coverage of the Paralympics! We have produced daily shows for the past three Paralympics: Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022, and Paris 2024. At Tokyo 2020, we multi-screened along with you, but starting in Beijing, we were on the ground and were able to provide you the inside scoop of what was happening. In Paris, we were able to see and experience the sports we first watched during Tokyo 2020 and found new sports and athletes to love every day.
Be sure to keep listening as we will keep bring you interviews and stories to help you have more fun watching the Paralympics. Seriously, if you aren’t watching wheelchair rugby and sled hockey, you are missing out!