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© 2026 The Adaptive Athlete Podcast
Description
The Adaptive Athlete Podcast is dedicated to sharing the stories of athletes in the Crossfit space and beyond who have pushed past the limits doctors or others gave them.
In these conversations, you'll hear stories of resiliency, adaptation, grit, and determination. You'll also hear about the ways the adaptive space is growing.
Whether you are an adaptive athlete, a coach, or you know someone who would benefit from adaptive athletics and adaptive fitness, this podcast is the place to hear stories and build connections.
New episodes drop every Tuesday.
55 Episodes
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Mat Hotho sits down with Jacob Peterson, an adaptive powerlifter from Alabama living with mild cerebral palsy. Released during Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, Jacob talks about the surgeries that helped him move more freely as a kid, the loneliness of being different without being able to fully explain why, and years of competing in Ultimate Frisbee while managing CP-related arm lockups mid-game. When a foot injury in 2023 took running off the table, he found his way into the weight roo...
Mat Hotho sits down with Aaron Trent, a former para cyclist who placed second and third at the UCI Para-Cycling World Championships in 2009 and spent two and a half years as a resident athlete at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Aaron has hemiplegic cerebral palsy affecting his left limbs which makes for a perfect conversation to kick off CP Awareness Month in March They dig into what it actually takes to compete at the international level with a physical impairment: the bike ...
Mat Hotho sits down with Shana Coissard, a French adaptive athlete with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who's carved out an impressive path through wheelchair basketball, CrossFit, and adaptive HYROX. Shana shares how her disability began appearing at age nine, eventually leading her to a wheelchair—and how that transition actually gave her more freedom and independence than she expected. From earning a Bronze medal at the European Wheelchair Basketball Championship with the French national team...
Mat Hotho sits down with Lance King — three-time CrossFit Adaptive Games champion in the Intellectual Disability without Chromosomal Condition division — and his older brother Kyle King, who serves as Lance's coach, handler, and in-competition strategist. In this conversation, Kyle breaks down what it actually looks like to coach your brother — the 80/20 split between serious training, how he builds competition strategy down to which direction Lance should face before a sandbag throw, a...
Mat Hotho sits down with Julia Halberstam, who competes in the Upper Two Point division and placed second at the 2025 CrossFit Adaptive Games. Their conversation starts with the hilarious story of how they met at the 2024 Sea Dog competition—when Mat walked up to Julia's tent holding Chick-fil-A and she thought he was going to talk to her about Jesus. Julia was born with cupped hands, a condition where her fingers were fused together, and shares how doctors created functional hands for ...
Mat Hotho sits down with Luke Reeson, a former British Army sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was shot three times across two deployments—including twice in the legs during his final tour. What followed was a journey from a wheelchair through para swimming with the GB National Team to becoming the 2025 CrossFit Games champion in the Lower Below Knee division. Luke shares how military charities and sport gave him purpose during recovery, how competing at the Invictus Games le...
In this episode, Mat Hotho sits down with Sarah Tucker, founder of Uncharted Adaptive Fitness Virginia, to explore the transformative power of Adaptive CrossFit. Sarah shares her journey from childhood experiences helping a blind child at T-ball practice to opening her own gym dedicated to adaptive fitness. With a background in physical therapy and a deep understanding of motor development, Sarah brings a unique perspective to coaching athletes with autism, spinal cord injuries, and str...
In this episode, Mat Hotho sits down with Brandon Mantz, a seated athlete who secured a third-place podium finish at the CrossFit Games for four consecutive years. Brandon shares the story of his "pivot point" in December 2018, when a skiing accident in Breckenridge resulted in a T6 spinal cord injury and three liters of internal bleeding. Following his recovery at Craig Hospital, Brandon discovered CrossFit Watchtower through the influence of Kevin Ogar, where he regained his independence by...
Candice Arnone joins Mat Hotho for a practical conversation about fundraising and sponsorships for adaptive CrossFit athletes without the awkwardness, guilt, or “I’m asking for a handout” mentality. Candice is a Neuromuscular Major adaptive athlete with right-side hemiplegic cerebral palsy, and she works professionally as a grant officer for a major nonprofit, managing large foundation and corporate funds on the grant management side. She brings a simple nonprofit framework into the athlete-s...
In this bonus episode of The Adaptive Athlete Podcast, Mat Hotho is joined by adaptive athletes Amy Bream and Brett Palser for a wide-ranging conversation on competition, community, and the evolving landscape of adaptive fitness. Amy reflects on her final season competing, and what it meant to return to the floor one last time. The discussion then turns to Amy’s role with the World Fitness Project, where she is a commentator. She explains the Project’s Pro and Challenger structure, its season...
In this bonus episode of the Adaptive Athlete Podcast, I sit down with wheelchair athlete, coach, and new dad Mike Egan to unpack his 24-hour Guinness World Record attempt at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio. Mike wheeled 152.36 miles on the same loop used for Event 1 of the 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Games, navigating more than 2,800 turns, a brutal overnight cold snap, and the mental strain of pushing through 24 hours with no sleep. Mike walks through the “NASCAR-style” logistics behind the r...
South African adaptive athlete Letchen du Plessis joins the show to talk about her journey from a scholarship netball player to an adaptive CrossFit champion. After a hip injury led to CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) with dystonia, she spent months chasing answers before a spinal cord stimulator helped quiet the pain signals enough to train again. Letchen explains how exposure therapy looked in real life (including hot-water “retraining”), starting CrossFit training over again, an...
In this episode, Mat Hotho and Brett Palser sit down with David “Cowboy Dave” Needham and Kevin “Cowboy Carl” Carlson, two of the key figures who make the Adaptive CrossFit Games possible. They pull back the curtain on what it takes to build the Games from an empty room to a world-class competition, sharing behind-the-scenes stories about forklifts, floor plans, and the volunteers who keep everything running. From a mistaken-identity fan encounter to the origin story of the cowboy...
In this bonus episode, Mat Hotho sits down with Kym Dekeyrel, a completely blind CrossFit athlete and the founder of Finding the Light—a fundraising workout that supports Fighting Blindness, an organization advancing treatment and research for vision impairments. Kym shares the emotional origin of Finding the Light, how it grew from a simple idea into a global community movement, and the powerful ways it’s inspiring kids, families, and athletes living with blindness. You’ll also hear about ho...
We wrap up Season One of The Adaptive Athlete Podcast by flipping the script. Host Mat Hotho sits down with past guest Sean Eberle, but this time Mat is the one answering the questions. He shares his journey of growing up with right-side hemiplegic cerebral palsy, facing bullying and negative self-talk, and discovering CrossFit as a way to reclaim strength, confidence, and balance in his life. The conversation digs into counseling, mantras, and mindset work—tools that helped Mat handle stress...
CrossFit Games rookie, Kyle Harper joins the podcast to talk training with hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy, the long road from strict pull-ups to bar and ring muscle-ups, and why impeccable timing and technique, not brute force, unlock complex skills. Kyle shares how coach Rick Smith at CrossFit Kyalami broke movements into simple, scalable drills, how he manages fatigue and overcompensation between his dominant and affected sides, and what finally clicked for butterfly pull-ups and muscle-up...
Head Judge of the Adaptive CrossFit Games, Shannon Ogar, joins the podcast to talk about her path from University of Alabama athletic trainer to adaptive athlete and leader in the sport. She shares how a stroke-like medical event changed her right-side vestibular function and facial mobility, what that’s meant for balance, vision, fatigue, and training, and why recovery strategy is non-negotiable for athletes with CNS impairments. Shannon previews this year’s briefing flow (athlete-led Q&...
Florian Gruhlke joins from Germany to talk about training with two little kids at home, a new 2-hour daily commute, and squeezing sessions in from 9–11 p.m. He opens up about living and competing with multi-joint osteoarthritis—how it changes bar work, lifting numbers, and even what he chooses to post online. We talk about the sponsorship grind, representing “invisible” disabilities on social media, and why he adapts Mayhem programming for the Standing Diagnosed division. Follow F...
WheelWOD’s Kevin Ogar joins the podcast from Las Vegas a week before the Adaptive CrossFit Games. We trace his path from Missouri “country problem solver” to 2007-era CrossFitter and regional athlete, and then the life-altering OC Throwdown accident that left him paralyzed. Kevin opens up about faith, family, and the data-driven grind behind building fair tests for 16 adaptive divisions. We talk programming trade-offs, logistics few spectators ever see, and what he wants ath...
Amy Johnson joins The Adaptive Athlete Podcast to share her journey from living with a brachial plexus injury to finding CrossFit as a lifeline. She talks about the challenges of growing up with limited use of her right arm, how discovering CrossFit transformed her pain management, and what it means to compete on the CrossFit Games stage. Amy also reflects on coaching as an adaptive athlete, protecting her “good” arm, and dedicating her training to the students she works with as a...
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