All right, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals who are building accessible businesses,
advocating for inclusion, or excelling in adaptive sports.
Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities,
but give them a platform to amplify their voice and share insight and information to create a more accessible world.
Today we are joined by Wyatt Spalding. Wyatt has been competing in the Special Olympics for 17 years.
We'll talk about his incredibly successful athletic career. He has been involved in athlete leadership, health messenger training, government relations.
He's one of two athletes selected from North America to be a Special Olympics Sergeant Shriver Global Messenger.
And outside of competition, Wyatt is a staff member at Special Olympics Nebraska.
He hosts three podcasts and a friend of many.
I listened to a couple episodes of your show, Braham the Attempt, and I hope that I'm able to be half as good of a host as you are.
Wyatt, thank you for joining me today.
Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be on.
Hopefully that intro did you justice, but we'll talk a little bit more about it.
Maybe before we dive into Special Olympics and athletics,
you want to tell me a little bit about childhood, maybe growing up, what school was like?
Yeah, so growing up, I'm a twin.
My twin brother Weston and I were born two months premature.
Did not get super into the medical part, because I don't know all of it, but
basically my esophagus wasn't attached to my stomach.
I had a condition called like a T. fistula, and it's like one in
15,000 or the odds of getting it were super low and I got it.
And I ended up having 13 surgeries in the first six months of my life.
I ended up having my 14th surgery my senior year of high school.
So I've had 14 surgeries in my life. And then growing up,
you know, I was just like any other kid.
Had two older sisters, twin brother.
But when I would go to school, I would say probably like around, I don't know, third, fourth grade.
I started to notice I was like a little bit different than the other kids.
Obviously, I knew I was different because my hand
is really affected by my CP, my right hand.
School was, it was tough. I didn't really like school because I would like study.
It seemed like more than my siblings would because I just couldn't process all the information as quick.
Or I'd study real hard and not do good on tests.
I was in the resource classes.
So I was never with my friends really in any of the classes.
I played, I played like YMCA sports as a kid.
But then as we got older, I still hung out with my friends that played sports.
And eventually I became the manager instead of playing.
And they were all in the same classes usually, but then me, I'm in the resource classes.
And always was kind of like behind.
It was, I always felt stuck in the middle because like I could communicate really well.
Yeah, I had a disability, but it was mostly physical, you know, and just I struggled a little intellectually just in school.
And it was just, it was tough. Like I went through some medical stuff on and off throughout going to school.
And just missing a lot of school. I'd always be behind.
And it wasn't for my parents, especially my mom.
You know, I don't know how far I would have made it in school.
I definitely would have flunked out because it was hard to keep up sometimes.
But yeah, I mean, school, it taught me like, you're not going to do everything you want in life.
But to get to where you want to go, you got to put in the work.
And I knew all I had to do was get through high school and a couple years of college.
And I never would have to go to class again.
But yeah, education was really important to my family.
And they tried to help me as much as possible.
So yeah, did your school have programs like Special Olympics or Best Buddies?
No, it wasn't like a unified schools, like what we call in Nebraska, unified schools.
Yet the unified schools program was my brother and I telling our friends,
hey, Wyatt's got a Special Olympic game. You got to come, come watch.
And they always think like, you know, and I get it.
Like, is this like kind of a YMCA, you know, everyone plays environment.
And it's like, yeah, everybody plays.
And you know, it's not like high school where you just play the best players.
Everyone plays, but it's competitive.
And so my brother and I would just go around school and tell our friends.
And we got our best friend Kenny to come in middle school.
And then when we got to high school, he became one of our coaches.
And then like by my sophomore year, I got a bunch of my friends to come to my game.
And I made this huge shot in a game and my friends went crazy.
It was like the loudest I've ever heard the gym.
It was like a YMCA gym and we played full court, but full court on the side hoops.
So the short way, so it was just packed.
And then in the year, then I'm cheering for me when I made the shot.
It was pretty cool.
So yeah, I'd say the program, I guess, which is word of mouth by my brother and I.
So nothing like it is today.
You and Weston were both born prematurely, but does he, did he not have as many medical
complications as you did?
Yeah.
Like, so actually the funny thing was like when I was born, like my umbilical cord was
like hanging on by an inch or two and I already had weak lungs.
My brother actually had like weaker lungs than I did because I was just used to having
to work harder.
But then he was in the hospital for a month and then came home and then I was in the hospital
for like six months.
And so I can tell with some asthma stuff when we got older, but nothing too serious.
And he was healthy, played football, basketball, baseball, uh, multiple sports.
He played basketball, mostly basketball in high school, played college basketball.
He was all good.
And it was kind of hard, you know, like I was always really proud of him and what he
did.
And, but I like, I felt a little jealous too, because like, I want to go to basketball camp
or I want to go out for the middle school basketball team, but I just couldn't because
of my disability.
And I know it was hard for my parents to tell me that, but what my brother would do is he'd
go to some summer basketball camp and then come home and we do the same drill as he did
at the camp in our driveway.
We just did our own camps.
So he always made sure that I felt like included and like as much as possible.
And I didn't want him to feel bad just because I can't go to basketball camp or he can't
go out for the basketball team.
Like, you know, it's not his fault I have a disability and can't go out for the team.
Like I was still the manager and because I wanted to watch him play and hang out with
our friends.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
That's a very mature approach to it.
As you were telling the story, that was one of the things I was thinking about, whether
that relationship was ever fractured in any way, or whether you were ever envious of your
brother or whether he ever felt guilt that he could play a sport and you can't, but it
sounds like you guys really came to a mutual understanding of how you could both kind of
thrive and perform to the best of your abilities.
Yeah.
So it was kind of like, you know, like middle school, we probably weren't the best friends,
but I don't think that would have mattered if I would have a disability or not.
It's middle school.
It's not the greatest time of your life.
And as I went into high school, I went through some pretty serious medical conditions and
we just got closer and closer, it seemed like.
I just would be practicing by myself, shooting hoops, like two to 500 shots a day at the
Y and he would like come find me and we'd go play, go find guys to play two on two together
because he's like, well, you actually play hard.
Like some of our friends, like they're just messing around.
Like I want to play a real game.
So I quit and came to find you so we can go play a real game.
And yeah, I think like just that bond of basketball brought us together and just being twins,
there's nothing, it's hard to explain.
And if you're not a twin, it's just a bond that never can be broken.
It's different than just being brothers.
And yeah, I think as we kind of went through more adversity, as we got older in high school
with my medical stuff, we just became really close.
So yeah, my first introduction to disability was through Special Olympics.
I really had no experience prior to that.
No real introduction to inclusion prior to sophomore year of high school.
I broke my wrist and I couldn't play basketball.
So my mom forced me to volunteer with this new Special Olympics program that had just
been started in the district.
And honestly, I was immediately hooked.
I can't quite explain it, but I was just so attracted to how passionate the athletes were,
how grateful they were for my time.
It felt like in a time in high school where like everyone expected a lot out of you, all
these athletes really expected was like my time and attention.
And that was just like so refreshing to me.
Like they didn't have any preconceived idea of what they wanted me to be.
They just wanted me to be present for them.
And so I was immediately hooked.
Probably spent a few thousand hours through high school and college coaching, basketball,
powerlifting, tennis, golf, soccer.
And I know you competed at USA Games.
I was the tennis coach for Massachusetts at the 2014 USA Games.
So I just missed you by one iteration there.
But Special Olympics obviously completely changed my life.
It kind of pointed me on the career path that I'm in now.
When I opened my gym, the premise was to give my Special Olympic athletes a place to train
alongside their peers.
So I know something like that would be important to you and would resonate with you as well.
If someone's hesitant to get involved with an organization like Special Olympics, what
would you tell them?
I would tell them that, you know, there's no pressure at all.
Like you want athletes that are going to work hard every day when you show up, then Special
Olympics is kind of the place to go.
Because like you said, you opened your gym and you wanted athletes like us to be a part
of it.
Like a lot of gyms, you know, we don't go there because not that they don't want us
to be there, but it's kind of hard because like maybe they're not used to having someone
with a disability come to their gym.
So how do we get them to adapt and do the workout?
I think people are just kind of nervous.
Sometimes around people with disabilities, and I get it, like sometimes it can be a little
nerve wracking, but once you start to talk to them, like we're like one of the hardest
working athletes because we know like we deal with a lot more hard stuff outside of sports
and just winning and losing.
Like I know for me, like there were times in my life, like I was going through some
serious medical stuff and I was like, well, I even be able to play in the gym.
I was like, well, I even be able to play like basketball the next day or ever again.
When I had my big back surgery to fix my scoliosis, I didn't know if I'd be able to shoot hoops
in the driveway by myself.
Wasn't even to play a game.
I just wanted to shoot hoops in the driveway.
So I think like you get athletes that know that sports is important and yeah, we're here
to win.
Like I think people think we're just here to have fun and we don't care about winning.
It's not true.
We're athletes.
Athletes care about winning.
And I think we just kind of know like, look, we're going to try our best to win the game.
And if we don't, it's not the end of the world and you know, it sucks, but there's worse
stuff than losing a game.
So I think that's a message that I think sometimes doesn't get communicated to the public very
well is that like, it's not just about a participation trophy.
Like we were in competitive special Olympics, like basketball games.
Our athletes really want to win.
The other team really wanted to win.
I think what you see sometimes is just this like grand everyone having a good time, but
at the end of the day, like it is competitive.
And I think that's kind of a narrative that I think should be pushed forward as well.
So people kind of have a different perception of disability.
Like it's not just like a charity case.
It's these athletes are actually training hard and competing.
Yeah, for sure.
I play in this tournament called the experience in Charlotte, Virginia every January and you
have to be invited to the tournament.
You can't just sign up like all the other tournaments.
And it's like the top 32, especially with tennis players in the U S get invited and
it's an elite level.
Like special Olympics is really trying to do like elite levels now.
And you know, there are levels where it is about just having fun and you know, that's
great too.
But then there's higher levels like that tournament, like just like if you would play in a state
basketball tournament or whatever growing up, you know, we as athletes with disabilities,
we want to play at the highest level we can.
And I think people don't really think about that, that we want to try to be the best.
Like we were not just out there to have fun.
So you mentioned etiquette and sometimes maybe in like the gym environment, they a trainer
might not be comfortable working with a disability.
What would you want if you were going to a gym for the first time?
What would you want a trainer to ask you about your cerebral palsy or how would you want
them to treat you?
At first, I would like them to just talk to me like they would anybody else.
I get a lot of not all the time, but that happens more than you would think.
Like they talk to me like I'm six years old and I don't know, you know, what's going on.
So that's kind of just, you know, disrespectful.
But first, you know, like I said, talk to me like I'm a 28 year old man.
And then second would be you can act like I'm okay with ask with anyone asking me anything
like what kind of movements can you do?
Like can you how much can you lift, especially on your right side?
How far can you stretch?
You know, just stuff like that.
Like I went to a kickboxing class the other day and the instructor was real cool.
She said, yes, just do what you can do.
And I just told her like I've done classes like that before.
And she's like, yeah, if you can't like do certain things, no problem.
We can always adapt to it.
And yeah, it went really well.
So I think like just being upfront about it, because sometimes if you're like hesitant
and you try to be over nice and kind of come off as like a little disrespectful because
you're not just like being upfront with us like we like we don't really know anything.
Like yeah, we know we have a disability.
We know it's going to be hard.
But we're looking for you to like help us adapt to it or at least tell us ways to be
safe so we can do the class with everybody else.
So that's a common thing that we try to teach our volunteers at the gym or back in the days
that I was running Special Olympics programs is like communicating with the individual
as an individual as their biological age, maybe not like their cognitive age.
Like if you're speaking to a 30 year old with Down syndrome, speak to them as if they're
a 30 year old adult.
Maybe they maybe they do function at a younger age equivalent, but that doesn't mean that
they should be spoken to.
But I think that's it's always it's never ill intentioned, but people default to that
like baby talk sort of thing.
Yeah.
And it's definitely one of the one of the hardest things to communicate to like new
high school volunteers sometimes is like, yeah, these are athletes that are older than
you like speak to them like they're adults and find ways to support them in an age appropriate
manner.
And sometimes it's adults and it's like I get mad more at adults because it's like you're
an adult.
You know better than come on man.
But some kids are pretty good because they don't really care if you have a disability
or not.
So absolutely.
Sometimes that blissful ignorance is actually a beneficial thing.
Just not knowing any better.
What would you say is your most memorable sporting experience?
Oh man, that's a hard one.
I'd say probably playing in the USA games.
I played in the 2018 Special McUSA games.
I played tennis and I got third in singles and then I got first in doubles with my doubles
partner Haley Wagner.
We were actually down like eight to four in the third set tiebreaker and we came back
and won 10 to eight.
It was pretty crazy.
And we were like, did we just do that?
Like wow, like we were about to lose two points ago it seemed like and we just came back and
that was like kind of dream come true.
And then I played in the 2022 USA games and what made that special was I got to play basketball,
unified basketball with my twin brother Weston.
And that was cool because growing up we always wanted to play on the same high school or
college team together and it didn't happen.
But we started playing unified in college and so we did that and had cool experiences
with that.
But to play at the USA games was like playing at the highest level for both of us and it
was just cool to share that with him.
We ended up playing in the first division and we got fourth.
So we didn't get a medal but we finished fourth out of the top 13 in the US for unified teams
and that was pretty cool because Nebraska is not really known for basketball.
So we showed that we were good at basketball.
So I just think like those big moments because I worked when I went to 2018 what made it
cool was I thought I was going to go to 2014.
Like you did for coaching but I had my back surgery so then I couldn't even get picked.
So then I worked all four years for that to not get picked because of a medical thing.
So then I worked another four years and got picked and basketball I never knew if I would
get picked because it's my favorite sport but it's not my best sport.
Like tennis I'm probably better at but basketball I just like a little more.
So just to be able to know that I worked hard enough to become a good enough basketball
player and to play with my brother that was a huge accomplishment.
So are you a big NBA fan?
Yeah I like the Celtics.
So yeah there we go.
Yes.
Perfect.
Last night was pretty bad but other than that.
Yeah I can't believe they lost last night.
That was rough.
That's funny.
Yeah we're in Massachusetts obviously a big Celtics fan here as well.
I'm not sure how they lost the Lakers without LeBron or AD but that's beside the point.
You're a podcast host several different shows.
What is your preparation like before you record an episode?
So first I'll look up facts about who I'm interviewing.
Kind of think come up with some questions.
Probably a list of anywhere from like 8 to 12 questions and then just kind of prepare
like tell the person I'm interviewing like here's a question I'm going to ask you or
you know ask them too like kind of like what you told me like is there anything you don't
want to talk about or are you good with talking about anything?
And so and every podcast is kind of different.
My Be Unexpected podcast I wrote with my best friend Jake Burnside and that's more about
like going through adversity and like hard times in life because Jake and I have both
gone through some pretty challenging times in life that not a lot of like 17 year olds
will go through when we were younger and so we like to hear people's stories about how
they overcame adversity so it gets pretty personal so we do ask them is it okay to like
are you okay sharing that and then the special McWan Brave in the Attempt is like about health
and also kind of like how special McAthletes kind of live their lives a little bit and
so I get like health professionals on I've had a couple of dietitians.
I had Tim Shriver on the chairman of special McSoul that was really cool and just kind
of like I always send them questions like here are the questions I will be asking you
and so that just kind of like laying the guests be comfortable with coming on the podcast
and doing my research about what I want to ask them and then I ended up running a third
one because my and it just started so it's not too big yet my twin brother wanted to
do one and so that's just kind of us like talking about what it was like growing up
with me with disability him as an athlete playing high school sports in college and
you know just talking with your brother you know but yeah when I'm the other two though
I just try to prepare as best as I can to be professional and like I said make the guests
feel comfortable so.
On the unexpected one you talk about overcoming adversity sorry what would you say are the
biggest challenges that you have personally overcome over the last ten years maybe since
finishing high school?
Well so my senior year of high school I had scoliosis really bad it was like an 80 degree
curve so like my whole body was kind of turned and like I could like I felt my head to the
left my ear could touch almost my shoulder and so that was like a huge thing they really
took my spine from the top of my neck to the middle of my back and they just pulled it
back up and so today I have like three rods and 27 screws in my spine and that was really
tough I remember coming out of surgery just feeling the most excruciating pain I've ever
felt in my life it was like a two year recovery but special Olympics actually helped me get
back because like my my physical therapy was I just had to walk like a bunch and I just
kind of thought how I didn't make it to the USA games in 2014 and that was like my goal
from like freshman year of high school and now it's I made it to my senior year of high
school and I just took like ten steps backwards and I knew that 2018 was you know four years
from that from then but I just kind of like would listen to motivational speeches music
drill a basketball around my neighborhoods and just kind of envision myself like making
it to the 2018 USA games and I think just having that belief that you know everything's
gonna be alright like I may be down now but I'll make it you know I wasn't supposed to
you know even make it when I was born there were a couple episodes where they had to like
revive me or bring me back to life when I was a baby because I was just having all kinds
of medical problems so I mean if I did that as a baby now I was like a 18 19 year old
you know I'm a lot stronger how can I not come back from this so that was like my biggest
hurdle and then couple years down the road 2018 I all of a sudden started having these
choking episodes and I started like not being able to eat as much like I couldn't get as
much down so I think it's called like dysphagia and what happens is like I have this wrap
so the wrap is what connected my esophagus to my stomach when I was born and apparently
it can like slowly fail and so that's what was kind of happening it was like slowly failing
and then like the entry into my stomach would like close up one time it closed up like completely
and I couldn't even get water down and I got dehydrated and I lost 10 pounds in two days
and then I had to go to the hospital for a couple days and then it took me like 10 months
to gain back 10 pounds so I've been dealing with that ever since 2018 and so what I do
is I go in every 8 to 12 weeks and it's called scope and they basically like take this camera
I'll go down and they use like this balloon thing and open up my stomach again so I've
been doing through that and of course like I always have like the worst timing it got
really bad during the covid time so I didn't deal with that during when we were all dealing
with covid and I think like that was a big moment for me because being 24 25 at a time
you know I wanted to be independent wanted to move out just like my sisters and my twin
brother have done but you know my parents were always like you know but you got this
and got this medical condition you know and I was gonna move out in 2020 I was two days
away and then covid happened and then I couldn't move out because I was at high risk so I was
so close and then kind of fell short of my dream but I kind of came to the realization
it was like look I'm always gonna have a medical problem probably you know I'll always have
CP it's just part of my life it doesn't make me who I am but it's just something I have
to deal with it sucks but you know I'm just gonna have to face that adversity probably
for the rest of my life and I'm not saying I've always been in a good mood I've had down
days and negative days but eventually what I've learned is you got to pull yourself out
of it because you know it's like they always say like you know life doesn't life just keeps
going like it doesn't stop for anybody so you just got to keep going even if like I'll
fake it like I'm in a good mood but really deep down I'm like hurting or I've gone through
depression several times especially as a kid growing up and in a little bit in my early
twenties I went through depression and it's just you got to keep going man I mean I'd
say motivational sports movies have always helped me because I felt like I am those guys
like you come back from this big adversity and no one thought you could do it and you
just proved everybody wrong and that's always really fun to do so just having the belief
that everything's gonna be okay and having the faith that everything will work out in
the end even it's not the way you planned it so.
Thanks for sharing that vulnerability there's a lot of a lot of really good quotes in there
that you said appreciate you sharing that.
What are your goals for the next five years maybe?
So like you said when you introduced me I'm a Sergeant Shriver Global Messenger now so
I want to do really well in that you know become a pretty well-known speaker for Special
Olympics and just people with disabilities in general and I hope to like make a good
impact on people's lives as I do that.
I go to training in Washington DC like in May so I'm really looking forward to that
so just becoming a well-known speaker and sharing my stories and ups and downs and helping
people get through their everyday lives and telling them like hey man like if I did it
with all these medical problems and I'm like you're like two times my size because I don't
even weigh a hundred pounds and not even five foot ten you know you can do it too and so
doing that and sports wise just trying to work on my basketball and tennis game mostly
trying to become one of the best especially tennis players in the US someday you know
it's a hard dream but working on it and basketball I just want to you know be able to do what
I can help my team leave my team and scoring assist or whatever they need me to do and
showing people I can play quarterbacks on the smallest guy out there that's always fun
because I'm thankful that my parents were athletic and I have a decent arm so but and
then just like personal again want to be independent man I'd probably say that's the big thing
I want to be independent you know live on my own and maybe have my own apartment someday
be able to support myself I live with my parents right now one goal of mine that I did complete
that I got my parents I lived in a I grew up in Fremont Nebraska which about a smaller
town about an hour from Lincoln Nebraska well I got my parents to move to Lincoln Nebraska
finally so now I just kind of like there's more to do here and just like I wanted that
adventure of you know not having to live in my hometown because like I didn't get a choice
I went to the college in my hometown because around that time like I said the back surgery
so I'm just kind of another step towards independence and happy I got to Lincoln and I got friends
I live here and I made some new friends but hoping I can move out and live in an apartment
someday if I could even get have having my parents have now my siblings have I'd feel
like a millionaire man because I you know when you can't really support yourself and
not because you're not trying because of medical stuff and stuff that's out of your control
really you know it's hard but I try to tell myself like you try to control you can control
and with me it's just like great things have happened to me the same as my siblings it
just has taken me longer so I'll get there and one day I will be independent and be able
to support myself so yeah that's kind of my main dream besides everything else so yeah
I love that the person who facilitated this connection Michaela I was actually just on
a call with her a couple hours ago presenting to one of her groups but she was saying that
you were crushing it at Special Olympics Nebraska and they like moved you from a volunteer to
a to a paid position so that's a huge yeah that's a huge accomplishment what is your
what is your role within the state organization there so I'm like a program associate and
I help with like athlete leadership and then I do the podcast for them I'm starting to
learn my role in like the social media part of it and kind of like I'll help out with
all different areas like I haven't really started now but I think I'm gonna help out
with like there's thing called YACS so that's like the high school students they get involved
with the unified schools help out with that go around and I'm gonna do like some health
seminars for health professionals that are either in school or that are in the medical
field now and just like teach them what it's like to deal with someone with a disability
in a doctor's office what we need them to do so they can help us and we can help them
understand like how they can help us become more healthy because a lot of people with
disabilities I think that's the statistic is like like we died 15 years earlier than
we're supposed to and so that's one of my roles too and I just kind of started so I'm
kind of all over the place but I'm really excited because like my job basically is like
helping a lot of different areas but those are like the main ones right now and I like
I'm pretty I love my job like I can't wait to see like in a year what a where I'm at
so with the special links Nebraska so they've done a lot to me even before I got the job
to like I wouldn't be here without special links Nebraska so yeah it's awesome to be
able to give back to that organization that meant so much to you and it's cool like I'm
we're relatively new in our podcasting journey too and it's it's fun to be a beginner and
be learning how to host a podcast better disseminate a podcast better like edit a podcast better
it's it's been a cool process so I would imagine you kind of have some of those similar
experiences where you're kind of always refining your craft but it's been a fun learning experience
for sure it keeps it keeps the exciting yeah definitely like I think before I started my
first one I spent a month just trying to learn everything like especially like the tech stuff
if you like good like I'm good at content but you know tech stuff I was like this is
not my area so like I'm just trying to learn the basics start off and we'll go from there
you know yeah we'll have to talk after the episode and stay in touch as we're both trying
to trying to grow our platforms there it'll be a mutually beneficial I'm sure what are
common misconceptions that people have about you and your disability I think they think
I maybe just I can't do a lot of stuff that's on that that doesn't have disability can do
like people always ask me like you know can you walk this far a distance and stuff and
I was like yeah I can do that like yeah my legs probably bug me every day but because
I work out and stuff I just I can do it like I deal with several several palsy pain every
day which for me is like a spasm and then like a burning on my feet kind of but it's
all about mental toughness too like what my parents taught me like the best thing my parents
ever told me were these three things life isn't fair suck it up and rub some dirt on
it right so I just kind of would always say that and when I was in retail I think people
like customers sometimes would talk to me like like I went back for like I was six or
it was just like it was ridiculous and they just wouldn't respect me because I had a disability
and or like I had a great co-workers but they always ask like do you sit down like now I'm
fine my legs are killing me but I was like I don't want to be different than everyone
else I'm fine like I'll sit down when I get home you know so I think just knowing that
people with disabilities like some of us like we had to grow up a lot faster so we're like
a lot mentally tougher than people that don't have disabilities because we had to go through
some adult adversity at 15 13 maybe 10 years old we couldn't be a kid sometimes we had
to like go through this adult situation with our medical condition or maybe we're left
out of something because we need to be safe like of sports or whatever so I think like
people don't think we are tough enough to take the hard reality of life when really
we've been learning about the hard reality of life way before anyone without a disability
was because I mean the first day I was born you know when I came in the world like I kind
of like I kind of lost like I was felt I had adversity right away and nobody wants a disability
like no parent wants a kid to have a disability but if you do have a disability what we're
really good at is making the best of it like yeah we have a disability but it doesn't define
who we are I could be the way I am today without a disability you know my disability doesn't
make me this way I am this way because I'm why it's balding not because I have cerebral
palsy so I think if you talk to us you'd be surprised what we've learned about life from
an early age on because we've just been dealt with a little tougher hand than some so.
Health and fitness is obviously important to you what do you think needs to be done
to make fitness more accessible for people with disabilities more inclusive?
I think like if like gyms will maybe kind of post on their websites or add some time
advertisement like hey we have adaptive classes or we will adapt to your ability of physical
activity like I went to a gym Genesis where I read the description of the classes and
they're like it's for all people any athletic ability we will adapt to your physical ability
and I like that because like oh good like so if I show up you know if I can do something
they'll be cool with it like and sometimes they do advertise it but you know it's not
like big like on like a somewhere you can click on it just in this little tiny description
in the class which a lot of people maybe won't look at but I think just kind of being more
vocal about it like maybe you could bring in a couple athletes that have a disability
and have just one class for them to start with if they don't want to do it with everyone
else in the gym so they feel comfortable and then gradually they come back and do the classes
with everyone else because I think like people want us at the gym but maybe people with disabilities
don't feel like they want us like because we're nervous like you know like I said not
a lot of people like have cerebral palsy like when I go to a gym I maybe know I don't see
anybody that looks like me with like one hand and then another hand that doesn't look all
that great like so it's kind of confidence too like you're just helping maybe the just
having the confidence to go in and I know athletes do but if someone at the gym would
kind of be more confident in reaching out to us and being like hey will you come to
our gym and we'll make it adaptable for you and it's a safe place.
So transparent, transparent messaging and marketing from the gym like demonstrating that they're
willing to make those modifications when needed because I think oftentimes people with disabilities
aren't marketed to but it's tough from like the business owner standpoint as well I've
talked about this on some other episodes how I never want to like exploit my adaptive athletes
like sometimes I'll share awesome accomplishment from one of our athletes and the audience
or the people like commenting will direct their praise towards me like it's like oh
Brendan you're doing such a great thing by having this gym and I'm like no like that's
not what I'm trying to show I'm trying to show what the athlete's capable of so sometimes
as a business owner it's tough to find that line between marketing and demonstrating that
you're inclusive but not like exploiting or not looking for praise if that makes sense.
Yeah for sure or people like with me it's like I don't want to like I don't want that
over praise like oh man you're such an inspiration like yeah that's cool sometimes but sometimes
it gets overworked and it's like I just want to work out here like everybody else you know
I don't want it to be a big deal that I came to this gym and I'm not one guy with a disability
you know I'm just here to work out so.
Yeah so normalizing it and I think you made an important point where like obviously our
idea of inclusion as people with and without disabilities coexisting but you mentioned
how the adaptive athlete themselves might be more comfortable kind of in a group of
only other people with disabilities or maybe working in a one-to-one until they kind of
build up the confidence to be immersed within that group so I think that's that's a big
thing that gyms can do as well is to make sure they have like a clear onboarding process
for not only people with disabilities but for everyone to make sure they are comfortable
they have the prerequisite skills to like exist in these group classes so I think that's
a simple thing that all gyms could do is just making sure that members are comfortable and
onboarded properly and kind of acclimated to the environment that they offer.
Yeah sure.
Well Wyatt I think you shared a ton of great stuff super impressed by how articulate and
how you demonstrated and shared your message really appreciate it we'll definitely link
Brave in the Attempt and either of the other podcasts if you'd like to us to share those
as well but is there anything that you'd like to share with our audience is there any way
that they can benefit the work that you're doing?
Yeah I mean just like with people with disabilities I would just say you know just don't be afraid
to ask questions like we enjoy conversations with anybody and there's no need to be nervous
about coming up coming up someone with a disability and you can just ask questions like hey how
did you get CP or like you know what what is wrong with like why does your hand look
like that or something you know there's nothing shameful about that and we just want to be
treated like everyone else like like we're just the same as you we want to work out and
be in good shape and compete in sports just like the next athlete so yeah.
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