Whether you're disabled or not, an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, a new sports training facility at Lakeshore is now available to everyone. It's called the Sports Science and Performance Center, or SSPC for short. Adam Sivia came from Louisiana to check out Lakeshore's new facilities. He's a multi-sport athlete. He says, “Adaptive powerlifting, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair football, track and field. I run, I throw, swim, a little bit of everything, do a little bit of cycling, re-learning how to ride a bike.” But he wants to focus on adaptive powerlifting, and he wants to be ready for the 2028 Paralympics. He says to reach that goal, he'll need access to a facility like SSPC. Sivia says, “They got a DEXA scan, which basically measures your whole body, gives you body metrics, gives you your resting metabolic rate. That helps guide in your nutrition. It helps guide in your training, just helps optimize your training program to get you to that next level.” Zion Redington, 17, is the youngest member of the U.S. Paralympic wheelchair rugby team. He'll compete in this year’s Paralympics in Paris. His family moved from Nashville to Birmingham two years ago so he could be closer to Lakeshore. He says the SSPC can give elite athletes a competitive edge. Redington says, “All these different things within your sport that will help you excel, even if it's that 1%, that 1% is truly what makes the difference between winning the gold and not being on a podium.” The SSPC is a step towards closing the sports equity gap for disabled athletes, giving them access to programs readily available to Olympic athletes. Redington adds, “Better late than never. I'm so glad that we get something like this, even though it's later by possibly decades compared to Olympic athletes. We now have this.”

Related

---