The Mindset That Makes a Paralympic Athlete | Scout Bassett & Annie Carey

In this episode of Flame Bearers, host and Paralympian Manasi Joshi sits down with Paralympic trailblazer, mentor, and foundation founder Scout Basset and rising collegiate para-track star and world championship medalist Annie Carey for an illuminating conversation honoring Disability Pride Month. Annie and Scout explore the complex realities of navigating elite sport as para athletes, from Annie’s experiences as a young girl competing against adults to discovering a radically freeing community where she could finally step onto the track without needing to hide or explain her disability. They share the vulnerability of navigating the invisible, lonely, and expensive barriers to reaching the Paralympic stage, as well as the unique psychological transition of moving between a deeply accepting athletic inner circle and everyday college life. Together, they redefine the strict binary of winning and losing, while directly challenging the media to look past an athlete’s disability backstory. Scout and Annie call on the fashion, beauty, and marketing industries to normalize representation and embrace women with disabilities as trendy, beautiful, and aspirational icons, reminding us all that we always have the power to take life’s imperfect moments and choose exactly what to make of them.