Sports

The 12 athletes will go for gold in Tokyo from Tuesday, August 24.

By Michée Ling
August 24, 2021

If you missed the uninterrupted athletic action of the Summer Olympics, you’re in luck: a whole new group of world-class athletes set to compete in Tokyo for the 2020 Paralympics starting this week. .

A number of athletes with ties to Colorado will also represent Team USA during the competition. Here’s who they are, what sports they participate in, and where to watch all their athletic talent.

Adam scaturro
Sport: Wheelchair rugby
As a former high school quarterback, Scaturro was drawn to physical contact in wheelchair rugby. The Lakewood resident, 42, has since won bronze and silver medals at previous Paralympics. But one of his most impressive accomplishments remains getting to Mount Everest Base Camp in a wheelchair, with the help of strong Sherpas who carried him through difficult stretches.

Eric Newby
Sport: Wheelchair rugby
Newby, a native of Bailey, discovered wheelchair rugby in 2006 and first tried out for the national team in 2009. He was not on the team at that time, but devoted himself to improving. In 2013, not only had he been on the squad, but he was also named the US Quad Rugby Association Player of the Year. The 33-year-old finally made his Paralympic debut in 2016 and helped the USA team to a silver medal.

Beatriz Hatz
Sport: Athletics
Hatz was born without a fibula in her right leg, which required doctors to amputate the limb below the knee when she was 10 months old. But that didn’t stop her from joining the D’Evelyn Junior / Senior high school track team and becoming one of the best young para-athletes in the world. The Lakewood resident competes in the 100-meter, 200-meter and long jump events and was named the US Paralympic Games female athlete of the year in track and field.

Hailey Danz
Sport: Paratriathlon
Danz is a cancer survivor who had her leg amputated due to osteosarcoma at the age of 14. Since then, she has become a decorated para-triathlete, winning six huge medals at the World Championships, as well as a silver medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Kyle coon
Sport: Paratriathlon
Coon, who lost his eyesight at the age of seven due to a rare form of eye cancer, is an avid rock climber and downhill ski enthusiast. But paratriathlon is the sport the Colorado Springs resident really excels at: he is a two-time World Triathlon Para Series medalist which claimed his first international victory on May 15 in Yokohama, Japan. He was also a finalist of the 2019 National Paratriathlon Championships.

Robert tanaka
Sport: Judo
The Denver resident decided he wanted to compete in kindergarten judo after Paralympian Scott Moore visited his school, Anchor Center for Blind Children. Tanaka has finally started training with Moore (both have a genetic condition that causes visual impairment) and the couple are now heading together to Tokyo, where Moore will be the coach of the US Paralympic Judo Team during the event.

Allysa seely
Sport: Paratriathlon
Seely, who had his left leg amputated below the knee after complications with a Chiari II malformation, basilar invagination and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, could be the most dominant member of Team’s star paratriathlon team. USA. She won a gold medal in this event at the 2016 Paralympic Games and was the Paratriathlon World Champion in 2016, 2017 and 2018. After an unbeaten 2018 season, the Colorado Springs resident also won the ESPY award from the best female athlete. Oh, and she placed sixth in the 200-meter track and field at the 2016 Games.

Melissa Stockwell
Sport: Paratriathlon
Stockwell won a bronze medal in the paratriathlon debut at the 2016 Paralympic Games, completing Team USA’s sweep that year. She is the world paratriathlon champion in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and five times medalist at the world championships. All of this is even more impressive when you consider Stockwell, an Army veteran who became the first female U.S. soldier to lose an active duty member while serving in Iraq in 2004, also represented the team. American at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing in swimming. . The University of Colorado at Boulder’s impressive list of accomplishments helped secure her a spot as the United States team flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Tokyo.

Rudy Garcia Tolson
Sport: To swim
This Colorado Springs resident was born with pterygium syndrome, clubfoot, webbed fingers, and cleft lip and palate. After 15 surgeries before the age of five, he was eventually forced to have both legs amputated. By the age of eight, however, he had become active in swimming and, by the age of 16, had won a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004. Today, he is one of the most decorated athletes in the history of sport.

Elizabeth marks
Sport: To swim
Marks was serving as a combat medic in Iraq in 2010 when both his hips were injured. It took three surgeries to reconstruct them. She began swimming while recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, TX, and won a gold and bronze medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games. In recent years, however, the Colorado Springs resident has suffered another setback: She had her left leg amputated below the knee in 2017 after suffering from respiratory failure and spending time at ECMO. But she still managed to return to the biggest stage of her sport.

Sophie herzog
Sport: To swim
Herzog, 24, won a silver medal on her Paralympic debut in 2016. In her spare time, the Denver native, born with a form of dwarfism, also serves as a tour guide at the New US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado. Springs. .

Stetson Bardfield
Sport: Filming
Born with arthrogryposis, which affects limb control, Bardfield underwent bilateral knee disarticulation at the age of four to help him walk. Later in life, the current Colorado Springs resident was introduced to rifle shooting by a former Marine and achieved a perfect score on his first day of playing the sport. He will make his Paralympic debut this month in Tokyo.

Where to watch: Check out NBC Networks TV’s full schedule to keep up with all the action.