Paralympians With AS?
As the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games draws to a close today, I have had a couple of thoughts.
Firstly, could somebody with Ankylosing Spondylitis enter the Paralympics as an athlete?
And if that is the case, can anybody tell me about some of these athletes with AS as I would love to check some of them out! Or any kind of sportsperson with AS for that matter - I could do with a bit of motivation to get myself exercising and running more!
This is from the International Paralympic Committee about athletic eligibility. https://www.paralympic.org/classification
Famous people with AS:
Dan Reynolds - Lead singer, Imagine Dragons
Mick Mars - Guitarist, Mötley Crüe
Bruce Furniss - American former swimmer
Franklin Gutiérrez - Major League Baseball player
Michael Slater (born 1971),[30] former Australian cricketer
Chris Small (born 1973),[31] retired Scottish professional snooker playerHere is another athlete I found.
https://spondylitis.org/endurance-athlete-living-with-ankylosing-spondylitis-undertakes-2855-mile-journey-to-benefit-spondylitis-association-of-america/Sorry I did not find paralympians
Hi
Wow that is really fascinating to hear that all of these people all have AS and have been successful in their fields.
I guess the paralympians are harder to find information on. I guess I shall have to do more research or use the next few years training hard to become one myself!
Thanks a lot for sharing,
James (Community Member)
There's an Australian cricket player called Michael Slater who has AS. He produced an AS exercise DVD and has helped with encouraging exercise. https://arthritisaustralia.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/MS_exercisesheet_V4-FINAL_2014.pdf
Wow that's inspiring that he was able to have such a career in professional sports and that he is now promoting AS exercises.
I will definitely be checking that out, thank you so much for sharing!
Hope you are keeping well,
James (Community Member)
