Eli Wolff ’95 is the first recipient of Nike’s Casey Martin Award. The Award honors people with disabilities who have made a difference in sports. Pro-Golfer Casey Martin, Senator Bob Dole and Nike CEO Phil Knight were on hand during the ceremony on November 14, which took place at the Tiger Woods Center on the Nike Campus.
A Paraolympic soccer player, Eli received the award for his advocacy and courage in pursuing sports despite physical, societal or cultural barriers. As the award recipient, Eli receives $25,000 to be donated to a nonprofit organization that supports people with disabilities. Eli will donate the $25,000 to Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, where is currently a research fellow. Wolff was selected to receive the award based on his academic contributions to research of people with disabilities; his advocacy and development of innovative new programming for inclusion of disabled athletes in competition; his participation as an athlete in the Paraolympics; and he is the new spokesperson for the National Stroke Association.
Eli is the Research and Organizational Development Fellow at World T.E.A.M. Sports in Charlotte, North Carolina. A recent Brown University graduate, Wolff was awarded a Brown University Royce Fellowship to examine the efforts of the seven disabled sports organizations recognized by the United States Olympic Committee. Wolff is a founding member of the Committee on Soccer for Challenged Players of the United States Soccer Federation, co-coordinator of the Disabled Women in Sport Task Force of the Women’s Sports Foundation, and has recently been selected by the United States Olympic Committee to attend the International Olympic Academy.