| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 15, 1954 (age 70) [1] Glendale, California, U.S. [1] |
Medal record | |
Candace Cable (born July 15, 1954) [1] is a nine-time Paralympian. She was the first woman to medal in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. [2] Cable is also a six-time winner of the Boston Marathon, women's wheelchair division [3] and winner of the first four Los Angeles Marathons.
Cable was born in Glendale, California. [1] She moved to South Lake Tahoe/Truckee, California after high school, [3] [4] lying about her age to get a job in a casino. She was injured in a car accident on the Kingsbury Grade in 1975 at the age of 21. Following the accident, without the use of her legs, she began feeling sorry for herself and became addicted to heroin. At the time she said "A person in a wheelchair is not supposed to have fun or be happy. I'm both. Besides, I get the best parking spaces at shopping centers, and I don't have to wait in line at the movies." She went through drug rehabilitation in 1978. [5] She became acquainted with wheelchair sports while attending California State University, Long Beach [2] first trying swimming before finding wheelchair racing could let her work out with able-bodied friends.
"We're all only non-disabled temporarily. Sooner or later everyone's body breaks down. That puts me ahead of the game because I already know how to live outside of the old order."
After four months of training, Cable participated in the inaugural 1980 World Games for the disabled, 1984 Summer Olympics in wheelchair racing as an exhibition event, as well as the 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996 Summer Paralympic Games, and also five Winter Olympics. Cable won twelve Paralympic medals of which eight were gold medals. She was the first woman to medal in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. [2]
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The 1976 Summer Paralympics, branded as Torontolympiad – 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled, was the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were hosted by Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 3 to 11 August 1976, marking the first time a Paralympics was held in the Americas and in Canada. The games began three days after the close of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Chantal Petitclerc is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec.
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Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Edith Wolf is a Swiss former wheelchair racer, who competed in the T54 classification. Wolf competed at a range of distances from 400m to marathon length events and is a multiple World and Paralympic Games winner. Wolf has also eight major marathon titles to her name having won the women's wheelchair race at the Berlin Marathon (2011), Boston Marathon and New York Marathon.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
David Russell Weir is a British Paralympic wheelchair athlete. He has won a total of six gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, and has won the London Marathon on eight occasions. He was born with a spinal cord transection that left him unable to use his legs.
Wakako Tsuchida is an athlete from Tokyo, Japan, who is an accomplished women's wheelchair marathoner, ice sledge racer and triathlete. She was the first professional wheelchair athlete from Japan and the first Japanese athlete to win gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She has paraplegia.
The Summer Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in every event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.
Wheelchair racing at the Summer Olympics featured as demonstration competitions at the multi-sport event, appearing within the Olympic athletics programme from 1984 to 2004. On each occasion two track races were held: a men's 1500 metres race and a women's 800 metres race. This was the first time events for disabled athletes have featured at the Summer Olympic Games, with the Paralympic Games being the traditional venue for top level para-athletics. The wheelchair races were the second Olympic exhibition event for disabled athletes, following on from the disabled skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics, held earlier that year.
Jean Driscoll is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive first-place finishes from 1990 to 1996. Driscoll participated in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning a total of five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in events ranging from 200 meters to the marathon.
Tatyana McFadden is an American Paralympic athlete competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty Paralympic medals in multiple Summer Paralympic Games and the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in 2015.
Francesca Porcellato is an Italian disabled sportsperson who competed at international level in three different sports. Porcellato began her sporting career as a wheelchair racer competing in six Summer Paralympics before switching to Para Cross-country skiing where she won gold at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in the 1 km sprint. In 2015, she became six-time UCI Para-cycling World champion.
Daniel Wesley(aka Daniel Westley) is a Canadian athlete who won 12 medals while competing in the Paralympic Games.
Gregory Stephen Smith, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair rugby player who won three gold medals in athletics at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, and a gold medal in wheelchair rugby at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where he was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Ann Cody is a three-time U.S. Paralympian who works at the United States Department of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on the advancement of international disability rights. After debuting at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, Cody won four silver medals in athletics at the 1988 Summer Paralympics. Cody also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in wheelchair racing. At her third Paralympics, Cody helped set a world record in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1992 Summer Paralympics while winning one gold and one bronze medal.
Diane Rakiecki is a Canadian Class 4 wheelchair racer, wheelchair basketball player and wheelchair tennis player who competed in the Paralympic Games and the World Athletics Championships. She won medals in national and regional Canadian wheelchair championships and the World Wheelchair Games. Rakiecki won the women's exhibition 800 metres wheelchair competition at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome and helped the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team to win the bronze medal at the 1990 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in France and the gold medal in the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. She finished second in the first ever officially recognized women's handcycle race of the New York City Marathon at the 2000 edition.
Ingrid Lauridsen is a Danish TW3 classified wheelchair racer who competed in the Paralympic Games and the IPC Athletics World Championships. She won a silver medal at the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem and took six gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in New York and Stoke Mandeville. Lauridsen finished third in the women's 800 metres wheelchair event at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome. She took two gold medals and three bronze medals at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul and four silver medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. Lauridsen won three medals at the 1994 IPC Athletics World Championships in Berlin.
