17 Fascinating Facts About Famous Athletes Competing In The 2024 Paris Paralympics
Here are 17 interesting facts about the Paralympians competing at the 2024 Paris Games:
1. British archer Jodie Grinham won a gold medal and a bronze medal while competing seven months pregnant.
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She told BBC Wales, “All I wanted to do at the end was jump up and down and cry and scream and shout. But being heavily pregnant, realistically, the best thing to do was crouch down and take a second, and then I could give hugs and things. The emotion was just a wave, and it was like being a child at Christmas and getting your favorite toy.”
She’s expecting her second child.
2. Team USA track and field athlete and silver and two-time bronze medalist Hunter Woodhall is married to Team USA track and field athlete and Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall. They met at a track meet in Idaho in 2017.
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In 2021, Hunter told Elle, “My first impression of her is that she was gorgeous. She walked right up to me and hugged me. No questions… I was like, ‘Wow, this girl is bold — she knows what she wants.'”
In the same interview, Tara said, “When I first saw him, I was like, ‘Oh my god! This boy is fine!’ I had to figure out who he was.”
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3. Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo is the first out trans runner to compete in the Paralympics. She’s also the second trans athlete to compete in the games. There’s reportedly a documentary about her in the works.
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She told the Advocate, “And the way I am, like all transgender people who do not feel they belong to their biological gender, should not be discriminated against in the same way that race, religion, or political ideology should not be discriminated against. And sport that imposes rules based on a binary way of thinking does not factor this in. It is sport that has to find a solution and excluding transgender athletes is clearly not that solution.”
The first out trans Paralympic athlete was the late Dutch discus thrower Ingrid van Kranen, who competed in the 2016 Rio Games.
4. American archer Matt Stutzman prepared for Paris by creating an adrenaline-inducing target practice scenario at home. He challenged himself to shoot a target with his silver medal hanging from it, but he raised the stakes by taking the doors off his race car, parking it in front of the target, and shooting through his house with the front and back doors open. He made the shot without damaging any of his prized possessions.
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He told Olympics.com, “I wanted to create adrenaline. I knew if I missed, I’m either sticking a hole in the house, I’m going to stick a hole in my race car that I care about, and more importantly, if I mess up, I’m going to stick an arrow in an irreplaceable Paralympic medal. I knew I had to get it correct and make sure it counted. And my heart was pumping like, ‘Oh boy’. It was like, chut chut chut. And then, I shot.”
5. At 8’1, Iranian volleyball player Morteza Mehrzadselakjani is the second-tallest man in the world.
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He reportedly chose to sleep on the floor in the Athletes’ village because the provided bed doesn’t fit him.
7. American archer Tracy Otto accepted her partner Ricky Riessle’s proposal under the Eiffel Tower after her competition. Making their time in Paris even more special, the couple also announced that they’re expecting their first child together!
Tracy Otto / Via instagram.com
On Instagram, Tracy wrote, “Paralympian ✅🏹 Proposal ✅💍…. Pregnant!👶 Baby Riessle due January 2025!!”
8. Ahead of his competition, Team USA jumper Roderick Townsend went to a Parisian salon to get his hair colored in a Picasso-esque design because he’s “a showman.”
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He told CBS News, “Had they been out there booing me? I’d probably still be jumping.”
9. After his match, Brazilian badminton player Rogerio Junior Xavier de Oliveira got down on one knee with a sign and a ring box to propose to his partner, Edwarda Dias, who’s a Brazilian Paralympic volleyball player.
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His sign translated to, “Edwarda Will You Marry Me?”
10. Indian archer Sheetal Devi dreamed of becoming a teacher when she grew up until, at age 14, she took up archery. Within three years, she reached the Paralympic level.
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She told the Times of India, “It was all destined, and I am happy with my career choice. I can now financially support my parents, who are both farmers. There’s no bigger joy than representing your country at the highest level.
11. American judoka Liana Mutia, who’s also a Comcast software engineer, prepares for her matches months in advance by scouting her competitors and creating spreadsheets with info about them.
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She told Team USA, “My modus operandi is called test-driven development. It’s a specific type of data analysis [that involves] finding an imbalance and finding patterns with the information given…and then within those patterns you’ll find the solutions.”
13. Team USA fencer Ellen Geddes, who was formerly a competitive equestrian, works with horses as a breeder, facility manager, trainer, and instructor on her parents’ farm in South Carolina.
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She dreams of having one of the horses she’s raised compete in the Olympics’ equestrian competitions.
14. American swimmer Jessica Long was only 12 when she made her Paralympic debut at the 2004 Athens Games, where she won three gold medals.
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She only started swimming at age 10.
16. American swimmer Anastasia Pagonis has a popular TikTok account with 2.5 million followers. She creates beauty and lifestyle content alongside educating her viewers on what life’s like as a blind person.
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She also helps makeup brands develop more accessible product packaging.
17. And finally, French sprinter Timothée Adolphe is a hip-hop artist, and he also created the first inclusive multiplayer video game that visually impaired and non-visually impaired gamers can both play.
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The video game utlizes binaural audio to immerse visually impaired players.
