Title:
Bonjour! Alycia and Marty’s 2024 Paris Paralympic Adventure

Subtitle:
Exploring Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Adaptive Athletics, and Accessible Travel with Alycia and Marty Anderson

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I am Alycia Anderson. for joining us another week on this podcast. This is a special podcast because this episode. is dropping the week that Marty and I are literally sitting in Paris somewhere, probably under the Eiffel Tower, sipping on French wine, having a little chocolate and cheese, and we are spectating the Paralympic Games.

We are so excited to share what we are up to in this episode. So today we’re going to kind of do a review or a look forward at where we’ll be when this episode goes live. Marty, welcome back to the show.

Marty Anderson: Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to talk about today’s subject.

Alycia Anderson: I am too. I’m so excited. So this is a powerful week. We are literally in Paris right now.

How did we end up here? I remember back in February. We started to see advertising for the Paralympic games and my sweet, amazing husband looks over at me and he says, can we go? And I’ve been to two different Paralympic games through work that I’ve done in the past.

He has not yet. And it wasn’t even like a thought we’re like, let’s definitely do that. So we bought tickets immediately. And now we are sitting in Paris, enjoying the games. So Marty. My first question for you about this experience that we are embarking on. How does it feel to be partaking or enjoying or spectating?

Such a cool event this week. Marty

Marty Anderson: Well, for me, this is definitely a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to go to the Paralympics. I’ve had aspirations as a wheelchair tennis player. I’ve been on Team USA and so close to making the Paralympics. And been on world team cups, but never got to go. I was going to probably be the closest in 2012 in London, but we got married in 2011 and I gave up all those aspirations and dreams so that I could pursue our marriage at, at a hundred percent. And it’s been worth it. And everything is full circle. We’re going to the Paralympics this year in Paris and it’s 2024, 12 years later but couldn’t ask for a better place to really go and experience. I’m excited to be overseas and. with you and and going through all of our things. We’ve updated our passports.

We’re good for another who knows 1215 years. And I got my international driving permit so that we’ll be able to tackle the roads and. We have quite the schedule, so I’m excited to share all about it.

Alycia Anderson: and I love going on adventures like this. It’s part of the beauty of our business. We’ve kind of turned this trip into a work trip, but also we get to explore and we do that a lot on the trips that we have for our events. And we’ve taken a few international trips and we love. Getting in the car. We literally rent a car so we could get lost.

So I’m hoping we’re going to get lost in Paris too, But can you share a little bit about what our schedule looks like? this is his trip. I am so excited to support him on it and I’m looking forward to enjoying too.

Marty Anderson: Yeah. It’s going to be a jam packed five to six, seven days that we’re out here in Paris. We’re gonna start with a day at Roland Garros. And watching wheelchair tennis in one of the Grand Slam stadiums. Been to Wimbledon, been to Flushing Meadows. Roland Garros and Australia are the next to check off the list. I’m so excited to sit in Philippe Chatteret. I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. Stadium. And is a wonderful day The men’s singles semifinal matches, doubles gold medal match, and the quad singles gold match also.

So we’ll get to see two gold medal matches men’s tennis, which is going to be amazing.

Alycia Anderson: And what we’re hoping for, since we’re getting to see the women’s double gold match, our episode last week was Dana Mathewson, who is playing right now. And we are hoping that the USA makes it all the way to the doubles gold and that we get to see her play in the Paralympics. So TBD.

Marty Anderson: be amazing. fantastic, extraordinary. Dana, we’re pulling for you a hundred percent.

Alycia Anderson: Tennis is the sport of choice for you and I. It’s where we met. It’s how we fell in love. And so, so cool that we’re going to Paris, the city of love to watch What are the other events that we’re doing? And when you mention the events, Also say why we chose that event so we can see the other attractions that are in Paris.

Marty Anderson: The ticketing experience with getting tickets for the Paralympics through Paris Open had a lot of things going on with it. We kind of grabbed a bunch of tickets and then kind of let them go and but what we ended up with was the tennis and. Then we’re also going to the Grand Palais, which has a glass ceiling, and we’re going to see fencing, there, with the round of 16 and quarterfinals men’s, women’s, all kinds of Epee and a pay there’s there’s three different types of fencing. And the the venue seems amazing. And speaking of venues, we’re also going to go see the Paraequestrian event at Versailles. And we will be seeing a grade one team event. And I’m super excited about that in so many ways because only is Versailles just a beautiful place to be but Versailles is is one of the Palaces of previous Kings.

And I’m excited to share that and see that with you again. And the grade one paraequestrian event is for, people with disabilities that affect all limbs and parts of their body, and it’s the most severe of the disabilities. And so it’s just going to be so amazing to see how. These disabled athletes are going to perform. In such a high level event and on top of horses is amazing. The whole idea of it all I can’t wait to see that.

not only are we going to see the Paralympics, but we are exploring Paris as a disabled couple.

And there’s so many things on the list that we want to see. Of course, we’re going to do the tourism stuff and try to make our way through the Louvre. going to try to get to the top of the Eiffel tower, go to the Arc, Arc de Triomphe have coffee on the Champs Elysees and just kind of motor around all over Paris, we did rent a car.

And so that gives us the freedom to. scoot around and get lost on city streets and just weave around and see what we can see.

Alycia Anderson: We’re really excited. . We chose events that are at specific special places around Paris so we can see a good amount of the city in the short time that we’re there.

We’re also going to be. making it a work trip as well. I’m going to be documenting our experience and navigating Europe, which I know is challenging. And I lived over there for quite some time. I think we should talk about really quick.

What the Paralympic games are for those people who don’t know, or might be confused with Paralympics versus Special Olympics. So the Paralympic Games are a major international multi sports event for athletes with physical disabilities. It’s organized in parallel with the Olympic games and it takes place every four years, about two or three weeks ish after the Olympic games close. It’s. It takes place in the same city, in the same venues.

The athletes have physical disabilities, such as, anything that has to do with your physical body, visual impairments and so on. There’s a long list. The Paralympics include both the summer and winter and they are covered and the sports are adapted for disabled athletes.

There is definitely crossover with the Olympic like sports versus what Paralympic sports, but there are certain sports that the Olympics do that the Paralympics don’t. And there’s certain sports that the Paralympics do and the Olympics don’t. It really showcases the ability and the achievements of disabled athletes, promoting inclusion and equality and the power of sport.

And how that Helps people with disabilities overcome so many barriers, so it gives these cities an opportunity to modernize their accessibility to create a path forward for frankly, the athletes and the spectators to come in and enjoy the sport.

The Paralympics is governed by the International Paralympic Committee, IPC. And it’s One of, if not the largest global sports event for disabled people. And it’s a great event to showcase authentic representation of disability and so many facets.

Marty Anderson: I can share just from my world team experience. everybody brings their flags, their banners, their pins, their little things and they share and they trade them and they, there’s a lot of, camaraderie going on between athletes from different countries and everybody sees the equipment that each is using and, There is so much growth and so much opportunity for just breaking down all these barriers that exist in our world.

Super excited to be a part of it this year and very, very excited.

Alycia Anderson: So from somebody who is very passionate about sports, obviously you are running a nonprofit adaptive athletics association. You are leading some of the charge with the Northern California wheelchair tennis piece doing a ton of grassroots programming. And what does it mean to you personally?

Marty Anderson: Well, I’ve been an advocate for wheelchair sports for a very long time. Ever since , I got involved in them as a young kid. I have always just had a passion for sports and the ability to play in them and as a professional wheelchair tennis player, I’ve met so many different in different sports.

But it’s just amazing to see people with disabilities being celebrated on such a large scale. I always dreamed that by the time I was 50 years old, I would be able to watch wheelchair tennis on TV , and it is very close to that.

I got to say, I would love to see it on mainstream. I would love to see it on a Saturday or a Sunday morning on just a generic channel. Unfortunately, we have to go to the plus channels at this point or whatever. But day we will see this. And all of these things that are just like so much learning for science and technology and mathematics

Alycia Anderson: And talent and competitiveness. And oftentimes society doesn’t look at disabled athletes. Like you would go and watch something and be like, wow, This is true athleticism, and Dana talked about that on her episode last week. If you haven’t listened it, tune into that because she talks specifically about even how around the country, stadiums fill up much larger than they do in the United States.

And this is the first year Where the Paralympics are on Peacock. And Sophie Morgan and team, like there’s a lot more representation and a lot more visibility of the sport and of the games for people to experience.

And once you see it, you believe it and you want more, but I think this year is going to be the biggest year ever with. visibility in the media, and this is a way that will change societal perception of disability by being able to tune in to these games and see the immense amount of talent and adaptations that you, that these athletes make.

Marty Anderson: There are so many opportunities. There’s been discussions of the blade runners and how fine those guys are getting closer to being faster than able bodied runners. And there’s so many crossover moments here that we need to explore. And, opportunity for us to celebrate these sports. It’s every single year, there’s the opportunity to break down these walls of ableism Especially in wheelchair tennis. We talk about it as being one of the premier inclusive sports in our world, because it’s actually integrated at all of the grand slams Wimbledon. US Open, French Open, Australian Open. there’s -room to grow there. I’ll get off soap box for now, because I just want to enjoy the fact that we’re celebrating as disabled couples that want to go see the games, just like everybody else.

We’re just a normal tourist over here.

Alycia Anderson: I

think the point though, real quickly is there a lot of accessibility barriers that are still happening within. Adaptive sports and typical able bodied sports. And that is an overall problem that needs to be looked at from an accessibility standpoint.

Like when we were trying to get our gold medal match tickets in Paralympics, it was really difficult to find accessible seats for wheelchair users. And That’s because the world is not built thinking, how could we adapt this entire stadium or a much larger percentage of it for when events like this happen or more people with disabilities start to want to come in and enjoy, and it’s thinking outside of the box.

How do we have a stadium where we can remove, 40 percent of the seats that are accessible. So there isn’t just this small percentage of. Seats or access that we would have to be able to even enjoy.

Marty Anderson: There’s a big paradox there. Here you have an event that’s called wheelchair tennis, and you’re only offering 32 to 64 seats that are wheelchair accessible in a stadium that holds 000. I hope to see a full stadium when we get there,

Alycia Anderson: me too, and I hope to see a ton of disabled people everywhere. I’m that’s what we’re doing this week. We’re very excited about it.

Marty, I want you to tell our listeners what Adaptive Athletics Association is. So anybody out there that is interested in getting involved in adaptive sports please let them know what it is and, and how to get in contact.

Marty Anderson: Is a profit 501c3 that was a brainchild of a group of tennis enthusiasts out of Palm Springs. That all came together and said, Hey, let’s put on a wheelchair tennis tournament

Alycia Anderson: and you always forget Alycia Anderson in the mix of Adaptive Athletics. I am on the board, but I

Marty Anderson: I only get two minutes, so I’m probably going to run over that, because yes, we did pull you on and we did successful tournaments at Mission Hills Country Club. We were the first organization to bring wheelchair tennis to the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, the second largest tennis facility in the United States.

Some call it the fifth Grand Slam. So on and on and on. But our idea was to wheelchair sports, adaptive sports at a level of professionalism that brought it out of. Just the parks and recs departments and brought it to that country club level. And it stemmed into rebirth of chairsports.

com, a brainchild of mine , and. we’ve rebranded it into an online platform to provide gateways for people to get into adaptive sports, whether it’s the special Olympics, the deaf Olympics, the Paralympics, all of these sports are represented on the adaptive athletics association website, adaptive athletics. net.

Alycia Anderson: the real beauty of Adaptive Athletics Association. It’s a network that’s bringing together grassroots programs. You don’t have to be a Paralympian. We’ve got seniors, there’s junior programs on the platform.

So it’s a resource for, for disabled people, any type of disability to go on and try to find activities in your areas or figure out what’s going on. Network with people. So maybe you want to come to Gold River Country Club where we hit and learn.

We had a four year old little girl out last night. So, it the grassroots network of understanding what is out there in our country For opportunities to get out and play

Marty Anderson: Yeah, and I’ll just throw out there that we’re, it’s a community driven And we’re always looking for people to be a part of it, to add their piece of the pie, to share their experiences, in fact, every Paralympic athlete should be on there this year. sharing their stories about what they did to get

Alycia Anderson: totally. So if you have a sports organization or anything that supports adaptive athletes go to the website, check it out, sign up, put your organization in there. It’s just building the network larger and larger as a bigger resource for all of us and Marty, a side note. I’m very proud of you for, Not only founding this thing, but keeping it going and just the love and the dedication that you have for it.

Marty Anderson: It is a tough place to be in because it’s so hard to get involved in these sports. And it I’m far from perfect with what we’re doing there, but always looking for help, always looking for ideas, send feedback, contact us, let us know what you’d like to see on there.

Alycia Anderson: everything will be in the show notes.

We’re getting close to wrapping up because the Paralympic games are calling us we mentioned at the beginning of the show. we cut our trip short here a little bit. We cut our trip short here because I was invited to roll my wheelchair in New York fashion week for a nonprofit organization that is called the runway of dreams.

we are flying from Paris to New York to Have the amazing opportunity to be a part of New York fashion week and roll down a runway that’s going to showcase adaptive designers and adaptive clothes I’m rolling for target. I’m so excited. And then after this, we’re speaking at Netflix and PBS and Virginia tech, We got a lot going on, so we’re gonna keep everybody in the loop of our adventures. But for this week, and in this moment, we are enjoying the adventure of Paris, France.

Okay, what is a pushing forward moment

Marty Anderson: pushing forward moment for me is it’s never too late to experience what you’ve always dreamed in life. Don’t ever give up on your dreams because They still can come true.

Alycia Anderson: They can still come true, and they do come true. I love that. Beautiful pushing for a moment. All right. This has been another great episode with Alycia and Marty. Thank you for joining.

Marty Anderson: Thanks for having me back.

Alycia Anderson: This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and we bid you a, how do you say farewell in French?

Marty Anderson: There’s au revoir or a tout à l’heure. I prefer a tout à l’heure. We’ll see you later.

Alycia Anderson: We’ll see you later. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia, and that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next time when we are back in the States.