Sharon Hedrick

Sharon Hedrick competed in the 800 metre wheelchair demonstration event at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, winning both events. Hedrick was paralyzed from the waist down at age 9 after she was accidentally shot by a young boy playing with a loaded gun. She attended the University of Illinois, where she started playing wheelchair basketball, and many of her sports honors were won in that sport.

Hedrick was the first female wheelchair competitor at the Boston Marathon, in 1977. She would win 10 medals and 5 gold medals at the Paralympics between 1976 and 1992, with a full set of medals (gold-silver-bronze) in wheelchair basketball, and the rest in wheelchair track events. She also won a gold medal at the 1980 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.