Paralympics-2024
The Paralympic logo is seen Previews around Paris ahead of the Paralympic Games on August 26, 2024 in Paris, France. Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images.All rights reserved.This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Christine Rappleye, Church News
Updated September 9, 2024
Several athletes connected to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among those competing in the 2024 Paralympics Games in Paris, France. One is making history as a five-time Paralympian, another is competing again after 12 years, and others are competing in their debut Games.
The 2024 Paralympic Games began on Wednesday, August 28, with more than 4,000 athletes competing in 22 sports and 549 medal events. The Paralympic Games have roots in the London Olympic Games in 1948 with the first competition for wheelchair athletes — 16 injured servicemen and servicewomen — in archery. The Stoke Mandeville Games became the Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome, Italy, according to paralympic.org.
Athletes with ties to the Church are listed by approximate competition date.
Wheelchair Rugby
Team USA, including Josh Wheeler, won silver in the 2024 Paralympics. USA lost 48-41 to Japan on Monday, September 2, in the gold-medal game. USA led 14-11 after the first eight-minute quarter, but then Japan pulled ahead to 24-23 at the end of the second quarter and continued to lead.
It’s the third Paralympics in a row that Team USA’s wheelchair rugby team, including Wheeler, has played in the gold-medal match — winning silver in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
USA won 50-43 in the semifinals against Great Britain on Sunday, September 1. In the Tokyo Games, the gold-medal match was against Great Britain. And in Paris, USA lost to Japan 45-42 in a pool round match.
In Monday’s gold-medal match against Japan at the Champ de Mars Arena, Wheeler played for 24 minutes and 40 seconds and scored seven tries, or goals. He also had two turnovers and two defensive fouls.
In Sunday’s semifinal match against Great Britain at the Champ de Mars Arena, USA led by one at the end of the first quarter and kept the lead through the rest of the game. Wheeler played for 29 minutes and 58 seconds of the 32-minute game. He scored 14 tries, or goals, had three steals and a turnover. He also had a flagrant foul for grabbing another player’s wheel and was in the rugby penalty-box equivalent.
Wheelchair rugby is played indoors on a basketball court in four eight-minute quarters. Each player is classified from 0.5 to 3.5 points with 3.5 being the highest mobility, and teams are allowed four players with a total of up to 8 points on the court. For the 2024 Paris Paralympics, the teams are mixed. An extra half-point is allowed for each female player on the court.
The 44-year-old Arizona resident broke his neck in a motorcycle accident in 2006 that caused him to lose function in his lower body. Wheeler’s classification is 2.5 points.
Paralympics-2024
Ben Fawcett of Team Australia challenges Joshua Wheeler of Team United States during the Wheelchair Rugby semi final between Team United States and Team Australia ay Yoyogi National Stadium on day 4 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at on August 28, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images.All rights reserved.Para Archery
Wednesday, September 3, was the elimination rounds for USA’s Eric Bennett in the men’s individual recurve competition, open division, at Invalides. Bennett faced Suresh Selvathamby of Malaysia in the first round and lost 6-2.
The archers go head-to-head with three-arrow sets and get two points for each set they win, up to five sets. Each section of the target is marked with a point value, with 10 in the center.
Bennett started his fifth consecutive Paralympic Games with the men’s individual recurve open ranking round on Thursday, August 27. Overall, he was 21st of the 30 archers.
Bennett, 50, of Surprise, Arizona, lost his right arm above the elbow in a car accident when he was 15. He uses a mouth tab to pull back the string. At the Paris Games, he makes history as the most experienced archer ever for Team USA. He competed in 2021 at the Tokyo Games, placing ninth. He also competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, 2012 London Games and the 2008 Beijing Games, along with winning medals at multiple world and Parapan American competitions.
Paralympics-2024
Eric Bennett of Team United States in action during his Men's Recurve Elimination match against Lixue Zhao of Team China on day 10 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field on September 03, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images for International Paralympic Committee.All rights reserved.Wheelchair Basketball
USA’s wheelchair basketball team, including Paul Schulte, won 73-69 against Great Britain in the gold-medal match on Saturday, September, giving Team USA its third consecutive gold in Paralympic wheelchair basketball.
Schulte was also selected by his fellow Paralympians as one of the Team USA flagbearers for the closing ceremonies.
Paris Paralympics 2024
Ellie Marks and Paul Schulte, Flag Bearers of Team United States, parade with their national flag during the closing ceremony on day eleven of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on September 08, 2024 in Paris, France. Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images.All rights reserved.“It is a profound honor to carry this flag, representing not only my country but also the spirit of every athlete who has competed here,” said Schulte, reported the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee websites. “These Paralympic Games have been a celebration of determination and courage, and a representation that limits are meant to be overcome. Thank you to the city of Paris, and the entire country of France, for hosting an indescribable Paralympic Games.”
Paris is Schulte’s fourth Paralympics — and the first after once retiring in 2015. He competed in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia; the 2008 Games in Beijing, China; and in 2012, when the Games were in London, England, winning bronze.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he took up handcycling, building muscle and losing weight. This year, he decided to try competitive wheelchair basketball again and was invited to try out for the national team.
Shulte had a spinal cord injury in a car accident at age 10 and gave wheelchair basketball a try when he was 14. He currently serves in the bishopric in his Florida ward, and he and his wife have one son.
Wheelchair basketball players are classified based on their available movement, from 1 to 4.5. The five players must not be more than 14 combined. Schulte’s classification is 3.0.
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Paralympian wheelchair basketball player and Latter-day Saint Paul Schulte dribbles the ball at Curry Arena on the campus of Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, in June 2024. Photo by Ethan Gardner, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.
Wheelchair basketball games consist of four 10-minute periods and overtime in the event of a tie, according to Paralympic.org. The court, hoop and backboards are the same dimensions as Olympic basketball, and the scoring is the same, with a point for each free throw, two points for baskets inside the three-point line and three points from outside the three-point line. Players must pass or bounce the ball after every two pushes, and there isn’t a double-dribble rule.
Para Swimming
Paralympics-2024
Tupou Neiufi of New Zealand prepares to swim in the women’s 100-meter backstroke S8 final, swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, August 27, 2021. Photo by Lose Neiufi.All rights reserved.Tupou Neiufi from New Zealnd was 10th overall in the 50-meter freestyle heats S8 (for physical impairments) on Thursday, September 5. She was sixth in her heat with 33.40 seconds. The eight fastest of the 14 swimmers in the two heats qualified for the final.
Paris is the third Paralympic Games for Neiufi. The 23-year-old won gold in the 100-meter backstroke S8 in the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. She also swam in the 50-meter freestyle. She was initially an alternate for the New Zealand team headed to the Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. After a teammate’s injury, she joined the team and swam in three races.
When Neiufi was 2 years old, she was involved in a hit-and-run accident that resulted in brain bruising and left-side paralysis. She had to relearn how to sit, walk and use her arms. She first tried netball and then swimming to help her after the accident. She began swimming at 10 years old and competing at 11.
Over at the pools in the Paris La Defense Arena, Alejandra Aybar, 35, a native of Azua, Dominican Republic, raced in the 50-meter butterfly S7 (for physical impairments). She was 15th overall with a time of 41.47 seconds. The top eight across the two heats moved on to the final.
Paralympics-2024
Alejandra Aybar Diaz of the Dominican Republic during a practice session at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, on August 25, 2021. Photo provided by Alejandra Aybar Diaz via Instagram, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.Paris is her second Paralympics Games. In Tokyo, Japan, in 2021, she became the first swimmer representing her native Dominican Republic to compete in the Paralympics.
Aybar, who is 4 foot 3 inches tall, has brittle bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as crystal bone disease.
Also in the Paris Paralympics, she competed in the 200-meter individual medley SM7 (for physical impairments), coming in 11th, and was eighth in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke SB6 (for physical impairments).
Para Athletics (Track and Field)
USA’s David Blair, 48, of Eagle Mountain, Utah, won bronze in the men’s discus F64 classification on Thursday, September 5, in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Blair was third in discus with a throw of 57.76 meters. USA’s Jeremy Campbell, F64 classification, won gold with a throw of 61.14 meters, which is a personal best, and Akeem Stewart of Trinidad and Tobago, F43 classification, won silver with a throw of 59.66 meters, which is a season’s best. Each athlete gets six throws and uses the longest one.
In Paris, athletes with F43, F44 and F64 classifications competed together, and they include those with lower-limb deficiencies in one or both legs or the absence of legs below the knee. Blair was born with a club foot.
Paris is the third Paralympics for Blair. He was high school state champion in discus and received an athletics scholarship to Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, setting records along the way. He picked up Paralympic competition after 16 years and then qualified to compete in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.
Blair became the Paralympic record holder in Rio and set the world record in 2021. Both still stand. He won gold at both the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris and the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.
Blair became the Paralympic record holder in Rio and set the world record in 2021. Both still stand. He won gold at both the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris and the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.
Blair, who was born with a club foot, was high school state champion in discus and received an athletics scholarship to Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, setting records along the way. He picked up Paralympic competition after 16 years and then qualified to compete in Rio. Blair’s longtime coach, James Parker, unexpectedly died in 2023, and Blair hopes to honor him with his performance in Paris, reported U.S. Paralympics Track and Field.
Paralympics-2024
Lindi Marcusen runs to victory in the Women 100M 42.63 Final on Day 3 of the 2024 U.S. Paralympics Team Trials on July 20, 2024 at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Florida. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images.All rights reserved.On the purple track at the Stad de France stadium, Lindi Marcusen was sixth in the women’s 100-meter T63 final with a time of 15.11 seconds, less than a second behind the gold-medalist’s time of 14.16 seconds.
In Paris, athletes with T42 and T63 classifications competed together, and they included those with movement affected in one leg or the absence of legs above the knee.
This is the first Paralympics for 28-year-old Marcusen of Spokane, Washington. Marcusen was in a car accident in 2017 that resulted in amputation of her right leg. She competed in gymnastics from elementary to high school, according to her Team USA profile. Marcusen is also a BYU–Idaho alumna.
She also competed in the women’s long jump T63, coming in eighth overall.
Para Canoe
At his first Paralympic Games, New Zealand’s Peter Cowan, is bringing home a bronze medal after a very close final for men’s va’a single 200-meter VL3 at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium. His time was 48.28 seconds, less than a second behind the gold-medal winner, who set a Paralympic Games best. Earlier Sunday in the semifinals, Cowen initially led and then ended up second. The top three from the two semifinals moved to the race for the medal podium.
The para va’a is a rudderless outrigger canoe that has a pontoon as a support float, and the competitor uses a single-blade paddle. The VL3 category is for those with lower-body impairments.
Cowan, 29, won silver at the International Canoe Federation Para Canoe World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, finishing 0.071 seconds behind first place, reported Paralympics New Zealand.
When he was 15, the rugby player was training for the Iron Maori triathlon when his bike was clipped by an oncoming car. Later, his right leg had to be amputated above his knee. When he was 17, he was invited to a waka ama, or Maori outrigger canoe, training session.
He served a mission in Japan and Australia, and he and his wife are the parents of two boys.
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