Lisa Sandelin loves exercise and competition. Of the many sports she enjoys, she truly adores hand cycling.
Sandelin also has spina bifida and is in a wheelchair, but that hasn’t slowed her down. She recently participated in a hand cycling event at Memorial Regional Hospital’s Adaptive Sports event.
“I have been doing wheel chair sports all my life. I love playing sports,” she said.
Ianacio Arce, who sustained a spinal cord injury, also participated in hand cycling. “This is great. I enjoying coming out here and participating in adaptive sports. I completed a bicycle trail,” he said.
Located at Markham Park, the Adaptive Sports event included a wide variety of adaptive sports from wheel chair basketball and hand cycling to sailing and scuba diving. Participants enjoyed the competition and exercise, while spending quality time with friends and fellow competitors.
Ray Shipman, who oversees adaptive sports medicine at Memorial, was pleased to see people getting together to enjoy adaptive sports.
“This is good for social well being and the chance for people with disabilities to exercise,” he said. “It helps them feel integrated with peer support.”
Sherrod Nelson, is a leader on the wheel chair basketball team and a hard nosed competitor. “This is a good activity,” he said. “When people are playing wheelchair basketball, they are among others who are in wheelchairs so everyone is playing at an equal level. We all play hard.”
Nelson’s wheelchair basketball team has competed on the national level and recently participated in a tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.
Karen Schiff, a physical therapist at Memorial loved helping out at the event. “It gives the participants a sense of freedom and allows them to do something they love,” she said.
