Jeff Adams

Last updated

Jeff Adams
Jeff Adams.jpg
Adams in 2021
Personal information
Full nameJeffrey Adams
BornNovember 15, 1970 (1970-11-15) (age 53)
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Jeffrey Adams (born November 15, 1970, in Mississauga, Ontario) is a Canadian lawyer, and a former Paralympian, a six-time world champion in wheelchair sports.

Contents

Competitive racing

Adams competed at six consecutive Summer Paralympics from 1988 to 2008, winning a total of three gold, four silver, and six bronze medals. At the 1988 Summer Paralympics he won two bronze medals, one in the 800m race and one in the 1500m race. Four years later at the Barcelona Games he won two silvers, one in the 800m race and one as part of the 4 × 400 m relay. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics he won gold in the 800 m, silver in the 400 m, and bronze in the 4×400 m relay. Four years later, at the Sydney games, he won five medals, a gold in the 800 m and 1500 m, a silver in the 400 m and a bronze in the 5000 m and 4x100 m. At the 2004 Paralympics he won a bronze in the 400 m race. Adams was coached by Peter Eriksson.

Post-competition

In 2002, Adams ascended the 1,776 steps of the CN Tower in a specially-designed wheelchair; in 2004, he climbed the Acropolis.

In March 2010, he was a torchbearer during the 2010 Winter Paralympics torch relay. [1]

In 2012 Adams was part of the broadcast crew on Channel 4's coverage of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. [2] [3]

Adams is additionally a motivational speaker. [4]

He is an inductee into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame (1997, then the Terry Fox Hall of Fame). [5] In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Sport, marking his induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (2018). [6]

Personal life

Adams underwent radiation therapy for cancer as a child, and aftermath of the treatment led to a spinal injury at age 9 that paralysed him. [7] [8] After retiring from competition, Adams and business partner Christian Bagg co-launched Marvel Wheelchairs with Cervélo Cycles, producing adjustable wheelchairs for everyday use. [8] After Cervélo was unable to secure bridge financing for debt to suppliers, Marvel was taken over and unsuccessful attempts were made to sell it by Cervélo. Cervélo was taken over by PON, [9] and Adams and Bagg launched a new company making wheelchairs called ICON in 2010. [8] An appearance on the CBC reality show Dragons' Den led to a new partnership with a manufacturer, Multimatic, to produce the wheelchairs designed by ICON. [10] [11]

Through much of his career, Adams lived in Brampton, Ontario. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Fearnley</span> Australian wheelchair racer

Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Sauvage</span> Australian paralympic athlete

Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christie Dawes</span> Australian Paralympic athlete

Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Viger</span> Canadian paralympic athlete

André Viger, was a French Canadian wheelchair marathoner and Paralympian. He took part in five consecutive Summer Paralympic Games in athletics from 1980 to 1996, winning a total of three gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trischa Zorn</span> American Paralympic swimmer

Trischa Zorn is an American Paralympic swimmer. Blind from birth, she competed in Paralympic swimming. She is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Stilwell</span> Canadian athlete and politician

Michelle Stilwell is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games, as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Colman</span> Australian Paralympic athlete

Richard Andrew Colman is an Australian Paralympic athlete, competing mainly in category T53 sprint events. He was born with spina bifida. He represented Australia at the four Paralympics - 2004 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tatyana McFadden</span> American Paralympic athlete (born 1989)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda McGrory</span> American wheelchair athlete (born 1986)

Amanda McGrory is an American wheelchair athlete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia at the 1996 Summer Paralympics</span> Sporting event delegation

The 1996 Summer Paralympics were held in the United States city of Atlanta. Australia competed in 13 of the 17 sports, winning medals in 10 of those sports. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, Australia had the second highest medal tally of any country competing. It won 42 gold, 37 silver and 27 bronze medals. It surpassed the 24 gold medals that Australia won at the 1992 Paralympics. The sports of athletics, swimming and cycling provided Australia with the majority of its medals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison de Rozario</span> Australian Paralympic athlete (born 1993)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Nicholson (Paralympian)</span> Australian Paralympic powerlifter and athlete

Richard Nicholson is an Australian Paralympic powerlifter and athlete. He has competed at five successive Paralympic Games from the 1996 to 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the 2000 Games, he won a silver medal in the powerlifting Men's Up to 60 kg event. In athletics, at the 2004 Athens Paralympics he won a silver medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m T53–54 event and at the 2012 London Paralympics a bronze medal in the Men's 4 × 400 m T53–54 event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabian Blattman</span> Australian Paralympic athlete

Fabian John Blattman, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He became disabled after a motorbike accident. He started playing disabled bowls, before switching to athletics. As a Paralympic athletics competitor, he has set several world records and won two Paralympic gold medals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Smith (Paralympian)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brent Lakatos</span> Canadian wheelchair racer

Brent Lakatos is a Canadian wheelchair racer in the T53 classification. Lakatos has represented Canada at three Summer Paralympics, and at the 2012 Games he won three silver medals in the sprint and mid-distance events. In 2013 Lakatos reached the pinnacle of his sport when he collected four gold medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and became world champion at his classification in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darda Sales</span>

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.

Liu Chengming is a Paralympian athlete from China competing mainly in T54 classification sprint events.

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.

Curtis Edward Thom is a Canadian wheelchair racer. In 2016, he competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics for Team Canada and won a bronze medal in the T54 4X400-m relay.

References

  1. "March 5 - Toronto" Archived 2010-03-08 at the Wayback Machine , Vancouver 2010 official website (viewed on March 2)
  2. Pitt-Brooke, Jack (3 September 2012). "Jack Pitt-Brooke: Instructive and inspirational – Channel 4 strike the Paralympic balance". The Independent. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. "LONDON 2012: Paralympic Games – Meet the C4 team". Sport On The Box. 23 August 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  4. "Jeff Adams | Paralympian | World Champion". www.speakers.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  5. "Jeff Adams". Ontario Heritage Trust. Ontario Heritage Trust. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  6. Harrison, Doug (26 April 2018). "Leafs legend Dave Keon, Olympic great Alex Despatie headline Canada's Sports Hall of Fame newcomers | CBC Sports". CBC . Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  7. "Jeff Adams". Management. ICON Wheelchairs. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 Mourtada, Rasha (12 January 2012). "Canadian upstart reinvents its wheels". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  9. "Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings purchases Canadian bike company Cervelo Cycles | Globalnews.ca".
  10. Howell, Trevor Scott. "Christian Bagg, Co-founder of Icon Wheelchairs". Your Face Here. Fast Forward Weekly. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  11. "New wheelchair called revolutionary". CBC.ca. 28 Feb 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  12. Keith Bolender, "Jeff Adams makes most of sport to defeat his physical disability", Toronto Star, 2 May 1989, W14.