WELLNESS FITNESS
By Jessica Alyea | Photos by Erika Doll
A Game Of Thought
How fencing exercises mind and body — and almost anyone can participate
T
he roar of the crowd echoed around the vast, vaulted glass ceiling of the Grand Parlais museum in Paris, France. Sean Shumate looked up in awe. Thousands of people were cheering for the elite wheelchair fencing athletes from all over the world competing at the 2024 Paralympic Games. The electrifying feeling never got old. Not when Sean was refereeing wheelchair fencing at the past three Paralympics, like he was in Paris, and not when he himself competed in the Games in Athens in 2004. Sean says wheelchair fencing has given him a gift. His life was instantly changed after the car accident that paralyzed him from the waist down when he was just a 20-year-old college student at Morehead State. But it’s given him more than he could have imagined as a sporty kid growing up in Ashland, Kentucky. 30 Winter 2024-2025 / TodaysTransitions.com
“AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT’S THE EFFORTS YOU PUT INTO WHAT YOU’RE DOING.” — SEAN SHUMATE