According to a recent Spectrum News feature, the University of California has introduced an adaptive athletics program, highlighting the journey of student-athlete Mikiahya Greene. Greene, who was paralyzed from a gunshot wound 15 months ago, has now joined the UC Adaptive Athletics track and field team and is redefining her athletic identity through the sport.
For Greene, transitioning from traditional running to wheelchair racing is a profound shift. "It looks different because unlike me using my legs like I was before when I was running in high school, my chair is my legs," she told Spectrum News 1. Her story is one of resilience and adaptability, echoing a larger narrative of the adaptive sports movement and its growing presence in collegiate athletics.
Leading these efforts at UC is Jacob Counts, coach and program director of the Adaptive Athletics team and former Paralympian. Counts brings coaching expertise and personal insight into the experience of being an adaptive athlete. "My hope for all of our athletes is one that they get the opportunity to take their athletic career as far as they want and where they want," Counts said in a statement obtained by the University of Cincinnati. He emphasizes not just success in sports but also the personal growth that comes from competing.
While practices for the team are just getting underway, Greene already has her sights set on a formidable goal: the Paralympics. "I didn't see myself doing this. This is not something that I saw in my future. I didn't even know it was something that I can do. But it's giving me that hope that this is just the beginning," Greene said in a statement obtained by Spectrum News 1. As ambitions like hers take shape, they underscore the importance and impact of the UC Adaptive Athletics program on the lives of student athletes with disabilities.
