Equal access to sports for every body

When Maria Velat ran cross country in high school, she did it out of sheer competitiveness — to show up her three brothers. It was hard physical work, but she refused to quit. “Staying in that constant motion of training, races, and competition was all I knew,” she says.

One day, after a race, she experienced a randomly caused inflammation of the spinal cord called transverse myelitis. The exact cause is often not known.¹ While some people can recover fully, Maria was paralyzed.

“My main worry when I was in the hospital wasn’t even about recovering,” says Maria. “It was about how I’m going to be able to do sports.”

Before her injury, Maria had never met anyone with a physical disability like hers, and there was certainly no infrastructure for adaptive sports in her high school. “In order to be able to do sports in my high school, I kind of had to make everything up on my own. Track is the easiest to integrate into high schools because it’s an individual sport.”

Maria’s role as an advocate for para athletes began shortly after her injury. She formed “I am an athlete too,” a group of volunteers dedicated to including adaptive athletes in middle and high school sports. Maria led the charge to create a proposal to petition the state of Michigan’s athletic association to allow para athletes to compete on their high school teams, and to allow them to score points on the regional level that contribute to the team. After four years of advocacy, the adaptive category within high school track and field was permanently established. Maria is still hard at work advocating for full inclusion of adaptive athletes, including the ability to score points at state finals and regionals.

There are two barriers to entry for para athletes. “The first is equipment cost. A wheelchair can cost $6,000, which most people can’t buy on their own. So you have to find grants and have people help you apply to them. The second is educating people.” Maria says that people need to know that it’s possible to still be an athlete when you’re disabled. For her, it’s not only about being able to participate — it’s about competition and the drive to win.

This drive has led her to excel at her sport. Maria competed in the first ever wheelchair track collegiate championships at the Drake Relays, recognized by the NCAA. Her participation was funded by Guardian.

 In 2024, she took her drive to the next level and competed in the Paralympic trials.

When she’s not hard at work training, she’s making waves with her advocacy work. In the past year, Maria has seen 10 disabled middle and high schoolers join their track teams due to her volunteer work with proposals and clinics. And her own athletic journey continues to thrive at the University of Michigan, a forerunner in the adaptive sports space. Maria competes as part of the Adaptive Student Athlete Program (ASAP).

As one of the leading providers of disability insurance, Guardian is proud to partner with the University of Michigan to create ASAP. This national program helps significantly expand access to competitive opportunities in para track and field, wheelchair tennis, and wheelchair basketball for collegiate student athletes with disabilities. ASAP proudly paves the way for them to increase their participation and receive equitable recognition alongside their able-bodied peers.

“As a disabled person, you don’t see a lot of yourself in the media,” says Maria. “It’s really hard to find your place in this world. So being able to give that community and that common experience to young disabled people is what I live for. I just hope to continue this for my entire life.”