Michael Uihlein MD CAQ sports medicine
Team Physician - US Para Ice Hockey Team, Assistant Professor Department of Emergency Medicine - Medical college of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine for Education and Co-Director - Adaptive Sports Clinic, Clement J Zablocki VA Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury Center, Milwaukee, WI
Michael Uihlein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and is currently the Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine for Education and Co-Director of the Adaptive Sports Medicine Clinic at the Clement J Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He completed his sports medicine fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2016 and has been the team physician for the US National Para Ice Hockey team since 2012. His experience with adaptive sports and caring for disabled athletes includes the Paralympics in 2014, 2018, and 2022 in Beijing, China. He still is part of the National Medical Team for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and has provided coverage at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic and the National Veterans Golden Age Games.
Kristina Fagher
Associate Professor, PhD, Physiotherapist, Specialist in Sports Medicine and Physical Activity, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden Parasport Sweden
Dr Kristina Fagher is an Associate Professor in Physiotherapy in the Rehabilitation Medicine Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. Her research focus on Para athletes´ health, injury and illness prevention and well-being in sports, and she is the founder of the adapted health promotion platform www.safeparasport.com
Clinically she is a Physiotherapist specialised in Sports Medicine and Physical Activity with more than thirteen years of experience of working with elite Para athletes (e.g. at the Paralympic Games 2016, 2022 and 2024). She is a member of The Concussion in Para sport group and is a Physiotherapist working with Para sport Sweden and The Swedish Paralympic Committee.
Nick Webborn
CBE, UK Sport
Nick is Chair of UK Sport and Honorary Clinical Professor at Loughborough University. Nick is a world leading expert in the area of Paralympic sports medicine. He played wheelchair tennis for Great Britain. Paris 2024 is his 13th Paralympic Games and he was chief medical officer for ParalympicsGB at London 2012. He was awarded an OBE in 2016 for services to Paralympic Sports Medicine and to the British Paralympic Association, and a CBE in 2022 for services to Sports Medicine and to Sport.
Cheri Blauwet
Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, Shirley Ryan, AbilityLab; Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine
Cheri Blauwet, MD is a senior physician executive and gold-medal winning Paralympic athlete, leading at the intersection of health, sports, and optimizing human potential. Having successfully represented Team USA as a 7-time Paralympic medallist and two-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons, she is driven to lead in high performance environments. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, as well as Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine.
Translating her background as an athlete to the clinical setting, Dr. Blauwet is a change agent in the area of health equity, with a specific focus on sport and physical activity for health promotion and chronic disease prevention. In recognition of her work, in 2025 she was named to the inaugural Forbes “Accessibility 100” list. Her scientific research is focused on injury and illness prevention, with particular focus on athlete mental health, concussion, and the unique needs of the female athlete as well as athletes with disabilities. As evidence of the impact of this work, she has been invited to provide numerous international lectures on these topics, including multiple keynotes and plenary sessions at major sports medicine, rehabilitation, and industry conferences.
She serves as a Member of the International Olympic Committee Medical & Scientific Commission and the Paralympic Advisory Council for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). Her leadership has catalyzed transformative change across the Olympic and Paralympic landscape in the United States and globally, expanding the visibility of Paralympic athletes and advancing numerous initiatives that enhance parity and resources that drive athlete opportunity and excel.
Wayne Derman
Medical Director (External) of the International Paralympic Committee; Professor & Head of the Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine, Stellenbosch University.
Professor Wayne Derman is a specialist sports physician and Professor at Stellenbosch University, where he heads the Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine. He serves as Co-Director of the IOC Research Centre of South Africa and Director of the FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence in Stellenbosch, and is currently the Medical Director of the International Paralympic Committee.
He is also a Visiting Professor at Lund University in Sweden. Professor Derman has provided clinical care to South African athletes at the highest level, including serving as Chief Medical Officer for Team South Africa at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and for the South African Paralympic Team at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games. His research centers on injury prevention and health in elite athletes—with a special emphasis on athletes with disabilities—and he has authored more than 350 peer‑reviewed papers, book chapters, and policy documents.
Maarit Valtonen
Maarit Valtonen, MD/PhD, Associate professor
Maarit Valtonen. MD, Associate Professor. is the Chief Medical Officer at Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport KIHU and Finnish Olympic Committee. As a specialist in sports and exercise medicine, she develops and promotes the management of athlete health care and the medical expertise in Olympic Training Centers and Sports Academies in Finland. For the past 8 years, she has intensively focused clinical research to respiratory infections in athletes, collecting data on Olympic and professional athletes during training season and major competitions. She and her multidisciplinary research team have published over 10 articles in the complicated issue of respiratory infectious disease in sport environment. Dr Valtonen is an active member of IOC Consensus group of acute respiratory illness in athletes and aims to enhance athlete health by contributing to better understanding on respiratory infections in sports medicine.
Stephanie Tow
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Colorado Departments of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and Orthopedics Institute - Sports Medicine Center, Children's Hospital Colorado
Stephanie Tow, MD, FAAPMR, CAQSM is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado and Departments of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and Orthopedics Institute – Sports Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She is board-certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), Sports Medicine, Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, and Brain Injury Medicine. Dr. Tow is the Head Team Physician and Medical Director/Chief Medical Officer of Team USA Paralympics Swimming’s National Team, as well as a National Medical Classifier for US Paralympics Swimming.
Dr. Tow completed her undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, after which she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship (focused on the field of education/teaching) in Hong Kong. She earned her medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers University) – New Jersey Medical School and completed her residency and chief residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at UT Southwestern. She completed her pediatric rehabilitation medicine fellowship at the University of Colorado/Children’s Hospital Colorado and her sports medicine fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Dr. Tow has a passion for working with athletes of all abilities, including adaptive and Para sports athletes. She provided team physician medical support to US Paralympics Swimming at the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming World Championships, the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the Manchester 2023 World Para Swimming World Championships, various other Para Swimming international and national meets, and volunteered as a sports medicine physician at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She has experience working in many leadership and volunteer roles related to adaptive and Para sports, including serving as the current medical director of the Children’s Hospital Colorado Adaptive Recreation for Childhood Health (ARCH) program, co-founder and former director of the Dallas-Fort Worth Adaptive Sports Coalition, team physician and medical director of multiple adaptive/Para sports medicine teams, organizations, and events, and former chair of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine Adapted Sports and Recreation Committee.
With a passion for teaching and research related to adaptive and Para sports, Dr. Tow has served as a co-chair, director, invited keynote speaker, and faculty speaker of many adaptive and Para sports medicine courses and presentations to teach other clinicians about different aspects of caring for and supporting athletes with disabilities. She has served as a member of the program planning committee for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee – National Governing Body Medical Conference, where she has advocated for increasing inclusion of Para sports medicine-related topics and implemented creative ideas and methods to teach other clinicians about Para sports and medical support. Her research primarily focuses on Para sports medicine topics, including sports-related injury and illness epidemiology and prevention in Para sports, particularly in youth athletes where there is a paucity of evidence; Paralympic sport classification; and equity and access to sporting opportunities for athletes with disabilities. She has published multiple peer-review articles, original research, and chapters on topics related to adaptive and Para sports medicine. She is a research collaborator and member of an international group led by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s sports medicine research team developing Para-SCAT6 concussion assessments for Para athletes, including the development of a Para-SCAT6-WC (wheelchair) and a Para-SCAT6-VI (visual impairment) concussion assessments. Dr. Tow is an advocate for equitable access to participation in sports, recreation, and physical activity and sports medicine resources for all athletes.