Tatyana McFadden and Jessica Long are legends on the Paralympic stage
FILE - Italy's Valentina Petrillo gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Pieve di Cento, near Bologna, Italy, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Valentina Petrillo is set to become the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympic Games at the end of this month in Paris. More than 4,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 22 sports during the Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
Long, meanwhile, has earned a staggering 29 medals, including eight gold, in swimming events since she was 12 and the youngest American on the 2004 U.S. team in Athens. And she, too, has made a pop culture impact, as the subject of aAfter the Paralympic swimming trials in Minneapolis, Long was one of 21 female swimmers selected to the 2024 U.S. team. Leading up to Paris, she spent time training in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
In Paris, the 50-year-old runner will compete in the 200 meters and 400 meters in the women’s T-12 classification for athletes with visual impairments. At 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition. In last summer’s ISBA Men’s Blind Football World Championship, Argentina defeated China after a penalty shootout in the championship match and Espinillo was awarded as the tournament’s MVP.
The six-time European and world champion had his right leg amputated just below the knee in 2013 after a work accident about three years earlier where agricultural equipment crushed it. Storey first appeared on the Paralympic stage as a swimmer and won 16 medals over four Paralympic games, but an ear infection in 2005 forced her out of the water and onto a bike.
In London, Masters took home a bronze medal as a rower, but hasn’t competed in rowing since. While rehabbing a back injury she turned to cycling and hasn’t looked back.
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