UC researchers help create national registry for adaptive athletes

Spectrum News spoke with members of UC's adaptive track and field team, coach Jacob Counts and researcher MeMe Earnest-Stanley about a new national collaboration co-led by UC that is spearheading research and wellness programming with the goal of improving care for adaptive athletes.

Researchers at UC, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital are working together to develop the Para-Athlete Research for Wellness, Injury Prevention and Sports Medicine Excellence (PARA-WISE) registry.

Adaptive track and field athletes Lydia Yax, Mikiahya Greene and Logan Cover told Spectrum News they each have had different journeys to the track, which also has come with different injuries.

“I’ve cut my arms quite a few times, and as I’ve built more muscle and practiced more, I’ve kind of pinched radial nerves. I can’t feel below a certain level, so I have to do skin assessments because it’s still possible to get an injury at a lower level and not know,” Greene said.

The PARA-WISE registry aims to build the infrastructure necessary to support a nationwide network of adaptive athlete injury information, ultimately developing the capacity to sustain and expand successful injury prevention programs tailored to these athletes.

“The great thing about it is it’s going to give us a lot of information just about recreational, competitive, elite athletes in the U.S.,” Earnest-Stanley said. “Getting the data that we’re going to get from this study is going to help us find the balance to help them really prevent injury and help them improve their quality of life and help them reach their peak level of performance."

Read or watch the Spectrum News story.

Read more about the PARA-WISE research.

Read more about UC Adaptive Athletics.

Featured photo at top of Mikiahya Greene at the Flying Pig Hand Cycle 10K provided.