Brooke Raasch has long known that sport-specific prosthetic legs are expensive. He’s worked in orthotics and prosthetics business development and communications for years and is married to Paralympic runner Sarah Reinertsen. But when he learned that blades, or lower limb prosthetics for runners, cost relatively little to manufacture, he started asking questions.
“How does a foot that costs $200 to make become a $20,000 leg?” he says. Since prosthetics for running and sports are generally not covered by insurance, their cost is top of mind for many amputees and their families. The answer, as for many issues related to U.S. health care, is complicated, but Raasch, ’90, MA ’90, believes the solution includes driving down out-of-pocket costs. Through his nonprofit Running Is a Right, Raasch hopes to provide at least 1,000 children with running blades before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The blades are from Copenhagen-based sports equipment company Levitate and retail for about $2,000.
Photo: Dave McGillivray Finish Strong Foundation
Raasch has raised about $150,000 so far, and Running Is a Right has become a program of the Dave McGillivray Finish Strong Foundation. Through a partnership with Shriners Hospitals for Children that began in 2022, he has already matched dozens of kids in cities from Portland, Ore., to Boston with blades and taught them how to use them. Wearing a blade, kids can play more actively with their friends, participate in gym class, and compete in sports.
“You put it on them, and they’re running away,” says JoAnne Kanas, corporate director of orthotics and prosthetics at Shriners.” “You have to chase them down to align it.”
Raasch sees his efforts as part of a growing awareness of adaptive athletics. This year, NBC’s coverage of the Paralympics in Paris is expected to exceed 140 hours on TV (and 1,500 live hours on Peacock, the network’s streaming service)—up from less than six in 2012. “This movement is already building,” he says. “I just need to be yet one more person giving it a push.”
Rebecca Beyer is a Boston-area journalist. Email her at stanford.magazine@stanford.edu.
