Voices of Arizona: Paralympics gold medalist Allysa Seely advocates for equal athlete treatment

The Paralympics begin Wednesday, Aug. 28, in Paris. And among the thousands of competitors, several call Arizona home.

In a series of special Voices of Arizona segments this week, Jill Ryan dives into the stories of our state’s homegrown Paralympians.

Allysa Seely is the first-ever gold medalist in Paratriathlon.

“Back in 2016 it was a brand new sport, and I am the only female in the world with two gold medals in Olympic or Paralympic Triathlon,” Seely said.

The Glendale native uses a prosthetic left leg and has a neurological disability.

“On the flip side of that is I have spent a significant amount of time working in advocacy and governments for the sport,” Seely said.

She has helped equity efforts between the Olympics and the Paralympics, like the inclusion of prize money for Paratriathlons.

“The able body side of triathlon has prize money available at every international race from the lowest level of racing which we consider to be Continental Cups, up to highest level racing,” Seely said.

And for Paratriathlon, there’ was none. Until last season, when Seely helped implement the first prize.

“So having prize money at one event last year was a huge step in the right direction to work towards that equal funding and equal pay. But we are not there yet,” Seely said.

One of her other goals is to make adaptive sports more affordable. Most insurance companies don’t cover adaptive sports equipment.

“My running leg costs upwards of $20,000, so for an able-bodied person you can take up running by going to a store and buying a $50 pair of shoes. Obviously you can get more expensive shoes but you can spend $50 and you can pretty much go outside and run and be active,” Seely said.

And for competition, Seely needs multiple prosthetics.

“With a disability you have to look at spending tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to get involved,” Seely said.

She is funded through a partnership with her prosthetics company. She also benefits from living half the year in Colorado.

“The same group that got a law passed in Colorado to insure sports equipment can be covered by insurance, they’re working on getting a law passed in Arizona as well,” Seely said.

Seely said the legislation is in the early stages.