What it was like
A racing chair leaving the start line sounds nothing like spikes on a track. It is carbon and metal and it is startlingly fast, and once you have heard it in person you cannot go back to thinking of this as a nice thing people do.
Angel City Games puts Paralympic-class competitors and first-timers on the same Drake Stadium infield across two days — track and field, wheelchair basketball, seated volleyball, discus, shot put, javelin. The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation built it to be elite and free at the same time, which almost nothing in sport manages. No ticket, no gate, no rope holding you back. Families spread across the stands. Recreational divisions run beside athletes headed for international competition, and the crowd does not treat those as different events.
It happens on the UCLA campus in Westwood, with schedules and spectator details at angelcitygames.org.
Bring the kid who has decided sports are not for them.