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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Chicago, Illinois, United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Bolingbrook, Illinois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Illinois Chicago-Kent College of Law | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Paralympic athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability | Spastic diplegia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | T34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Linda Mastandrea is a civil rights and disability attorney, author and former Paralympic athlete. She was a Paralympic and World champion in wheelchair racing. [1]
Linda is the youngest twin in a second set of twins, her twin sister is Laura. She and Laura have older twin siblings and they have a younger brother. Linda was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy at a very young age when she found walking difficult and was often carried around. [2] [3]
Mastandrea represented the United States in the 1990s, she participated at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, three World Para Athletics Championships, Parapan American Games and the Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games winning a total of twenty medals, she had also set national, world and Paralympic records during her career. In 2010, she was the first female Paralympic athlete to be inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. [4] [5]
In 2009, Mastandrea participated in the Chicago 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid trying to win the rights to host the 2016 Summer Olympics where she worked alongside the-then President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley. The 2016 Games were eventually won by Rio de Janeiro. [6]
The World Abilitysport Games are a parasports multi-sport event for athletes who use wheelchairs or are amputees. Organized by World Abilitysport, the Games are a successor to the original Stoke Mandeville Games founded in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann, and specifically the International Stoke Mandeville Games—the first international sporting competition for athletes with disabilities which was held in 1952, itself an Olympic year, between British and Dutch athletes and which ultimately was the forerunner to the modern Paralympic Games.
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, commonly known as the 1984 Summer Paralympics, were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others]. Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics.
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 80 events. The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.
The Summer Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in every event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.
The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Winter Paralympic Games are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games and hosted in the same city. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) oversees the Games. Medals are awarded in each event: with gold for first place, silver for second, and bronze for third, following the tradition that the Olympic Games began in 1904.
Australia competed at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea in 16 sports, winning medals in 6 sports. Gold medals were won in three sports – athletics, lawn bowls and swimming. Australia won 95 medals – 23 gold, 34 silver and 38 bronze medals. Australia finished 10th on the gold medal table and 7th on the combined medal table. Australian Confederation of Sports for the Disabled reported another medal ranking after Games with Australia being 2nd ranked in amputee sports, 8th in wheelchair sports, 11th in blind sports and 12th in cerebral palsy sports.
BC1 is a boccia classification. The class is open to people with several different types of disabilities, including cerebral palsy. BC1 players have events open to them in boccia on the Paralympic Games program.
BC2 is a boccia classification. The class is open to people with several different types of disabilities, including cerebral palsy. BC2 players have events open to them in boccia on the Paralympic Games program.
Kristy Pond is an Australian athletics competitor. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics in the 100 metre and 200 metre events. She did not medal at the 2012 Games.
Para-athletics classification is a system to determine which athletes with disabilities may compete against each other in para-athletics events. Classification is intended to group together athletes with similar levels of physical ability to allow fair competition. Classification was created and is managed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which is regularly published via its IPC Athletics Classification Handbook. People with physical, vision and intellectual disabilities are eligible to compete in this sport at the Summer Paralympics. The classification for this sport was created during the 1940s and for much of its early history was a medical condition based classification system. The classification system has subsequently become a functional mobility based one, and is moving towards an evidence-based classification system.
Para-archery classification is the classification system for para-archery used to create a level playing field for archers with a different range of disabilities. Governance in the sport is through the International Archery Federation. Early classification systems for the sport were created during the 1940s and based on medical classification. This has subsequently changed to a functional mobility classification with the exception of blind archery.
Paralympic powerlifting classification is the system designed for disability based powerlifting to ensure that there is level competition across a range of disabilities. Categories are broken down based on weight. The sport's classification is governed by International Paralympic Committee Powerlifting. People with physical disabilities are eligible to compete in this sport.
Paralympic Shooting classification is the shooting classification in place for the Paralympic Games to help establish fair competition. Classification is governed by the International Paralympic Committee's IPC Shooting. While there are currently three classifications, there were originally five in international competitions. People with physical disabilities as defined by the International Paralympic Committee are eligible to compete.
Romania competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, held between 7–16 March 2014. This was Romania's second appearance at a Winter Paralympic Games. The Romanian delegation consisted of one alpine skier, Laura Valeanu, who finished fifth in the slalom and seventh in the giant slalom.
Les Autres sport classification is system used in disability sport for people with locomotor disabilities not included in other classification systems for people with physical disabilities. The purpose of this system is to facilitate fair competition between people with different types of disabilities, and to give credibility to disability sports. It was designed and managed by International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD) until the 2005 merger with IWAS, when management switched to that organization. Classification is handled on the national level by relevant sport organizations.
Nicaragua sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7–18 September 2016. This was the Central American country's third appearance at the Summer Paralympic Games, having made its debut twelve years earlier at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. They were represented by three athletes, sprinter Jennifer Osejo, middle-distance runner and sprinter Gabriel Cuadra Holmann and powerlifter Fernando Acevedo, who all qualified for the games by achieving the minimum qualifying standard in international competition. Neither Holmann or Osejo claimed a medal in their respective events and Acevado finished fifth in the men's −72kg powerlifting class.
The Faroe Islands sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7–18 September 2016. They sent one participant, Krista Mørkøre, who participated in three events in swimming. Her top finish was 10th in women's 400 m freestyle S10, and she did not qualify for the finals of any of her three events.
The Cerebral Palsy Games are a multi-sport competition for athletes with a disability, which under the former name of the International Stoke Mandeville Games were the forerunner of the Paralympic Games. The competition has been formerly known as the International Cerebral Palsy Games or the Stoke Mandeville Games. Since the 1990s the Games have been organized by Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA), so they called also CPISRA World Games.
Robyn Lambird is an English-born Australian wheelchair racer and model who has cerebral palsy. They won a bronze medal in the Women's 100m T34 at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first out non-binary Paralympian to win a medal in addition to being among the first three out non-binary athletes to compete at the Paralympics.
Johana Martínez Vega is a Colombian wheelchair tennis player. She is a three-time silver medalist at the Parapan American Games in the women's doubles events in 2011, 2015 and 2019. She often collaborates with compatriot Angélica Bernal in women's doubles events. She is the first ever South American female wheelchair tennis player to have competed at the Paralympics.
