Team USA Grants to Help Paralympic Sport Flourish

Six grand prize winners of inaugural Team USA grants determined via Facebook vote 20 Sep 2011 By IPC

Following a 12-day voting period on Facebook, six grand prize winners of the inaugural Team USA grants have been determined, and three of those winners are related to Paralympic Sport.

PossAbilities Paralympic Training Programme, USA’s Triathlon Veterans to Victors and US Rowing’s America Rows Programme all received grants of $12,000 to help better Paralympic Sport in the USA.

The PossAbilities Paralympic Training Programme in Loma Linda, California, would like to expand its reach as a Paralympic Sport Club and provide additional equipment, training, travel expenses and coaching to those athletes interested in participating in its Paralympic handcycling programme.

Veterans to Victors is a programme run by USA Triathlon in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that helps introduce wounded U.S. veterans to the sport of Para-Triathlon through instructional camps. It will also assist USA Triathlon in identifying talented Para-Triathletes for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and beyond, while simultaneously playing a key role in both the mental and physical rehabilitation of veterans.

“We believe the Veterans to Victors programme will aid greatly in the development of our Para-Triathlon high performance plan as we prepare for the sport’s debut at the Paralympic Games in 2016,” said Chuck Menke, marketing and communications director for USA Triathlon.

US Rowing’s America Rows Programme, based in Princeton, New Jersey, will use its grant to try to raise the awareness for the sport of rowing to a diverse group of Americans that includes the participation of the physically disabled in addition to Hispanics, Latin Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans.

For more information on Team USA and its new grants, please visit www.teamusa.org.