This summer, the best athletes in the world are heading to Paris. And that doesn't just mean the Olympic superstars like Simone Biles, LeBron James and Katie Ledecky. No, we're talking about all the best athletes. Because once Paris is done hosting the Summer Olympics (July 26-Aug. 11), the City of Lights will then host the Summer Paralympics (Aug. 28-Sept. 8).
And when the U.S. Paralympians prepare to go for the gold in Paris, Spokane's own Teresa Skinner will be there coaching them.
Since 2013, Skinner has been the driving force behind a local community of athletes with disabilities. As the founder, executive director and a coach for the nonprofit ParaSports Spokane, she's trained athletes who've gone on to compete on the international level. That Team USA selected Skinner to be part of its coaching crew is a testament to how effective and respected she is in the community.
It takes grit, determination, work ethic and passion to reach the top of any sport, and Skinner's path to the Paralympic stage had more twists and turns than the track upon which her wheelchair racers compete.
Skinner grew up in Alaska and early on developed a penchant for teaching and coaching. Wanting to pursue health care, she studied occupational therapy at Eastern Kentucky University.
She interned at Atlanta's Shepherd Center — which turned out to be pivotal for her career when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
"I got exposed to all the different adaptive sports in the community," Skinner says. "And then also [saw] the dramatic impact that sports had on recent patients with spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injuries."
As a traveling occupational therapist, Skinner took a job at a now-defunct care center in Spokane with no intention of sticking around the Inland Northwest. She was assigned a 29-year-old patient with a cervical spine injury who had been told he would always have to live in a nursing home.
"I came from Atlanta, where they would have never told someone that was that level of injury that they had to live in a nursing home, particularly somebody who was that young," Skinner says.
Frustrated by his treatment, Skinner convinced the medical director to let her try to help teach him things like how to get dressed independently. But while he learned the skills, he still found it hard to believe he could truly live on his own. Exasperated and distraught by what she viewed as her own failure, Skinner reached out to a friend at Shepard who gave her a bit of unusual advice.
"They said, 'Well, you need to start a rugby team.' And I was like, 'I'm sorry, what?!' I helped run the clock at a wheelchair rugby tournament in Atlanta, but that was the gist of what I knew. And my therapist friend, she said, 'Well, that's nice... do it anyway.'"
With the help of Cheryl Brandt, a local recreational therapist who'd gone into marketing, Skinner quickly decided to form a nonprofit. The pair raised almost $40,000 to buy the specialty wheelchairs for rugby. Then they brought in veteran wheelchair rugby players to do a clinic and formed a team.
Traveling around the country with the team provided a breakthrough for her patient. "It just completely changed his perception about what was possible... And he moved out of the nursing home," Skinner says.
It was the birth of ParaSports Spokane. And while Skinner still works as an occupational therapist for the Grand Coulee Dam School District and the U.S. Air Force's Wounded Warriors program, it's clear the sporting life of ParaSports is her driving passion.
"I do occupational therapy on the side to feed this addiction," Skinner says.
ParaSports Spokane offers year-round, cross-sports programs to athletes with disabilities. And importantly for a community that has to deal with extra costs in so many other aspects of life, ParaSports programs are free thanks to fundraising, grants and corporate sponsorships.
But there is one major hurdle Skinner still must deal with constantly — convincing folks to give the programs a try. She's found that being rather blunt about the process gets results.
"Patients are very hesitant to try adaptive sports, and rather than just saying, 'OK, you're not interested,' we're like, 'Oh, that's so nice... but we're going to the gym today and you're going to try wheelchair basketball.' So not really kind of taking 'No, I'm not interested' as the ending answer, which is the approach that works across the board and has worked for the last 30 years," says Skinner. "Of the 200 athletes on our program, 78% of them did not come willingly the first time."
"I've had parents call while they're driving [to us], and I can hear that kid in the background yelling, 'I hate you! You're the worst parent on the planet! I don't know why you're making me do this! I don't want to try it!" I just tell them, "It's OK. Just keep driving. It'll be fine."
Skinner's known Bob Hunt, who competes in the 100M and 400M, since he was 8 years old. In fact, she says the futures program was essentially created because he was such a rambunctious, speedy kid. He's one of many in the program who've gotten college scholarships to play sports (many at the wheelchair athletics hotbed at the University of Illinois), and he credits the programs with developing him as a person.
"I started as an athlete, so I took, took, took, took," says Hunt. "Now I'm able to give back to these athletes what I got. It's basically my life. I'm coaching, and I'm in school to become a teacher. If it wasn't for sports, I would not be the person I am."
Skinner still revels in the spectacle of athleticism and global camaraderie on display when attending a Paralympics, and she cherishes how much she's learned from the athletes over the years. She knows it's a big ask to get someone to try the sports that have become her life's passion, but she urges anyone interested to take that chance and see what ParaSports Spokane has to offer.
"And who knows, you may represent the United States of America," says Skinner. "And when that flag goes up, it doesn't make any difference whether it's on the Olympic or Paralympic side, it's still the flag. It's still representing the United States. You're still an athlete."
Competing on the World Stage
At this year's U.S. Paralympic Trials (July 18-21), a dozen ParaSports Spokane track and field athletes will compete to make Team USA:
• Lindi Marcusen (100M, long jump)
• Taylor Swanson (100M, 200M)
• Brycen Phillips (100M, 200M, 400M)
• Ben Foos (shot put)
• Michelle Kazuba (shot put)
• Alicia Guerrero (shot put, discus)
• Lauren Fields (100M, 800M)
• Jessica Bellefeuille (100M, 800M)
• Kady Hammer (100M)
• Brooklyn Gossard (100M, 400M)
• Neiko Wellborn (100M, 200M)
• Bob Hunt (100M, 400M).
