Francesca Porcellato (born 5 September 1970) 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. [2] In 2015, she became six-time UCI Para-cycling World champion. [1]
Porcellato was hit by a truck when she was 2 years old and it broke her back. She discovered that she is paralyzed. In addition to participation in the Paralympics, she is one of two women to have won four London Marathon wheelchair races, shared with the Russian-born American Tatyana McFadden. [3] She competed in wheelchair racing at every Summer Paralympic Games from 1988 to 2008, and in 2006 participated in the Winter Paralympics in cross-country sit-skiing. She won a total of two gold, three silver, and five bronze medals, all in athletics. [4] She won the silver medal in the 800 metres T54 race at the 2009 Mediterranean Games.
Francesca participated in eleven editions of the Paralympic Games, eight summer and three winter. [5] She was the flag bearer for Italy at Vancouver 2010.
| Sport | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Para athletics | X | X | X | X | X | X | 6 | |||||||
| Para cross-country skiing | X | X | X | 3 | ||||||||||
| Para cycling | X | X | 2 |
| Year | Competition | Venue | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Para athletics | ||||||||||||
| 1988 | Summer Paralympics |  Seoul |  |  | |  | | |||||
| 1992 | Summer Paralympics |  Barcelona | | |||||||||
| 2000 | Summer Paralympics |  Sydney | | |||||||||
| 2004 | Summer Paralympics |  Athens | | | | |||||||
| Para cross-country skiing | ||||||||||||
| 2010 | Winter Paralympics |  Vancouver | | |||||||||
| Para cycling | ||||||||||||
| 2016 | Summer Paralympics |  Rio de Janeiro | | | ||||||||
| 2021 | Summer Paralympics |  Tokyo | | |||||||||
Porcellato won seven International marathons. [6]
Eliza Ault-Connell, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who competed at Paralympic and Olympic Games. She survived meningococcal disease and plays a major role in improving the Australian community's awareness of the disease.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
Ernst Francois van Dyk OIS is a South African wheelchair racer and handcyclist. He has won a record 10 wheelchair titles in the Boston Marathon. He was also awarded the Laureus World Sports Awards for Sportsperson with a Disability of the year for 2006. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, he won a bronze medal in the 400 metres. At the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, he won a silver medal in the 800 metre race, another silver in the 1500 metres, and a bronze in the 5000 metres. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing van Dyk won gold in the handcycling road race as well as bronze in the wheelchair marathon. Other handcycling achievements include: Obtaining a silver and bronze medal at the 2009 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships held in Italy and taking double gold at the 2007 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships held in Bordeaux.
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.
Tatyana McFadden is an American Paralympic athlete of Russian descent competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty Paralympic medals in multiple Summer Paralympic Games.
Manuela Schär is a Paralympian athlete from Switzerland competing mainly in category T54 sprint events. She has used a wheelchair since the age of 8, when a playground accident paralysed her from the waist down.
Amanda McGrory is an American wheelchair athlete.
Kay McShane was a former Irish wheelchair athlete. Her record of three consecutive wins in the 1984-1986 London Marathon women's wheelchair race remained unequaled for nearly 20 years until Francesca Porcellato tied the record in 2005 and then broke it in 2006. McShane competed in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Paralympics, in events ranging from the 800 metres to the marathon. She took a silver medal in the marathon in 1984, and two bronze medals in the marathon and 800 metres in 1988.
Daniel Wesley(aka Daniel Westley) is a Canadian athlete who won 12 medals while competing in the Paralympic Games.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, winning two gold medals, three silver and a bronze. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympic athlete from Switzerland competing in category T54 wheelchair racing events. Hug, nicknamed 'The Silver Bullet', has competed in four Summer Paralympic Games for Switzerland, winning two bronze medals in his first Games in Athens in 2004. In 2010 he set four world records in four days, and at the 2011 World Championships he won a gold in the 10,000 metres and four silver medals, losing the gold in three events to long term rival David Weir. This rivalry continued into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where Hug won two silvers, in the 800m and the marathon. In the 2013 World Championships Hug dominated the field, winning five golds and a silver. During the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Hug was one of the most consistent competitors in the T54 class, winning two golds, in the 800m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 5000m.
Annika Zeyen-Giles is a former 1.5-point wheelchair basketball player, who has played for ASV Bonn, RSV Lahn-Dill and BG Baskets Hamburg in the German wheelchair basketball league, and for the University of Alabama in the United States. She has represented her country a total of 382 times in which she won six European titles, was the runner-up at 2010 and 2014 World Championships, won silver medals at the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing and 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, for which President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt . Following the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Zeyen retired from wheelchair basketball to pursue alternative sporting challenges as an individual athlete.
Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.
Susannah Scaroni is an American Paralympic athlete. She won the gold medal in the women's 5000 meters T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan. She also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Jenna Fesemyer is an American wheelchair racer. She won a gold and a silver medal at the 2019 Parapan American Games held in Lima, Peru. She also represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Nathan Maguire is a British wheelchair racer. He won multiple medals at both the 2018 and 2021 World Para Athletics European Championships, and also won the 400 metres mixed class race at multiple British Athletics Championships. Maguire competed in the 4 × 400 metres relay T53/T54 at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and competed in the 400 metres T54, 800 metres T54 and mixed 4 × 100 metres relay events at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics. He was part of the British team that won a silver medal in the 2020 Paralympic mixed 4 × 100 metres relay. He also competed for England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and won the 1500 metres T54 event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Aaron Pike is an American athlete who competes in wheelchair racing, biathlon, and cross-country skiing. He has competed at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, as well as the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics. Pike finished second at the 2022 Boston Marathon, third at the 2021 and 2022 Chicago Marathons, and fourth at the 2018 and 2019 New York City Marathons as well as the 2021 Boston Marathon. He won multiple medals at the 2023 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, including winning the 12.5 km seated event.
Aline dos Santos Rocha is a Brazilian wheelchair racer and skier, who came third at the 2021 Berlin Marathon, and won multiple medals at the 2023 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and the 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics.
Barbara van Bergen is a Dutch wheelchair basketball player and para-alpine skier.
Ha anche vinto le maratone di Boston, Londra (4 volte, record), New York e Parigi.
