Adam Ballou

Adam Ballou (born May 29, 1992) is an American soccer player and cerebral palsy football player. Ballou has cerebral palsy as a result of an intrauterine stroke, he was diagnosed at six months old. He attended James Madison University, graduating in 2015. He started playing soccer when he was three years old, played rec, advanced and travel. He also played on his high school varsity team, and was team captain his junior and senior years.

Ballou has been a consistent member of the United States Paralympic National Team since being invited to train with them in March 2007 as a 14-years-old. He has competed at the CP Football World Championships in 2009, 2011, and 2015. He has also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. His best performance with the team was a second-place finish at the 2010 Americas Championship.

Personal Ballou was born on May 29, 1992, in Virginia Beach, Virginia and has three sisters. Ballou was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was six months old, after he had a pediatric stroke. As a result of the stroke, when he was an infant, doctors told his parents that he might live his life as a vegetable. The stroke had resulted in him acquiring cerebral palsy and having limited limb functionality on his left side, making it substantially weaker than his right side. He went on from there to study International Affairs and Spanish at James Madison University. He graduated in 2015, with a minors in business as well as Latin American and Caribbean Studies. While attending university, he took the spring semester of 2012 off so he could train with the US national team ahead of the London Games. In 2014, he completed an internship for U.S. State Department at the Embassy in Madrid in 2014 as part of his studies.

Ballou started playing CP football in 2007 after getting invited to train with the national team in March. At the time, he was 14 years old. He came to the attention of national selectors after the head coach of the Virginia Beach Mariners asked his coach if he knew of any players with cerebral palsy and his coach replied with Ballou's name and contact details. Because of the rules for CP football, he was not able to earn his first national team cap until he was 16 years old. An eighth-place finish at this tournament qualified the United States for the London Games.

Ballou spent much time preparing for the 2012 Summer Paralympics. When not with the national team, he trained at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.

The 2012 Games were his first, and his family flew to London to watch him play. After the Games when he returned to the US, he was with the team when they met US President Barack Obama. In March 2015, he was part of the 14-man roster that participated in the Povoa de Varzim, Portugal hosted Footie 7 – Povoa 2015 tournament. The competition was a warmup for the World Championships that were held in England in June 2015. He started in the team's 2 - 1 win against Scotland. In the 7th/8th placement match, Argentine goalkeeper Gustavo Nahuelquin was red carded for kicking Ballou. Teammate David Garza then scored on the penalty kick. Ballou scored his own goal later in the game against Argentina. The United States won the game 4 - 1. This performance qualified the United States for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Adam Ballou, right, warms up with a teammate in preparation for the US's game against Brazil at a tournament in Salou in 2016. Again, Ballou was called to participate on the national team after being named to the 14 man squad for the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto. There, the United States played Canada, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil. He played in the team's match against Canada.

2016 saw Ballou again getting invitations to play with the US Paralympic Team. He participated national team training camp in Chula Vista, California in early March 2016. The United States finished 6th after beating Argentina in one placement match 4 - 3 and losing to Ireland 4 - 1. The goals scored in the match against Argentina were the first the USA scored in the tournament, before putting up one more in their match against Ireland. Ballou scored an own goal in the USA's game against Ireland.