| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
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| Born | 1973 (age 49–50) Windsor, Ontario, Canada | |||||||||||||
| Years active | 2005–2013 | |||||||||||||
Medal record
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Erika Schmutz (born 1973) is a Canadian former Wheelchair rugby player and power engineer. She won a bronze medal with Team Canada in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first woman to score a try in a Paralympic wheelchair rugby match.
Schmutz was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, and attended Kennedy Collegiate and St. Clair College, where she competed in OFSAA track and cross-country. [1]
After injuring her arms and spine in a car accident in 2000, Schmutz joined the Canadian national wheelchair rugby team, becoming the third female athlete to ever be selected. [2] Before her accident, Schmutz worked as a power engineer at Ontario Hydro. [1] After qualifying for the 2008 Summer Paralympics, Schmutz became the first woman to score during a Paralympic wheelchair rugby competition as Canada went on to win a bronze medal. [3] She was also the only woman playing wheelchair rugby professionally at a national level worldwide. [4]
In 2010, Schmutz was named a top female athlete with a disability at the Ontario Sports Awards. [5]
She was later named an alternate for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, if another player became too injured to play. [6] Two years later, Schmutz was elected to the Board of Directors for the ON Para Network as the Wheelchair Rugby Representative, and was eventually named to Wheelchair Rugby Canada's Board of Directors. [7]
Chantal Petitclerc is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec.
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. A total of 213 U.S. competitors took part in 18 sports; the only 2 sports Americans did not compete in were soccer 5-a-side and 7-a-side. The American delegation included 16 former members of the U.S. military, including 3 veterans of the Iraq War. Among them were shot putter Scott Winkler, who was paralyzed in an accident in Iraq, and swimmer Melissa Stockwell, a former United States Army officer who lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in the war.
Stefanie McLeod Reid is a track and field paralympian who competes for Great Britain, competing mainly in category T44 long jump and sprint events. A multiple medal winner at European and world level, she won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and silver in the long jump at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Australia has participated in every Summer Paralympic Games since the inception of the Paralympics in the year 1960. The 1976 Paralympic Games in Toronto was Australia's fifth Paralympic Games. Australia competed in 10 out of the 13 sports and were able to win medals in six of these sports. There were 44 athletes representing Australia at the Games with a number of these athletes participating in multiple sports. Of the 44 athletes, 34 were males and 10 were females. As a team, Australia won 41 medals, 16 of which were gold. This placed it just outside the top 10 in 11th position at the end of the Games. The Australian team won more gold medals at the 1976 Paralympic Games than at any of the previous four Paralympic Games. 26 athletes finished on the podium in their respective events. This represents more than half the number of athletes that Australia sent to Toronto. Six world records were broken by Australian athletes on their way to winning their respective events.
Kylie Gauci is an Australian Paralympic 2-point wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, where she won a silver medal; in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a second silver medal. Gauci represented Australia at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Championships, and was named to the World All Star 5 at the World Championships in Amsterdam in 2006. She has played over 180 international games.
Clare Nott is an Australian 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player who plays for the Kilsyth Cobras in the Women's national Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) and for the Red Dust Heelers in the mixed National Wheelchair basketball League (NWBL). She participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a silver medal.
Tina McKenzie is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, where she won a silver medal; in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal; and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a second silver medal. After becoming an incomplete paraplegic as a result of a fall from a building in 1994, she took up wheelchair tennis and later wheelchair basketball. She joined the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in 1999, and played her first international match at the 2002 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Japan. She has over 100 international caps.
Josie Rachel Pearson MBE is a Paralympian wheelchair rugby player and athlete from England. Pearson represented Great Britain in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first women to compete in wheelchair rugby for her country at the Paralympics. After competing as a sprint athlete, Pearson switched to throwing events and qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in both discus and club throw in the F51 class, eventually taking the gold in discus with a world record distance.
Chantal Benoit is a Canadian wheelchair basketball player. She is considered the best female wheelchair basketball player in history.
Cindy Ouellet is a Canadian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player.
Janet McLachlan is a Canadian 4.5 point wheelchair basketball player who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham, and gold at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto.
Darda Sales is a Canadian swimmer, 4.0 point wheelchair basketball player and motivational speaker. She won gold medals with the 4x100 medley relay team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney and the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships in Mar del Plata, and a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. She switched to wheelchair basketball after she retired from swimming in 2009, and won a gold medal in that sport at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto.
Martha Sandoval Gustafson is a Mexican-Canadian Paralympic medallist in table tennis, swimming, and athletics. As a Mexican Paralympian, Gustafson won a total of twelve medals, which includes three golds at the 1976 Summer Paralympics and two golds and the 1980 Summer Paralympics. After she moved to Canada in 1981, Gustafson won six golds and one silver at the 1984 Summer Paralympics for Canada. In 2020, Gustafson became part of the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.
Jennifer Krempien is a former Canadian wheelchair basketball player. As a member of the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team, Krempien won four consecutive gold medals at the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship from 1994 to 2006. During this time period, she also won three consecutive Paralympic gold medals from 1992 to 2000. After winning a bronze at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, she did not win a medal at her last Paralympic competition in 2008. Kempien was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame in 2013.
Kendra Ohama is a Canadian retired wheelchair basketball player. As a member of Team Canada, she won three gold medals and one bronze during the Paralympic Games.
Sabrina Pettinicchi is a Canadian retired wheelchair basketball player. As a member of Team Canada, she won three gold medals and one bronze during the Paralympic Games.
Lori Radke is a Canadian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player. She has won two gold medals and one bronze at three different Paralympic Games.
David Willsie is a Canadian coach and former Wheelchair rugby player.
Shae Graham is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, her first Games and the first female to be selected for the Steelers.
Patricia Hennin is a Canadian C4-category Paralympic swimmer, track and field athlete and para association football player who has the brain disease cerebral palsy that has paralyzed her legs. She won silver medals in each of the women's 50-metre and 200-metre freestyle C4 competitions and a single bronze medal in the women's 100 freestyle C4 event at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in New York City. Hennin also won medals at the regional and national level in both Canada and the United States, setting multiple class records.
