Team RobisonTeam Robison
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Shad and Freyja Robison share how adopting three disabled sisters and racing with Team Addict II Athlete reshaped their grief, faith and views on addiction. Their story highlights how using running and service to support their daughters has, in turn, supported the recovery journeys of many athletes.
1:10:20•1 Mar 2019
Team Robison: Racing, Recovery and Raising Three Miracles
Episode Overview
- Adopting medically fragile children can start from a single moment of connection, even when their files look overwhelming on paper.
- Parental addiction can cause devastating harm, yet contact with people in recovery can soften anger and change long‑held judgements.
- Allowing athletes to push disabled children in races gives those children joy and offers athletes a powerful sense of purpose in their own recovery.
- Service projects, like fundraising for a Hoyt racing chair, can strengthen recovery communities and create lasting bonds between families and athletes.
- Families of disabled children are encouraged to let others ask questions and engage, as openness can reduce fear and build understanding.
“"That an addict is not always an addict."”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of love, grit and recovery. This conversation centres on Shad and Freyja Robison, a couple who went from hoping for an “average, ordinary kid” to adopting three medically fragile sisters whose lives were shaped by their biological mother’s meth and alcohol use. Their first daughter, Elizabeth, survived a traumatic birth against all odds, living with cerebral palsy, seizures and a G‑tube.
Freyja recalls reading her file and thinking, “nope, way too much”… until spiritual promptings and a powerful first meeting made it clear Elizabeth was theirs. They share bluntly how they once longed for “a moment in a dark alley” with the birth mum, and how Addict II Athlete’s community softened that anger.
As Freyja puts it later, “that an addict is not always an addict,” and she imagines today saying to the birth mum, “come see what it could be like… come be a part of your girls’ lives.” Elizabeth’s short but intense life drew the Robisons into Team Addict II Athlete. Athletes began pushing her in races, giving her a “special view” from a racing wheelchair and, in the process, transforming their own recovery.
After Elizabeth’s death, younger sister Emma took her place in the bright orange Hoyt racing chair – “the beast” – and now shares countless races with recovering athletes who find meaning in using their legs for someone who can’t. Coach Blu highlights moments where Emma and that chair arrived exactly when struggling athletes were ready to quit, giving them a reason to keep going.
The Robisons talk warmly about letting others push Emma, the chaos of racing with three special needs kids, and their wish that more families with disabled children would feel safe bringing them into public events. If you’re in recovery, raising kids affected by addiction, or just need a reminder of how service can change hearts on both sides, this story might leave you asking: whose race could you help finish today?
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