CAF's 2026 Heroes of Sport Awards: a triathlon across America, a 9-year-old surfing, and a state legislature campaign that's trying to make the access part real

Mohamed Lahna swam 28.5 miles around Manhattan, cycled approximately 3,000 miles across the country, and then ran the final leg through the desert to the Southern California coast. He has a lower-limb amputation. He did all of this in a single continuous journey while raising money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Save the Children.

The CAF is giving him the Exceptional Athletic Performance Male Award. It is the second year in a row he has received it.

The foundation will hold its 2026 Heroes of Sport Awards on October 23 in San Diego. Lahna’s award will share the program with Trailblazer recognitions for two O&P advocates and a Rising Star award for a 9-year-old with bilateral transfemoral limb loss who has taken up surfing.

The combination is not accidental. CAF has funded Lahna since early in his triathlon career. Now the same organization is formally recognizing the people working to change the state laws that determine whether the next Mohamed Lahna can get an activity-specific prosthesis in the first place.

The advocacy story

Nicole Ver Kuilen and Kyle Stepp will receive Trailblazer awards for their work with So EveryBODY Can Move, a national movement pushing to improve insurance coverage of activity-specific O&P devices.

The core of So EveryBODY Can Move is state-level legislation. The campaign’s current target: pass laws in 28 states before the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. The idea is to build enough of a state-by-state floor that a federal push becomes viable.

Ver Kuilen is an athlete with limb loss and has been working to mobilize advocates for state policy change. Stepp is an endurance athlete with limb loss whose approach centers on community organizing. What they are asking states to do, specifically, is require coverage of activity-specific prosthetic devices as part of standard insurance plans. These devices, running blades and other sport-specific components, are routinely excluded from coverage by private insurers and Medicare alike under the reasoning that they are not medically necessary for basic ambulation.

“Medically necessary for basic ambulation” is the phrase that comes up in these coverage fights repeatedly. It is a narrow standard that effectively treats getting from your bed to your kitchen as the only outcome insurers are required to fund. Sport, recreation, and anything resembling movement beyond baseline function falls outside it.

That standard has been challenged in individual states before. So EveryBODY Can Move is trying to change it systematically, in enough places that the aggregate pressure adds up to something.

Lahna and the 2028 build

Lahna is training for the 2028 Games. He already has two Paralympic triathlon medals: a bronze from Rio 2016 and a silver from Paris 2024. The America crossing this year was a fundraiser and a statement of continued capacity, not a comeback.

CAF says it was Lahna’s involvement with the foundation that got him into triathlon in the first place.

Beauden Baumkirchner

The Sam Day Rising Star Award goes to Beauden Baumkirchner, 9, who has bilateral transfemoral limb loss and plays baseball, races jet skis, and recently began surfing. The award is given to a young athlete for dedication to athletic goals. Baumkirchner is not a Paralympic hopeful in any narrative sense the coverage usually reaches for. He’s a kid who surfs.

What this means

The 28-state campaign is the thing to watch. State-level insurance mandates for activity-specific prosthetics have been enacted in a handful of states but remain the exception. A coordinated push tied to a 2028 deadline, with named advocates and formal organizational backing, is a different scale of effort than what has come before.

The Los Angeles Games are two years away. Whether So EveryBODY Can Move hits its state target by then, and what enforcement looks like even where legislation passes, will determine whether the access conversation sounds any different in 2028 than it did in 2024.

---

This article covers organizational announcements and policy advocacy. It is not a guide to specific devices, insurers, or clinical eligibility. Coverage decisions depend on your insurer, plan type, state law, and clinical documentation. Consult your prosthetist and insurer for guidance specific to your situation.