These Athletes #CanPlay: Paralympic Soccer Joined Forces for World CP Day

January 6, 2021

By: Makenzie Camlin

This is it, your time to shine. You have never touched a soccer ball before but here you are staring at it head on hoping that your dribbling, shooting, and juggling are up to par with those right beside you on Zoom joining from all around the world. Then, you realize that being perfect does not matter at all. Not only are you in a free space where learning and growing is the most important thing, but those around you know exactly what you are going through. It does not matter whether you have never touched a soccer ball or if you have been playing since you were five. All that matters is that you are meeting new people, having a good time, and learning new skills.

#CanPlay was the theme for this year’s World CP Day.

This is the exact situation that was created for participants on October 4, 2020 during the World CP Day celebration. Regardless of whether participants were lifelong soccer players or had never touched a soccer ball, the program and sport gave them a way to unite with those who have the same disability, cerebral palsy. For these athletes, soccer continuously serves as a way to connect with others in different ways than their CP. Ashley Hammond, co-founder of CP Soccer and commentator of the World CP Day program stated, “being ‘different’ is handled by all of us in different ways – sometimes we choose to be different, but when you are disabled, you don’t get to choose that. This can lead to a sense of helplessness and anger among other things. Doing ‘normal’ things like other kids do is crucial to bridge that gap between doing and can’t or won’t.”

This year, over 75 countries were involved with this worldwide celebration held to recognize and encourage the 17 million people living with cerebral palsy.

With the goal of giving these athletes access to this wonderful sport, Clemson University Paralympic Soccer, directed by Skye Arthur-Banning, a RHBSSI Faculty Fellow, partnered with the International Federation of CP Football (IFCPF), U.S. Soccer, and CP Soccer to host a World CP Day event for athletes with Cerebral Palsy (CP) from different countries. This national celebration began in 2012 and has continued to grow in its efforts to bring awareness to and celebrate those living with CP. This year, over 75 countries were involved with this worldwide celebration held to recognize and encourage the 17 million people living with cerebral palsy.

Athletes practiced dribbling, juggling and shooting.

Clemson University Paralympic Soccer and partners not only brought more awareness to CP through the event, but to adaptive soccer. The event included many guest speakers, an international training session, and a time to come together with athletes with CP to prove they #CanPlay. There were over 200 participants from six different continents on the Zoom feed that followed along and over 7,000 hits on Facebook Live. To market the celebration, each organization that partnered together used their social media platforms to advertise the event internationally to worldwide CP soccer connections with the goal of unifying soccer players from around the world living with CP.

This event included competitions among the athletes that were skill based such as dribbling, shooting, juggling and passing. To make it more exciting, featured coaches from all over the world were on the feed watching participants complete these skills, and they chose players at every level to receive recognition. In addition to the physical training, participants received encouragement through interviews conducted with special guests who also have cerebral palsy. Some featured guests included: Bonner Paddock, Abbey Curran, Shea Hammond, Bryan Kilpatrick Elliot and Tommy Chasanoff. “Our guest speakers added a very special and inspirational element. The speakers were phenomenal an were able to support the athletes by giving them life advice and sharing part of their stories of growing up with CP,” said Kirsten Windbiel, a graduate student with Clemson Paralympic Soccer.

Bonner Paddock was one of the keynote speakers, in which he encouraged the participants to, “love yourself exactly as you are. You’re perfect and you’re beautiful.” Abbey Curran was another guest speaker, who shared her experience in becoming the first contestant with a disability to win a major beauty pageant. After earning the title of Miss Iowa, she went on to compete in Miss USA and later on to write, “The Courage to Compete: Living with Cerebral Palsy and Following My Dreams.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many would think that this would stop the annual celebration, but Cerebral Palsy cannot stop these athletes, and neither can COVID-19. The online format of the program presented some challenges, such as the many different time zones and languages, as 31 different countries were represented. However, even with these obstacles, the online format allowed the program to continue. While this year’s participation was much higher than expected, Ashley Hammond says that the goal for next year is to have 50 countries represented. In his words, “Think big!”