| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |  United States | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | June 29, 1968 Algonquin, Illinois, US | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||
Kevin Orr (born June 29, 1968) is an American Paralympic athlete and coach. Orr won two bronze medals at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in the 800 and 5,000 meter races. Upon retiring from playing, Orr became a coach for Team USA and Canada.
Orr was born on June 29, 1968, in Algonquin, Illinois to parents Mike and Sue. He was born with a birth defect (arthrogryposis) which caused limited use of his legs. [1] By the age of two, with the assistance of physio therapists at McHenry County Easter Seal Therapy Center, Orr was able to walk with the assistance of crutches. [2]
While attending Jacobs High School, Orr joined the wrestling team with his twin brother and played non-competitive soccer and basketball. Due to his birth defect, Orr was unable to compete in Algonquin's soccer program but, instead, acted as a referee. [3] Orr competed in the 105 weight class as a sophomore but never won a meet. Due to his disability, he was forced to crawl to the mat and start in a kneeling position which resulted in an immediate point for his opponent. [4] During his sophomore year, Orr was inspired to pursue wheelchair sports after watching Sharon Hedrick win a gold medal in the 800-meter wheelchair race at the 1984 Summer Olympics. [1] The following year, Orr competed against older athletes in the Men's Division of the Michigan Avenue Mile Wheelchair Race and finished third with a time of 5 minutes, 29.89 seconds. [5]
Upon graduating from high school, Orr enrolled at the University of Illinois due to their program for disabled athletes. [6] By the age of 19, he had won the Chicago Area Running Association Disabled Circuit, the 10-kilometer wheelchair race in the Prairie State Games, and two bronze medals in the elite division at the Men's National Track and Field Meet of the National Wheelchair Games. [7] As a result, Orr also qualified for the United States Nation Team to compete at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, Korea. He later credited the University of Illinois wheelchair basketball coach and head of recreation and athletics, Brad Hedrick, for helping him with his success. [8]
At the 1988 Summer Paralympics, Orr won two bronze medals in the 800 and 5,000 meter races. [9] During his four years at the university, he was a member of four consecutive National Championship Wheelchair Basketball teams and was named the MVP in his senior year. [10] [11] After graduating in 1990 with a degree in therapeutic recreation, Orr moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he started a wheelchair rugby program at Lakeshore Foundation. [9] In 1996, Orr founded the Lakeshore Demolition Derby tournament and created the 40 second shot clock. The clock was eventually adopted by the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation. [12]
From 1999 until 2004, Orr served as the head coach of Team USA's Wheelchair Rugby team and was featured in the documentary Murderball. [13] However, after the team lost to Canada in the 2004 Summer Paralympics, he was released from the team. Following this, he accepted a position as one of the USA wheelchair racing track coaches during the 2008 Summer Paralympics and was picked as the head coach of Team Canada’s wheelchair rugby team. [14] In 2019, Orr was inducted into the U.S. Quadriplegic Rugby Hall of Fame. [1]
Orr and his wife Stephanie have two daughters together. [6]
Wheelchair rugby is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is practiced in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic sport.
The Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team is the men's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Rollers. Australia took the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
Australia sent a team to compete at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, West Germany. Australian won 25 medals - 6 gold, 9 silver, and 10 bronze medals in six sports. Australia finished 11th on the gold medal table and 9th on the total medal table.
Wheelchair rugby is a sport with national representation at the Paralympic games. The Australian Team is known as the 'Steelers'.
Paula Coghlan is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. She was born in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill in Victoria.
Bill Latham is a wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He was a member of the Australian national team that competed at the 2010 and 2014 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships that won gold medals. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics he was part of the Australian men's wheelchair team that won silver. He was a member of the Rollers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, his second Games.
Nazim Erdem, is an Australian wheelchair rugby Paralympic gold and silver medalist. He has won two gold and two silver medals at five Paralympics from 2000 to 2016.
Brad Dubberley is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair rugby Head Coach and former athlete. He won a silver medal as an athlete at the 2000 Sydney Games and as the head coach at the 2008 Beijing Games in the mixed wheelchair rugby event. He is the head coach of the Australian Wheelchair Rugby team known as the Australian Steelers.
Ryan Scott, is a Paralympic wheelchair rugby competitor from Australia. In four Paralympics, Scott has won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Joshua Anthony "Josh" Hose, is a wheelchair rugby player. He has won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics and competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Andrew Harrison, is a wheelchair rugby player. He has won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics. and competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Curtis Palmer is a New Zealand-born wheelchair rugby player who initially played for the New Zealand national team Wheel Blacks. In 2013 he switched to play for the Australia national wheelchair rugby team.
Benjamin John Fawcett is an Australian wheelchair rugby player and member of the national wheelchair rugby team. He won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics as a member of the Australian Steelers and also went to the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Victor Salvemini was an Australian Paralympic athlete from Western Australia. As a wheelchair athlete, he competed in several sports including archery, basketball and track sprinting in the 1970s. A paraplegic, he lost the use of both his legs after a car accident in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1961 when he was 14 years old.
The United States competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan from 24 August to 5 September 2021.
Lawrence "Trooper" Johnson is a former Paralympic coach for the United States women's national wheelchair basketball team and former wheelchair basketball player. He won a bronze medal with Team USA at the 1996 Summer Paralympics and 2000 Summer Paralympics. In December 2021, he resigned as head coach of the women's national team after players alleged emotional misconduct. He said he would cooperate with a United States Center for SafeSport investigation, and believed there would not be any findings.
The UT Arlington Mavericks men's wheelchair basketball team, commonly known as the Movin' Mavs and 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. Since 2008, the team has been coached by Doug Garner.
David Willsie is a Canadian coach and former Wheelchair rugby player.
Richard Voris is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He represented the Steelers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, his first 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.
