Paralympic gold medalist Allysa Seely using platform to advocate for women's healthcare

Allysa Seely, a Team USA Paralympic athlete and two-time gold medal winner from Arizona, knows what it means to overcome a serious health challenge. 

Her experience, and the platform she brings as an athlete, has led her to become an advocate for women's healthcare.

In 2010, Seely, who was a member or the Arizona State University triathlon team when she was diagnosed with Chiari II Malformation, basilar invagination, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which affect her brain, spine, and connective tissues. Her diagnosis ultimately resulted in the loss of her left leg.

Seely, who grew up in Glendale, graduated from Mountain Ridge High School, was able to fight her way back and compete in the paratriathlon at the 2016 Paralympic games. She made history by winning a gold medal in her debut Paralympics. Seely returned and won gold again in the event in Tokyo for the 2020 Paralympics, held this year after last year's cancellation. But that was not without a roadblock. 

In October 2020, as Seely was preparing for the Games, she ended up in the hospital with endocarditis, an infection in her heart, along with blood clots. But initially, she said, her medical team doubted that she had the condition and she was sent home.  

"I had gone to the hospital back in July and I told them I have all of the signs and the symptoms that I had last time when I had an infection in my bloodstream, the test came back positive," Seely said. "The infectious disease doctor took one look at me and the test results and said the test results must be contaminated, you look too good to be this sick."

For the next two months, Seely continued to get positive test results and doctors who refused to believe she was sick until it became life threatening.

“They just labeled it as contaminated until it was a life threatening matter and put me in and out of the hospital for four and half months," Seely said. "I was fighting for my life and it also delayed my dreams of competing in the Tokyo games, messing with my livelihood as a professional athlete."

That experience led Seely to become involved in speaking out for women's health issues and gender disparities.

"After having multiple experiences with healthcare that have been pretty unfortunate, I started to do a lot of research and learned what I was feeling and that women are less likely to be listened to, and less likely to be believed," Seely said.

"I just realized I couldn't be silent anymore, I have faced numerous occasions where my life has been threatened because of the way in which I’ve been treated as a female with a chronic illness."

Seely, who was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Sept. 21 Arizona Diamondbacks game, now goes to hospitals and medical schools to speak with medical professionals about her experiences. She emphasizes the need to communicate effectively and listen to patients. Seely also is searching for a researcher to partner with and create a PhD program that looks into the gender disparities in healthcare.

“A lot of the ways I was being treated is very similar to gaslighting and it is also now being called medical gaslighting the way some patients are being treated,” Seely said. "Something was wrong and they had proof, they had lab tests that were very conclusive yet still nobody believed me. I felt that if I didn't speak up, then what if one more person experienced what I did and had a poor outcome, how would I be able to forgive myself?”

By telling her story and using her platform, Seely hopes to help women advocate for themselves to make sure their voices are being heard and they are receiving adequate treatment.

 “In the long term, I really hope to impact the entire system because it doesn't matter how hard I advocate for myself I was still dismissed, so patients advocating for themselves isn’t going to be enough," Seely said. 

Seely also is advocating for her sport. For the last seven years, she has been a voice urging USA triathlon, USA Olympic and Paralympic committees, to better support athletes' safety and well-being.

Seely is turning her focus on competing in the World Championships in five weeks and preparing for the Paris Paralympic Games in three years, along with continuing to fight for the changes she wants to see.

"The system has to change, research has to start involving women, education needs to include women’s health,” Seely said.