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It’s not every day we profile a woman who’s broken the glass ceiling. Dr. Sarah Adam, an assistant professor of occupational therapy, is the first woman to be on a US Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby team. While she may not have a spinal cord injury, she understands the loss of mobility and what it means to accept yourself as a person with a disability, which is something all people with SCI face. Read on for her story.
Why She’s Fearless?
It should come as no surprise that Adam, a 33 year old native of Naperville, Illinois, has been an athlete her whole life. Before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in college, she enjoyed an able-bodied life dotted with athletics and academia. She played lacrosse, flag football and softball in high school, but had to cut back on playing due to early symptoms of MS – numb hands and general fatigue – but she had yet to know she had a disease.
After high school, Adam made her way to Augustana College to complete her bachelor degree, and then went on to attend St. Louis University where she studied occupational therapy. During her studies, Adam’s MS symptoms grew and by the time she was 23 years old, she was suffering from incontinence. Also, while in graduate school, she was finally made aware of her health issue by a professor who noticed she had a significantly weaker hand. Within 2 years, Adam was officially diagnosed with MS.
Like many people with MS, Adam did not tell anyone she had the disease right away, instead waiting 9 months before letting her family and friends know. “As time went on and I was able to process it, I started shifting that mindset to who better than an occupational therapist to have a diagnosis like this?”
“I have so many tools in my tool belt to manage it. I have phenomenal resources and family support and friend support. Despite it being a difficult diagnosis to hear, I was eventually able to fall back on resources and my support to be able to manage it the best way I can and just move forward with my new normal,” Adam told the National MS Society last year.
And she decided to pivot from becoming an occupational therapist to becoming a professor of occupational therapy so she could still work as her disease progresses. And it was during her masters degree studies when Adam was introduced to wheelchair rugby, but from an OT-perspective, which eventually set the stage for her to one day participate in the sport.
After her diagnosis in 2016, Adam first worked as a volunteer and coach for her local wheelchair rugby team, and in 2019 Adam started to play rugby due to her disease progression. Per the sport’s rules, all players must have some upper body limitation. And get involved did she ever. After becoming a player, Adam, was had to re-learn the sport from the player perspective.
What’s Next?
After Adam began to play wheelchair rugby, she realized the sport was instrumental to many people’s recovery after sustaining a SCI, helping people connect with a powerful peer community and improve their physical strength. After graduating and beginning her career as an assistant professor at St. Louis University in occupational therapy, she began to collaborate with the university’s Adaptive Health and Wellness Center to collect and analyze data to show the benefits of adaptive sport and exercise for adults with disability.
In 2022, Adam became more seriously involved in wheelchair rugby when she was named to the 2022 US Wheelchair Rugby training squad. And by December 2023, she made history when she was chosen to be on the 2024 US Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby team, becoming the first US woman to do so. Ceiling thoroughly shattered.
At the Paris Paralympics the following year, the US team did amazingly well and made it all the way to the gold medal match after beating Great Britain. Unfortunately, they were bested by Japan in the end. A silver medal however is still a massive achievement and Adam can be happy knowing she made history in 2024, breaking the glass ceiling of the US wheelchair rugby team. And hopefully this means we’ll see more women on the US team at future Paralympic games.
ideas@spinalpedia.com
