Collaboration Connection and Care: USOPC Paralympic Sports Medicine Conference 2025
The UKSI’s Dr Pippa Bennett and Kate Strachan recently attended the USOPC Paralympic Sports Medicine Conference 2025.
Director of Clinical Governance and Paralympic Chief Medical Officer Pippa Bennett spoke on sessions about Paralympic medical emergencies, Paralympic concussion, and on the Return to Sport panel. On the final day, Kate was involved in the practical sessions spanning across the whole day.
Pippa shared her insights into the creation of the conference, as well as her experience, in this blog
The inspiration for this conference began with a small group of doctors working with their respective Paralympic associations before Paris 2024, where we met online to chat through our preparations ahead of the Paralympic Games.
We shared our experiences and concerns and were able to speak with one voice to advocate for improvements in provision of air conditioning, particularly for our more vulnerable athletes with thermoregulation issues, if a Paris heatwave in 2024 occurred as it did the year before.
During the Games themselves, we occasionally bumped into each other in the Polyclinic, in the dining hall, or around the village, but our busy schedules only allowed a brief catch up and photo opportunity with the Agitos on the last day.
We also chatted through a shared desire for ongoing collaboration, which is where the idea of a dedicated Paralympic Sports Medicine Conference was born.
My friend and colleague Jonathan Finnoff at USOPC became the driving force and with his brilliant team at USOPC the curriculum, logistics and sponsors were all put in place.
Together with colleagues from South Africa and Australia, we were able to join the faculty for three days in Colorado Springs where we had excellent presentations and shared expertise on many subjects including wound care, classification, considerations for travel, bowel and bladder issues, respiratory considerations, mental health and well-being care, safe sport, safeguarding and antidoping.
How often do we see that Paralympic considerations are given just one slot at a conference, or perhaps not considered at all? It is no wonder that many practitioners feel nervous, reticent and under prepared for working with athletes with impairments.
Whilst many aspects of caring for athletes is the same across Olympic and Paralympic sports, there are important, unique and often complex considerations which need to be understood by all.
My highlight of the conference was hearing directly from the athletes. We had an inspiring talk from Noah Elliot, a two- time US Paralympian whose journey into his sport of para-Snowboard, and in particular the journey to Beijing 2022, was quite extraordinary. Many athletes, but I would argue para-athletes more so, are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Noah certainly continues to do extraordinary things and I will be following his progress closely at Milano Cortina 2026.
Our third and final day of the conference was a hands-on emergency skills moulage of scenarios – all para specific. Each group of practitioners, including sports doctors, physiotherapists, athletic trainers and even the odd orthopaedic surgeon, rotated through a series of 10 stations and were marked as team on each. Included in the bronze medal team was our very own Dr Kate Strachan.
As we prepare for Milano Cortina 2026, LA 2028 and beyond, we know that this level of collaboration and connection needs to continue and grow. We are very much a Paralympic community. We have a shared motivation and passion for working with our para-athletes.
Sharing best practice is not giving up our competitive advantage. Learning from one another can only enhance the care that every athlete and every person with a disability deserves.