Emma Hood walked off a roof (literally) and landed on both feet, shattering her ankles and heels. Months later she was back in the gym, and this year she's a rookie at the Adaptive CrossFit Games in the Vision division. 

Mat Hotho talks with Emma about aniridia, the rare condition she shares with her dad and grandfather, and how growing up her family never asked whether she could do something—only how. 

They get into her jump from jiu-jitsu to CrossFit, finding WheelWOD by stalking another vision-impaired athlete's Instagram, and fighting back from illness to place fourth at Semifinals. 

It's a conversation about doing hard things your own way, and the community that shows up to cheer you on.

The Adaptive Athlete podcast is made possible by sponsorship from Equip Products.

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Mat Hotho talks with Tori Clinch, a rookie competing in the Seated Two division heading to the 2026 CrossFit Games in San Jose. Tori's year has been anything but expected—she got back into CrossFit in January purely for her own sanity, never intending to compete, and ended up finishing first in the Open and first at Semifinals. 

She opens up about her path to adaptive CrossFit: an above-knee amputation after months of sepsis and surgery, the box that turned her away once she started using a wheelchair, and the new box, CrossFit Brough, that welcomed her without hesitation. Five of its members are flying to San Jose just to cheer her on. 

Tori also talks wheelchair basketball, the Matt Hampson Foundation, and what she'd tell the younger version of herself sitting in a hospital bed.

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Mat Hotho sits down with Noah Cook, a 25-year-old vision athlete gearing up for his first CrossFit Adaptive Games appearance after going completely blind by age 18. 

Noah lost his sight to glaucoma-related injuries, never touched CrossFit until after he went blind, and now trains under his dad, who's also his handler on the competition floor. 

They talk prosthetic eyes, producing hip-hop tracks in Logic Pro by feel using VoiceOver, and the blind soccer and goalball club Noah's building in San Antonio with his team, San Antonio Fuego. 

Noah opens up about wanting to start a nonprofit to make blind sports more accessible, and closes with a message for anyone new to this community: it's okay to be afraid. That's where the growth happens.

The Adaptive Athlete podcast is sponsored by Equip Products.

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Mat Hotho sits down with McKenzie Kravetsky, a rookie Lower Minor athlete heading to her first CrossFit Games. In 2013, a head-on collision left McKenzie with injuries that reconstructed nearly everything — including a right ankle that's now fused and immobile. 

She walked into a CrossFit gym mid-recovery with one request: make me strong and unkillable. Thirteen years later, she's a black belt, a registered nurse, and an athlete reshaping what's possible in the rural Mountain West. 

McKenzie talks about training around a fused ankle, the breathing discipline she carried over from judo, and the limb-salvage brace that let her run again after three years. She's also been knocking on doors across Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah to push for adaptive divisions at local competitions.

The episode is brought to you by Equip Products.

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Mat Hotho sits down with Roman Cameron, a rookie heading into his first CrossFit Adaptive Games in one of the sport's toughest divisions, Seated with Hip Function. 

Roman shares how a vitamin B12 deficiency at 17 led to spinal cord degeneration and life in a wheelchair, and how he turned that into a relentless drive to compete.

He talks studying film like he did back in soccer and rugby, mentoring younger athletes at WHASCP Fitness in South Africa, and what it takes to fundraise for an international competition when the Rand doesn't go far against the Dollar. 

Mat and Roman dig into mindset, money, and what it really means to find the "monster" inside yourself. 

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Mat Hotho sits down with Kristee Irby, a Houston-based adaptive CrossFit athlete competing with a left limb difference.

Kristee didn't even know adaptive CrossFit existed when she first walked into her gym, Bellhouse CrossFit. She stumbled into the Open, found herself on a leaderboard, and had to decide: was she actually going to do this? She did. What followed was double sessions, a self-built spreadsheet of past semifinal workouts, and a velcro ankle strap from Amazon turned into a rowing attachment. 

This conversation covers her work ethic, what it meant to finally see other athletes who looked like her, and why she thinks the best thing she can tell a younger version of herself is simply: you're capable.

The Adaptive Athlete Podcast is sponsored by Equip Products.

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Mat Hotho sits down with Oscar Jessup, a 17-year-old adaptive CrossFit athlete from Australia who placed third at last year's Adaptive Games in Las Vegas, complete with his now-famous bow-and-arrow celebration. 

Oscar's joined by his dad Rich and his coach Tom Woodham from CrossFit 2444, and together they get into what it actually takes to build a path for an athlete like Oscar: a gym that says yes first and figures out the how second. 

They talk Vegas highlights, the strength of Oscar's gymnastics, where the I division's programming could grow, and the family and coaching support behind every lift. It's a loud, funny, full-hearted conversation about community and coaching. 

Rich's advice for any family starting out? Find yourself a Tom.

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Mat Hotho sits down with Brian Knight. Brian was born with a brachial plexus injury. He won a silver medal at the 2025 CrossFit Games, and he's one of the  OGs of adaptive CrossFit content. 

Brian grew up fully integrated into able-bodied sports, didn't discover CrossFit until a roommate with the heart of a coach handed him a dumbbell and a workout in a school gym in Chicago. 

Brian and Mat cover the spectrum between over- and under-owning your impairment, why community matters more than circumstances, and what curiosity paired with humility looks like in practice.

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Mat Hotho sits down with Kieran Healey-Ryder, a Glasgow-based adaptive athlete navigating a rare, progressive skeletal disease that's slowly taking the use of his left leg. 

Kieran shares the story of a camping trip discovery, a devastating second opinion delivered in a Scottish palatial estate, and the quiet grief that arrives in micro-moments.

He talks about losing his career and his mobility at the same time, CrossFit Glasgow refusing to let him quit, his daughters training alongside him, and the humor that keeps it all livable. 

He's been in the Adaptive Open, he's still lifting, and he's still figuring it out — which is exactly the point.

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Mat Hotho takes the mic solo for the first installment of a new format: personal episodes between the interviews, where Mat tackles the ideas and conversations he keeps having about adaptive fitness off the show.

After a lap through two things on his mind—connecting adaptive athletes with local pediatric and rehab communities, and the case for a true para-sport classification system—Mat spends the bulk of this one debriefing his weekend coordinating the adaptive division at the SeaDog Summer Showdown in Jupiter, Florida.

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