UC Adaptive Athletics: Compete. Connect. Excel.

The University of Cincinnati Adaptive Athletics Program provides a competitive athletic environment for students with physical disabilities, promoting personal growth, community, and athletic excellence. The program is open to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across all UC campuses who have a qualifying disability, regardless of skill level. Meet the UC Adaptive Athletes

UC Adaptive Athletics offers two sports:

• Wheelchair Tennis: Athletes with lower-limb disabilities compete using specialized sports wheelchairs, following traditional tennis rules with an allowance for two bounces.

• Para Track and Field: Athletes compete in adapted track and field events using equipment and supports suited to their needs, including racing wheelchairs, prostheses, specialized frames, and running guides.

Athlete Highlights

When you support UC Adaptive Athletics, you’re supporting student-athletes like Mikiahya Greene. After becoming a paraplegic following an act of gun violence in 2023, Mikiahya joined UC Adaptive Athletics in 2024 as one of the program’s founding athletes.

“I’ve been an athlete my whole life and fell in love with track in high school. My experiences as an athlete and the mental toughness I developed are what got me through rehab after my injury. I thought my days competing were behind me, and then Coach Counts recruited me to join UC’s new para track and field team. I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a Bearcat. I’m now in a new and unexpected chapter of my life as a student and an athlete, and I plan to make the most of it by adding to UC’s tradition of athletics excellence in a new way!”

Seth Miller, a junior from Fishers, Indiana, also found a new path through adaptive athletics. After playing hockey growing up, a rock-climbing accident and spinal cord injury in high school changed his trajectory. When Seth learned about UC’s new program, he joined the team to compete in para track and field and wheelchair tennis.

"There are so many different opportunities that you get playing adaptive sports to meet people," Miller told WTHR. "I think it's just a mindset of getting things done. I think it's a great opportunity. Not a lot of schools have it."

Lydia Yax was UC Adaptive Athletics’ first Team Captain and the program’s first student-athlete to graduate from the University of Cincinnati (Lindner College of Business, '26). Her experience reflects the impact of adaptive athletics both on and off the field.

“Those lessons don't stay on the track. They follow us into classrooms, workplaces, relationships, and every other part of our lives. Because when you have a community that believes in you, you start believing in yourself.”

The Future of UC Adaptive Athletics

In just our third season, UC Adaptive Athletics has grown into a competitive collegiate program with 14 athletes competing. UC is part of Big 12 Adaptive Athletics, where three schools currently have active teams. UC is also the only collegiate adaptive athletics program in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Our vision is to establish UC as a national hub for collegiate adaptive sports, creating more opportunities for students with disabilities to compete, connect, and excel.

Your Giving Tuesday gift will help make that vision possible. Donations will support travel to competitions across the country, specialized coaching, and sport-specific equipment our athletes need to train and compete at a high level. With your support, our athletes can represent the Bearcats, compete against top collegiate programs, and continue building a program that makes our university proud.

By supporting UC Adaptive Athletics, you’re investing in competitive opportunities, access, and belonging for students with disabilities. Help our Bearcats get to the starting line, onto the court, and into the competition. Together, we can help UC Adaptive Athletics continue to grow and lead the way in collegiate adaptive sports. 

UC and UC Health employees can give via payroll deduction today!