Using accomplished Paralympic athletes as a foundation, Team Phoenix has recruited a varied group of women with disabilities. Some experienced, others just testing the competitive waters for the first time.
“One of the Team Phoenix goals is to create a pathway for young women with disabilities to connect with those who have been successful both in sports and outside the sport community,” says Isabel Bohn, Executive Director of the Center. Other goals are to allow women with disabilities to be more integrated into the sport community, to change perceptions, and make triathlons more accessible.
Team Phoenix mentor-athletes include Laura Schwanger, a multi-medalist in the Paralympics, her sport career spans decades and includes a bronze medal in Beijing last year. Schwanger, a veteran, now travels the country working with newly injured military personnel. Another is Pam McGonigle, a visually impaired runner with Paralympic success who was coaxed out of competitive retirement for this event. Hope Hand, a former IRS manager and Paralympic athlete and coach is yet another successful example, on and off the playing field. Women like these are important mentors and role models to young women with disabilities and those newly injured.
Team Phoenix athletes will compete in a relay format, where each competitor will do at least one leg of the three sport event; swim, cycle, or run. Each of the four teams has at least one woman with a disability on it.
Some of the athletes will compete in hand-cycles, which are adapted cycles powered not by legs but arms. Others will race the running leg in state of the art push-rim racing chairs. One athlete is visually impaired and will run with a guide runner.
The name Team Phoenix has a special meaning. Many of the athletes have had to rebuild shattered lives, or overcome a lifetime of challenge to get to the point where they can stand on a starting line. The myth of the Phoenix is an apt metaphor for the athletes of Team Phoenix.
Team Phoenix has been made possible in part by the generous and helpful SheRox/Danskin organization. “I don’t think this would have been possible without them, they “get it,” says Program Director, Jeff McGinnis.
About the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports:
The Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, based in Philadelphia, PA, serves people with physical disabilities of all ages, from new participants through Paralympic levels. The Center is a 501-c3 not-for-profit whose mission is to provide lifestyle sport and recreation to people with disabilities in a community based setting. Breaking barriers, decreasing the isolation often caused by a disability, and integrating people into their community are hallmarks of the Center. The Center operates eight sport programs including, skiing, kayaking, rowing, sailing, cycling, climbing, sled hockey, and aquatics. It also educates health care professionals about the benefits of healthy, active lifestyles for people with disabilities.
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About the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports:
The Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, based in Philadelphia, PA, serves people with physical disabilities of all ages, from new participants through Paralympic levels. The Center is a 501-c3 not-for-profit whose mission is to provide lifestyle sport and recreation to people with disabilities in a community based setting. Breaking barriers, decreasing the isolation often caused by a disability, and integrating people into their community are hallmarks of the Center. The Center operates eight sport programs including, skiing, kayaking, rowing, sailing, cycling, climbing, sled hockey, and aquatics. It also educates health care professionals about the benefits of healthy, active lifestyles for people with disabilities.
Contact:
Jeff McGinnis, Program Director
PCAS
#4 Boathouse Row
Philadelphia, PA 19130
215.327.8943 (c) 215.765.5118 (o)
media@centeronline.com
