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| Country (sports) |  United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | October 7, 1977 Grantsburg, Wisconsin, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | No. 11 (28 January 2002) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jon Rydberg (born October 7, 1977) is a former American wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball player.
Rydberg was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin [1] and raised in Pine City, Minnesota. He became physically disabled when his family pickup truck rolled on top of him at one year old. [2] He played tennis since 1988 but was only able to play in exhibition matches in 1992 due to the United States Tennis Association rules at the time. Rydberg was also an accomplished wheelchair basketball player. He began playing wheelchair basketball since grade 8 and earned a full sports scholarship from University of Texas-Arlington. His university team won the national championship in 1997. After graduation, Rydberg focused on wheelchair tennis. He was a member of the 2004 United States Paralympic team that competed in Athens, Greece. After 2004, he left wheelchair tennis and returned to wheelchair basketball, played for the Minnesota Rolling Timberwolves program that the Minnesota Timberwolves sponsors. He played in the All-Star Wheelchair Classic during the 2006 NBA All-Star Weekend. [2] In 2007, he returned to focus on wheelchair tennis. After winning gold at the 2007 Parapan American Games in Brazil he became the top-ranked wheelchair tennis player in the United States and ranked 12th in the world. [2] [3] At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, he competed in both singles and doubles. In the singles event he lost in the third round to eventual gold medalist Shingo Kunieda, and in doubles he and his partner Stephen Welch were knocked out in the second round. He also competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics, losing in round of 16 in both games. [4]
He currently resides in the Twin Cities and has his own clothing line, Midevil[ sic?], Inc.[ citation needed ]
Randy Snow was the first Paralympian to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the first paralympian to win medals in three different sports: track, basketball and tennis.
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.
Shraga Weinberg is an Israeli wheelchair tennis player.
Peter Robert Norfolk OBE is a British wheelchair tennis player. Following a motorbike accident which left him paraplegic, he uses a wheelchair. He took up tennis and following a further spinal complication in 2000, he began competing in the quad division. He is nicknamed The Quadfather.
Dylan Martin Alcott, is an Australian former wheelchair tennis player, former wheelchair basketball player, radio host, actor, foundation founder, business owner and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, known colloquially as the Australian "Rollers". At the age of 17, he became the youngest Rollers gold medal winner, at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and was the youngest to compete in the wheelchair basketball competition. In 2014, he returned to wheelchair tennis with the aim of participating at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, at which he won gold medals in the Men's Quad Singles and Doubles. He was named the 2016 Australian Paralympian of the Year due to his outstanding achievements at Rio.
David Wagner is an American wheelchair tennis player. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down and with thirty percent function in his hands, he competes in the quad division. He plays by taping the tennis racket to his hand. He is currently ranked number three in the world in singles and number two in doubles.
Israel was the host nation of the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv. The Israeli team finished third in the medal table and won sixty-two medals: eighteen gold, twenty-one silver and twenty-three bronze. Over 750 athletes from 28 nations took part in the Games; the Israeli team included 53 athletes, 37 men and 15 women.
Ben Weekes is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. He has been selected for the 2024 Paris Paralympics, his sixth Games.
Adam Kellerman is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. When he was thirteen years old, he was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Ewing sarcoma. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the men's singles and doubles wheelchair tennis events. As of 21 July 2016, he is ranked Number 1 in Australia and Number 11 in the World for Men's Single Wheelchair Tennis. He competed for Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Andrew David Lapthorne is a British wheelchair tennis player. He took up wheelchair tennis in 2005, and entered the quad division in 2008. He is active in both singles and doubles tournaments, and has 17 grand slam titles in singles and doubles. He competed at his first Summer Paralympics at London 2012 in the quad singles and in the quad doubles, in which he won a silver medal and is now a four-time Paralympic medallist and British no.1 Quad tennis player, who started playing wheelchair tennis at the age of 10.
Gordon James Reid is a British professional wheelchair tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles. He is a Paralympic gold, silver, and bronze medalist, two-time Grand Slam singles champion, and record holding twenty-five time Grand Slam doubles champion.
Stephen Welch is an American wheelchair tennis player.
Mackenzie Soldan is an American wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis player. She represented the United States at the 2011 Parapan American Games where she won two gold medals, 2012 London Paralympics in wheelchair tennis and 2016 Rio Paralympics in wheelchair basketball. She has played for the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team since 2013.
Maria Dolores "Lola" Ochoa Ribes is a Spanish wheelchair tennis player. A paraplegic as a result of an accident when she was 14, she picked up tennis as a wheelchair player following it. She has gone on to represent Spain at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, 2008 Summer Paralympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, and the 2013 World Championships. In 2013, she was ranked 61st in the world.
Francesc Tur Blanch is a wheelchair tennis player from Spain. He has competed in the men's single and doubles events representing Spain at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics. His top international singles world ranking was 19th, a rank he held in August 2010.
The United States competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places the team qualified were for three athletes in sailing events. They also qualified athletes in archery, goalball, shooting, swimming, and wheelchair basketball.
Michael Henry Dempsey was an American para table tennis player who competed in eight Paralympic Games. His best rank was world no.2 in class 4 in April 2001.
Rose Marie Hollermann is an American 3.5 point wheelchair basketball player and member of the United States women's national wheelchair basketball team. She who won gold at the 2011, and 2019 Women's U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship, the 2011, 2015 and 2023 Parapan American Games, and the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She also won bronze at the 2020 Summer Paralympics and the 2022 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships.
The UT Arlington Movin' Mavs men's wheelchair basketball team, previously known as the UTA Freewheelers, is the men's college wheelchair basketball team representing the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Established in 1976 as the UTA Freewheelers, the team played at the club level against other colleges and universities in Texas during the 1970s and 1980s. It has played under the auspices of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) since 1988, when the team was renamed the Movin' Mavs. Its inaugural coach, from 1976 until 2008, was Jim Hayes. The team was coached by Doug Garner from 2008 until 2022 when he retired. In fall of 2022, Aaron Gouge was hired as the new head coach for the team.
Charles "Chuck" Aoki is an American wheelchair rugby player who plays for the United States national wheelchair rugby team. He has represented the United States at the Paralympics in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. He is regarded as one of the top 3.0 classified players in the world.
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