Move United is an American non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of parasports among youths and adults with physical disabilities. The organization operates community parasports programs via over 150 local chapters across the United States.A.G. Sulzberger, "Accustomed to Wheels, Thrill-Seeking Injured Veterans Take Wing", The New York Times, September 3, 2011 Move United was formed in 2020 as a merger of two organizations: Disabled Sports USA, which was first founded in 1956 and based in Rockville, Maryland,Jamie Francisco, "Wheelchair hockey teams bash with the best", Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2006Jay Apperson, "Disabled athletes play hard", Baltimore Sun, December 14, 1999 and Adaptive Sports USA, an organization founded in 1967. Move United is a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. As of 2020, the organization operates programs serving 100,000 residents in 43 states. In 2020, the two organizations merged as Move United, introducing a new identity by Superunion. A goal was announced for the organization to serve 90% of the U.S. population with local programs by 2028, in time for the 2028 Summer Paralympics in Los Angeles.
Adaptive Sports USA Adaptive Sports USA (formerly the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, Wheelchair Sports USA, and Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports, USA) was established in 1956, as the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, by disabled military veterans to help rehabilitate the war injured returning from Korea.Megan Crandall, "BLM Enters Into Memorandum of Understanding with Disabled Sports USA" , US Bureau of Land Management Press Release, December 24, 2011
Mostly a volunteer organization, Adaptive Sports USA worked in conjunction with local and regional sports organizations to develop and promote sanctioned sporting events for youths and adults with a physical disability. The mission of Adaptive Sports USA was to engage, evolve, and empower individuals with a disability to be involved in adaptive sport through education, coaching, and advocacy. By creating a community outreach program, Adaptive Sports USA increased opportunities for individuals with a disability and offered a gateway to regional, national and international multi-sport competitions.
Each year, Adaptive Sports USA sponsored the Adaptive Sports USA Junior Nationals (formerly the National Junior Disability Championships [NJDC]), the longest continually run competition for athletes with a physical disability in the United States.
History Adaptive Sports USA has a long and storied history in providing competitive sports opportunities to individuals with a disability. Founded in 1956 as the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, the early years of wheelchair sports were successful in large part due to the efforts of Benjamin Lipton, the Bulova Watch Company, and the Bulova School of Watchmaking. Mr. Lipton was the executive director of the Bulova School of Watchmaking and served as the Chairman of NWAA for the first 25 years of its existence. Mr. Lipton ensured the viability of the organization during the early years by making the Bulova Company a primary financial supporter of NWAA.
The initial impetus to organize NWAA grew out of the interests of athletes with disabilities, many of whom were veterans of World War II. They wanted to participate in sports other than basketball, a sport that had seen rapid growth in the early 1950s through teams sponsored by veterans hospitals and other rehabilitation agencies. General Omar N. Bradley was one of the leaders of the early efforts to develop wheelchair sports programs, principally for servicemen injured during the war. In the early days, many wheelchair basketball players saw participation in individual wheelchair sports as supplementary training for their primary interest in basketball. However, the NWAA program appealed to even greater numbers of athletes with disabilities due to the incorporation of women and athletes with quadriplegia, populations that could not be easily accommodated by basketball. Europe's first organized wheelchair sports program was introduced in 1948 by well-known neurosurgeon, Dr. Ludwig Guttman, founder of the Spinal Injury Center in Stoke Mandeville, England. The first Stoke Mandeville Games included only twenty-six participants, and few events (shot put, javelin, club throw, and archery) but growth in both the number of events and participants developed quickly.
In 1952, a team from the Netherlands was invited to compete with the British team. This was the first International Stoke Mandeville Games, an event that is generally recognized as the precursor to the present-day Paralympic Games. The focus for NWAA and later, WSUSA, during the first four decades was competitive sports opportunities in the identified "core sports" for individuals utilizing wheelchairs for mobility. Following Mr. Lipton's tenure, the national office of NWAA moved to Colorado Springs, CO in 1982 in an effort to be closer to the National Governing Bodies of the core sports of NWAA recognized by the US Olympic Committee. It was during this time frame that NWAA played a key role in putting competitive sports for athletes with disabilities on the international stage by promoting a series of exhibition events in Wheelchair Track at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
From its earliest beginnings to the present day, Adaptive Sports USA has been directed and developed by wheelchair athletes and wheelchair sports enthusiasts themselves, individuals with a first-hand understanding of the values of participation. By and large, the needs of disabled athletes are unaddressed by the network of athletic programs available to non-disabled persons through educational systems and community recreation agencies. Instead, athletes with a disability have often developed their own resources and sports opportunities, from rules and governing structure (i.e., Adaptive Sports USA) to funding travel, equipment, and other expenses of competition. Adaptive sports enthusiasts are involved at all levels of decision-making in the Adaptive Sports USA, and its constituent associations. Adaptive Sports USA has remained essentially an all-volunteer organization sustained by the energy and commitment of its programs' beneficiaries.
In 1994, the organizational name was changed to Wheelchair Sports, USA to more accurately reflect the organization's mission. As a result of several Disabled Sports Organizations (DSO's) dissolving that represented the sporting interests for a specific segment of the disabled population, including organizations representing athletes with cerebral palsy and "Les Autres" athletes, Wheelchair Sports, USA found its mission changing dramatically from providing sports opportunities to individuals using wheelchairs to serving as a comprehensive competitive sports organization for all individuals with a disability, both ambulatory and non-ambulatory. As a result, the organization's name was changed to Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA in 2010, followed by another name change in 2015 to Adaptive Sports USA in an effort to better describe the organization's evolved mission. Within this time frame, Adaptive Sports USA also entered into a formal relationship with the International Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports Federation (IWAS), an offshoot of the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation. By virtue of this relationship, Adaptive Sports USA found itself with a mechanism for providing quality competitive opportunities for athletes seeking to establish themselves on an international stage. This relationship continues to the present.
Since 1984, Adaptive Sports USA has hosted the Adaptive Sports USA Junior Nationals, a popular competitive sports event for junior athletes (aged 6–22) with a disability in the United States. The event has had several titles in its 30 years of existence, including the National Junior Disability Championships (NJDC). The Junior Nationals is a week-long competition that includes archery, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis, track and field, and other sporting events.
Adaptive Sports USA Junior Nationals Junior Nationals is an avenue for young athletes to showcase their abilities through sport and to promote physical activity and socialization. Additionally, the Championships serve as an opportunity for individuals to advance along the athlete pipeline that may one day lead them to compete at the international level and the Paralympic Games.
Junior Nationals began in 1984 with three sanctioned events for wheelchair athlete's ages 7 to 19 and is now the largest annual multi-sport event for juniors with physical disabilities and/or visual impairments in the United States. Junior Nationals is contested in a different city annually in July. This provides an opportunity for athletes to explore diverse areas of the country, travel costs to remain neutral and allows various Local Hosts the opportunity to gain experience in event management and build a legacy. Below is a history of the host cities: 1984 Dover, Delaware 1985 Fishersville, Virginia 1986 Valley Forge, PA 1987 Lawrenceville, NJ 1988 Johnson City, TN 1989 Cupertino, CA DeAnza College 1990 Fort Collins, CO Colorado State University 1991 Princeton, NJ Princeton University 1992 Orlando, Florida Disney World 1993 Columbus, Ohio Ohio State University 1994 Edmond, Oklahoma Central Oklahoma University 1995 Fort Collins, CO Colorado State University 1996 Birmingham, AL Samford University 1997 Mesa, Arizona Mesa High School 1998 Bellevue, WA 1999 Albuquerque, NM 2000 San Jose, CA San Jose State University 2001 Piscataway, NJ Rutgers University 2002 New London, CT 2003 New London, CT 2004 Mesa, Arizona Mountain View High School 2005 Tampa, Florida 2006 Tampa, Florida 2007 Spokane, WA 2008 Piscataway, NJ Rutgers University 2009 St. Louis, Missouri 2010 Lake Forest, IL 2011 Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw State University 2012 Mesa, Arizona Mesa Community College 2013 Rochester, MN 2014 Ames, IA Iowa State University 2015 Iselin, NJ 2016 Middleton, WI Middleton High School 2017 Middleton, WI Middleton High School 2018 Fort Wayne, IN Turnstone Foundation 2019 Bloomington, MN Eden Prairie High School
Structure Adaptive Sports USA has three regions (Western, Central, and Eastern) made up of the respective member chapters of Adaptive Sports USA, dividing the United States for the purpose of coordinating, assisting, and implementing local and regional meets; sanctioned, qualifying meets; and workshops and clinics for athletes and coaches in order to develop skills and knowledge. Adaptive Sports USA also serves as support and consultation to state high school associations, conferences, and schools that desire to provide inclusive opportunities to their student athletes in the areas of archery, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis, and track and field.
Adaptive Sports USARegional Councils (Eastern, Central, Western)Local ChaptersNational Governing Bodies Track / FieldSport Technical Committees Archery PowerliftingSwimmingTable TennisAir RifleAir PistolFencing
Disabled Sports USA Disabled Sports USA was established in 1967 as the National Amputee Skiers Association; among its founders was Jim Winthers, an amputee soldier who was a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division.
Activities Move United offer numerous nationwide programs for individuals with physical disabilities, including:
Ski Spectacular