Why some Paralympians’ journeys run through Birmingham

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Nestled in the wooded hills off of Lakeshore Drive in Homewood sits a sign that displays the Olympic rings and Paralympic emblem. 

It’s the entrance of the Lakeshore Foundation, and those symbols indicate the foundation is an official U. S. Olympic and Paralympic training site. As the Paralympic Games get underway in Paris this week, Lakeshore’s presence in Birmingham means Alabama has a small part in the events overseas.

Lakeshore and the Paralympics

Lakeshore’s origins begin a century ago, when its 45-acre campus was donated to serve as a tuberculosis sanatorium. Today, that mission has evolved to one of serving people with physical disabilities and chronic health conditions — which includes supporting Paralympians. 

The foundation became an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site in 2003, after the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

“The leadership of Lakeshore started a conversation with, at the time, the United States Olympic Committee, about how Lakeshore could really play a role in ensuring those equitable opportunities for Paralympic athletes. We knew we had a facility and incredible expertise, and we wanted to be a good partner to the USOC,” said Jen Allred, Chief of Programs and Special Events at Lakeshore. 

 She said while there are other places that athletes can train in the U.S., not all of them are capable of supporting all athletes. 

“We understand that not every training environment is accessible, and nor does every institution have the knowledgeable staff that understand the nuances around training high caliber Paralympic athletes. Lakeshore is blessed to have those resources, and so we want to extend them to as many athletes as we can,” Allred said. 

Lakeshore is the national governing body for two Paralympic sports: wheelchair rugby and boccia. 

Wheelchair Rugby 

Lakeshore’s facility is home to a natatorium with three warm-water pools, a field house with a 200-meter track, a fitness center and more. The third hardwood court in the field house serves as the practice court for the U.S. Paralympic wheelchair rugby team. 

The court is covered in crisscrossing black scuff marks from the intense gameplay. 

“If you look at the court itself, you can see — it is pretty clean right now, actually — but, you can see how this court looks compared to how that looks,” Allred said. 

Wheelchair rugby is an intense sport — the original name of the game was murderball. 

“It brings in hockey. It does bring in elements of rugby. It brings in elements of basketball, and brings them all together in this really action packed, hard hitting court sport, where you won’t go a game without watching somebody get smashed into and you probably won’t go a game without watching somebody get thrown through the air,” Allred said.

To train for Paralympic wheelchair rugby, athletes typically attend training camps at Lakeshore once they are selected for the team. 

“Those camps are usually two sessions a day, and then meetings with providers around strength, conditioning, nutrition, wellness, working with our athletic trainers as well to keep everybody safe and well,” Allred said. 

Boccia 

Lakeshore is also the national governing body for the sport of boccia. In boccia, athletes attempt to propel a ball as close as possible to a target ball. 

“They may be full time wheelchair users. They may present with cerebral palsy, high-level spinal cord injuries — there’s a classification system,” Allred said. 

Based on that classification, athletes can either throw, kick or use a ramp to move the ball. 

“Boccia did not qualify anybody in the United States for the Games in Paris. But we are really looking forward to LA for that sport,” Allred said. 

How does Lakeshore prepare athletes? 

Lakeshore athletes preparing for the Paralympics have access to the foundation’s sports science and performance center, which houses accessible, state-of-the-art equipment. 

“Sports science and performance is really Lakeshore’s endeavor to make sure that we have the opportunity to provide athletes with every opportunity to utilize science, mental performance and nutrition to really think through how they can meet their goals,” Allred said. 

The center offers multiple services to help athletes achieve these goals: strength and conditioning, the nutrition lab, sports performance, and rest and recovery. 

The strength and conditioning space is filled with exercise equipment that is fully accessible. Athletes can work with specialists to develop a training program to achieve their goals. Allred said athletes and specialists from all over the country come to Birmingham to use this facility. 

In the nutrition lab, athletes can work one-on-one with Lakeshore’s registered dietitian and nutrition team to achieve their nutritional goals. Allred said this is one of their most-requested programs. 

“When you survey athletes about the things that they don’t have access to, nutrition is one of those things that comes up a lot. There is a lot of interest in not only having access to information about what to eat in a game or what to fuel prior to, but to sort of overall nutrition,” she said. 

The sports performance assessment program allows an athlete to gather highly specific data about their body’s performance and capabilities. The program offers assessments to help athletes determine anything from daily caloric needs to body composition. 

Allred said this information can make the difference between winning a medal or going home empty-handed. 

“​​How do we use science and data to help decision-making, be that, who is hitting this sprint at the fastest times or who has the lung capacity that’s going to be able to push through an entire 90 minute game?” she said. 

The rest and recovery space is also a crucial component of any athlete’s training. 

“A lot of times when you think about how athletes train, you think about them doing two-a-day sessions on a court and eating well and doing all these things,” Allred said. “But how you rest and recover is just as important as how you do all those other pieces. And so making sure that athletes have access, again, to accessible ways to pursue rest and recovery and understand that it’s a priority.”

The space contains equipment like compression systems and zero-gravity chairs, as well as a large stretching table. Rest and recovery wasn’t always seen as essential, but Allred said in the last few years athletes have increasingly seen the benefit of it. 

What does Lakeshore mean to athletes? 

Sports at Lakeshore is not just for fun, but is a form of rehabilitation for the athletes. 

“Particularly when you talk to our wheelchair rugby team, it’s always striking how many of them talk about perhaps acquiring their disability and thinking that the opportunity to continue to be an athlete — as many of them were athletes in different sports prior to their injury — they think that that’s gone,” she said. “Being able to expose them to adapted sport, and then for them to find one that they love in wheelchair rugby, is that real bridge back to something they thought might have been gone forever.” 

Allred said that training for the Paralympics is just as demanding as training for the Olympics, and that the only real difference is whether that training is accessible or not. 

“Paralympics, that word really comes from being parallel with the Olympics. So when you think about those parallels, if you picture what it takes for an Olympic athlete to get on the podium, it’s what you should picture for what it takes to get on the podium as a Paralympic athlete. It is nutrition. It is strength and conditioning. It is practice. It is dedication beyond what a lot of us can even conceive, to be dedicated to a sport and a craft, to be able to be selected to a national team,” Allred said.