From USA Today:

An increasing number of adaptive winter sports programs, including sled hockey and skiing, offer people with physical disabilities more independence and improved fitness.

Mike Doyle, 53, who lost his right leg above the knee in a motorcycle accident when he was 20, has spent the past decade establishing a sled hockey team in the Philadelphia area. The team now boasts a roster of “20 players who practice three hours a week and travel to hockey venues along the East Coast to compete against other teams in the Northeast Sled Hockey League.”

For someone in a wheelchair or with prosthetics, winter or snow is not a friend, says Jenny Walsh, sports and recreation program coordinator at the Courage Center in Minneapolis, which runs five adaptive snow sports programs. But skiing changes that. “It brings freedom and dignity,” she says.

(USA Today photo)

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