Allysa Seely: A National Treasure

ALLYSA SEELY: A NATIONAL TREASURE BY ERIC CARLYLE (HE, HIM, HIS)

The fact that 31-year-old Allysa Seely was born in back competing and between 2014-2019 she continued to Phoenix had no bearing on our decision to honor her in score a number of medals and championships leading up this special issue of Compete. And while she attended to her ESPY. college at Arizona State University just a few miles from In 2019 Seely relocated to Colorado Springs to Compete’s office, Seely is much more to us than a fellow utilize the Olympic Training Center. She was featured Phoenician. To me, her desire and drive to continue in The Denver Post alongside her service dog Mowgli, a competing in spite of her medical condition that continues golden retriever. The pair train together, running up to to worsen with age really makes her a national treasure. 40 miles each week. Seely says Mowgli can sense medical

Seely was one of 20 athletes featured in ESPN The emergencies before they happen even though he hasn’t Magazine’s 2106 Body Issue. In 2018 she and Mark Barr been trained to do that. When Seely experiences a seizure won the USA Triathlon’s 2018 Elite Paratriathletes of or loses consciousness her canine friend is there to protect the Year award. She matched that last year when ESPN her. presented her with an ESPY as Best Female Athlete with a I am inspired by Seely’s honest posts like this one Disability. She also took a seat on USA Triathlon’s board from her Facebook page on October 14: “As an athlete of directors in 2019. I have always found my stride in the form of ‘Get up,

But I think I am getting a little ahead of myself. Seely Dress up, Show up and NEVER give up’ to me showing completed her first triathlon in 2008 as an able-bodied up everyday is not about being your best everyday, athlete while still in college and became a nationally but doing what you can everyday. Some days that is, ranked triathlete. In 2010, after experiencing numbness FRUSTRATINGLY, resting and healing. Today it took of and tingling in her limbs for two years she was diagnosed the form of squats, wall sits, some bed sit ups and planks. with Chiari II Malformation, basilar invagination and Everyday I aim to show up in the way that I can and by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. doing so I’ve defied odds, gone places I could have never

In a 2016 espnW article, she shared with Morty imagined and accomplished things no one else has. No Ain that “the Chiari malformation means my brain is matter how irritated I get by my medical conditions and herniated into my spinal column, so a significant amount the ways in which they hold me back I want to focus on of my cerebellum and brain stem is outside of my skull the ways—no matter how small—I can move forward…” and inside my spinal column. The basilar invagination As she ages, the disease continues to progress and means the part that is from my skull to my spine is bent at presents more challenges. a weird angle; it has like a kink in it. And Ehlers-Danlos But Seely continues syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. And then to be upbeat and the complications from those three diagnoses and the to face each surgeries I've had led to complications that eventually led challenge one to the amputation of my left leg below my knee.” day at time.

In spite of what would seem like insurmountable Seely is a odds, she remained a competitive college athlete while true winner continuing to treat her condition, becoming the first (and so is collegiate athlete with a physical disability to compete at Mowgli)! the national championships.

As her condition progressed, Seely continued participating in sports as an elite paratriathlete. In 2012 at the ITU Paratriathlon World Championships she earned a bronze medal. But the following year Seely suffered a setback, the year when her left leg was amputated below the knee. Doctors questioned if she’d ever walk again.

But Seely is a fighter and she was back training just weeks after surgery, much to the hesitation of her doctors, nurses and physical therapists who were urging her to be “realistic” about her future outcome. She decided to prove them wrong and just eight months later she competed in the triathlon collegiate nationals! By 2014 Seely was