Joan Bolanos Martinez ’17 “How two Amazonians joined forces to close the gender gap in amputee soccer”

Joan, pictured left and right, playing amputee soccer.

Suffolk County Community College Alumni Association

Congratulates Joan Bolanos Martinez ’17 featured by his employer Amazon

How two Amazonians joined forces to close the gender gap in amputee soccer

After bonding over shared experiences, Joan Bolanos Martinez and Cliff Donathan established an organization to empower women with limb differences through amputee soccerA to Z News December 20, 2023

December 3 was International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), proclaimed by the United Nations. At Amazon, we celebrate inclusivity and the contributions of persons with apparent and non-apparent disabilities, and are recognizing IDPD under the theme United in Action, Advancing Accessibility for All throughout the month. Learn more here.

In recognition of IDPD, we’re highlighting two Amazonians who established an organization that empowers women with limb differences through amputee soccer. 

Amazon Financial Analyst Joan Bolanos Martinez, a native Venezuelan, played soccer his whole life. But after he lost his leg due to a medical complication in 2007, he had to learn a new way to play the sport he loved.

Joan was introduced to amputee soccer in 2015 after moving to the United States.

“I felt scared because I thought I was too fragile. I remember thinking, ‘what if I break a bone, or what if I fail?’ But it was also really exhilarating, and I remember feeling happy,” he said.

By his third time playing, he was hooked. “I felt seen again, I felt valuable again. I knew this was an avenue for me.”

Cliff Donathan, principal security advisor at AWS, used to take his daughter, Amie, to Seattle Sounders games when she was just 4 years old. She was a natural athlete and competitor, and even though she was born with a rare disability that caused her left femur to stop growing, she dove into the sport.

“I used to coach her in soccer when she was little, and I was real with her. I’d tell her that she’d be the slowest on the field just given her prosthetic, and to grow her competitive edge, we’d just watch hours of soccer on YouTube,” he said.  

Amie played able-bodied soccer for six years until she made the difficult decision to leave the sport.

“As the players got faster on the field, Amie felt like she was holding them back,” Cliff said.

Amie soon took to competitive golf and just as colleges were looking to recruit her, she was introduced to amputee soccer and knew she wanted to pursue it.  

Amie went on to become one of the youngest members of the U.S. National Amputee Soccer team, and in 2022, competed as one of only two women in the World Amputee Football Federation World Cup. More recently she was inducted into the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) museum where her jersey and crutches are hung on the wall among greats like Mia Hamm.

Amie, pictured here on the left, playing amputee soccer. On the right, is a photo of her being inducted into the FIFA museum, holding her jersey.

Cliff and Joan’s paths crossed when Joan was working for the American Amputee Soccer Association (AASA). They not only bonded over shared experiences, but they bonded over a subtle paradox—while amputee soccer never had a gender requirement and was developed to be inclusive, it was still a male-dominated sport.

Amie herself experienced gender discrimination.

“Amie was about 15 years old playing with 30-year-old men, some of whom would pull her aside and say, ‘you don’t belong on the field,’” recalled Cliff. 

Joan also was no stranger to the gender gap. He recognized that it had been more than a decade since a woman joined amputee soccer—that woman being Amie. As a board member for AASA and also working full time at Amazon, Joan made a push for the organization to focus on making the sport more accessible for women. After a failed attempt, he resigned. 

Both Amazonians with a shared mission, Cliff and Joan established the United States Amputee Football Federation (USAFF) in January 2023 to elevate and empower all women with limb differences through the support, growth, and inclusion of amputee soccer. 

With the goal to hold their first camp on International Women’s Day in March, Cliff and Joan had only two months to set up 501(c)(3), create a website, find a facility, and more.

“In the middle of all of that, my manager Hart Rossman said he wanted to donate to USAFF to help fund women traveling to the event. This meant a lot, and helped legitimize our organization,” said Cliff.

Since then, Cliff and Joan have held camps around the world including in the Ukraine, Mexico, and Colombia to raise awareness of amputee soccer, introduce people with limb differences and their families to the sport, and build partnerships with local organizations that support people with disabilities.

They achieved another milestone when FIFA accepted Cliff and Joan’s proposal to set up a presence at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia, where they could spread awareness of amputee soccer and USAFF’s mission. 

A group photo of USAFF volunteers taken at the Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia. Cliff is pictured second to the left, while Joan is fourth from the right. Amie is pictured in the middle.

While there, Joan had the opportunity to participate in interviews with NBC and Telemundo. But the most meaningful moment to him was experiencing seven-year-old, Sam, light up when he saw amputee soccer. 

“We gave Sam’s mom a pair of crutches when we first met them at the World Cup. They came back the next day and his mother said, ‘Sam, has been jumping around with the crutches, kicking the soccer ball since yesterday.’ And he did that for the next four days that we were there,” said Joan. “It’s small, yet transformational moments like this make this all worth it.”

Joan pictured here in the middle with FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman to his left, and Sam to his right at the Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia.

Cliff shared a similar moment when he saw the joy that came to eight-year-old Maddie’s face when she was introduced to amputee soccer at one of their camps in Texas.

“I watched her go tell her parents that these are her people, just like my daughter did,” recalled Cliff.

Since then, FIFA has expressed interest in inviting Cliff and Joan to all their World Cup events and deepening their relationship with USAFF. Cliff and Joan have also worked to spread awareness of USAFF at conferences around the country, and even had a presence at AWS re:Invent this year where they connected with executives and business leaders who are interested in getting involved in their organization.

As far as their hope for those who experience amputee soccer through USAFF? 

“We just want people with limb differences to know they have an opportunity to continue to play a sport they love, and not be excluded from it,” said Joan. 

Learn more about USAFF here.

Source: Amazon A to Z

Flashback “The American Dream in 2019: Joan Bolanos Martinez’s ’17 Resolve Before and During His Time at Columbia University”

At Suffolk County Community College Joan served as a Senator in the Student Government, a Peer Mentor, Carmen E. Ortiz ESL Scholarship, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and SUNY Chancellor Award.

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The American Dream in 2019: Joan Bolanos Martinez’s ’17 Resolve Before and During His Time at Columbia University

“The American Dream in 2019: Joan Bolanos Martinez’s Resolve Before and During His Time at GS”

February 1, 2019

For one to be met with adversity only makes the accomplishment of one’s goals that much more rewarding. Economics major Joan Bolanos Martinez can back this statement up with his account of a path that started in a small town in Venezuela and has led him to the financial epicenter of the world.

For as long as he can remember, Bolanos Martinez had the urge to leave the small town of Guanare in search of new opportunities. However, for Joan’s father, the notion of family superseded academic opportunity. Initially, his father was hesitant to accept his pursuit of academics so far from home at the Central University of Venezuela.

“It did not matter what subject I studied as long as I was close to my brothers and my family,” Bolanos Martinez said.

However, at the age of 21, and after much disagreement with his parents, he left for Caracas to pursue his education, where he juggled both studying engineering and working to support himself in his new city.

Joan’s most enduring challenge was still awaiting him. In 2007, he was involved in a serious car accident, which left him with a broken leg. Surgery was performed, and unfortunately, led to a major infection that eventually required amputation.

Bolanos Martinez faced impending bankruptcy from his vast medical expenses, but with the assistance of a trusted financial advisor who went above and beyond to help, Bolanos Martinez and his family were saved from economic despair. He credits the work of this financial advisor as being the inspiration that pushed him toward the field of economics.

After his finances were in order, Bolanos Martinez spent two years recovering from his injuries. He attempted to return to studying engineering but found his performance was not where it once was. He knew that he needed a change of pace in order to reignite his academic excellence, and his passion for economics was growing. Upon realizing that English was a skill needed to be successful in the business world, Bolanos Martinez came to the United States and managed to save enough to cover his enrollment in the ESL program at Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York.

Upon completing the program, he intended on returning home to his motherland. However, an increasingly non-democratic Venezuela compelled Bolanos Martinez’s parents to encourage him to remain in the United States. With an established foothold at Suffolk County Community College, he decided to pursue further education.

“When I decided to make the US my home, I was determined to succeed no matter what obstacles I was about to face,” recalled Bolanos Martinez.

Bolanos Martinez racked up an impressive resume that included leadership work in various organizations, membership in various honor societies, and a GPA of 3.9. Nevertheless, he wanted more.

“I learned about the amazing work that GS does to open opportunities for people like me, who are eager to succeed regardless of the adversities we have faced to truly achieve the American Dream,” Bolanos Martinez said.

Although Bolanos Martinez was excelling in the world of academics, the results of his earlier car accident prevented him from pursuing another passion rooted in his upbringing: soccer. However, in May 2016, the US National Amputee Soccer Team contacted him. He then began an intense series of training to get him in shape for the team and competed in a 2017 tournament in California.

Fast forward a year and Bolanos Martinez’s work ethic and ambitious nature have brought him further success. This past summer, his goals of breaking into the world of finance came to fruition as he made a big impression as an intern in wealth management at J.P. Morgan Chase. Even with starting two weeks behind his peers, Bolanos Martinez rose to the challenge of learning his role at an expedited rate. He credits his work ethic with being the reason that he was the only intern on his team who was invited to a client meeting by a senior banker. He was so successful that the company asked him to return this coming summer in a similar position but with expanded responsibilities.

“After my amputation, I learned that every day counts to achieve my dreams, so I maximize every opportunity to make things happen,” Bolanos Martinez said.

After graduation, he wishes to take both his economic experience in the workforce and academic knowledge of the subject back to his home country in order to help make Venezuela’s future a bit brighter. For this reason, he is now weighing out the idea of obtaining a Ph.D. or MBA in economics.

“All options are on the table,” Bolanos Martinez said.

Source: ©2019 Columbia University

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6/24/19 join us at the  36th Annual Suffolk Community College Foundation Golf Classic