Pam Wilson
2010
Dr. Pam became actively involved in adaptive sports after sustaining a thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) in 1979 at the age of 24. Her first exposure to wheelchair sports came just four weeks into her rehabilitation as an inpatient at Craig Hospital in Denver. One day, a recreational therapist entered her room and asked if she wanted to go snow skiing. Never one to turn down a challenge, she accepted.
With a “Juet” brace on, she joined a small group of patients willing to take on the adventure. Upon arriving at the mountain and entering the small equipment room, she was struck by the sight of prosthetic legs stacked in the corner and wheelchairs scattered about—overwhelming, yet exciting. They placed her into a new type of skiing device called a sit ski, and up the mountain she went. Suppressing her anxiety, she pointed the ski downhill. When she reached the bottom, surrounded by her instructors, she came to a stop with the biggest smile on her face. From that moment on, she was hooked.
Dr. Pam became one of the first athletes to ever race downhill and slalom in a sit ski, competing at races across the country for several years. The thrill of competition ignited her passion. She convinced a friend to build her a racing chair and soon became a part of the growing sport of wheelchair racing. Winning medals at regional and national events, she achieved her goal of representing the USA at the Wheelchair Pan American Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1982, where she won medals in both track and swimming. She also competed in basketball and road racing, including marathons, all while advocating for the inclusion of athletes with disabilities in sport.
Before her injury, Pam had been a nurse. Afterward, she decided to take on an even greater challenge: medical school. She became one of the first individuals in the U.S. to enter and complete medical school in a wheelchair. Ultimately, she became a dual-boarded pediatric rehabilitation physician and medical director of one of the largest spinal defects programs for children in the nation. Her goal was to serve as a role model for kids with spina bifida and spinal cord injuries—showing them what was possible through her example as “Dr. Pam, the athlete and doctor in a wheelchair.”
Over the years, Dr. Pam has been a steadfast friend to the disabled sports community, contributing nationally and internationally. As both a track and field athlete and physician, she transitioned into training and serving as a classifier for the U.S., and eventually as an international classifier for the International Paralympic Committee, becoming one of their training educators and traveling the world to teach others.
Later in life, Dr. Pam began yet another athletic chapter—joining the U.S. Para Curling Team as lead. She represented Team USA at the World Championships in 2019 in Scotland, in 2020 in Switzerland, and at the World B Championships in Loja, Finland, in 2021.
In recognition of her decades of athletic and professional excellence, Dr. Pam was awarded the Hal O’Leary Inspiration Award by the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in 2009.