Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Stockton, California, U.S. [1] | July 1, 1992||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 210 lb (95 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Paralympic athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disability class | T46/47/F46/47 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Sprint, long jump, high jump, triple jump | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Roderick Townsend-Roberts (born July 1, 1992) is an American Paralympic athlete. At the 2020 Summer Paralympics he set a high jump world record (2.15 m) and won gold in high jump, silver in long jump. [2] [3] [4]
He won the long jump and high jump events at the 2016 Rio Paralympics [5] and 2015 Parapan American Games. In 2015 he set two world records (2.07 and 2.12 m) and won the world title in the high jump in his disability class. [6] Townsend-Roberts cleared 2.14 m (7 ft 1⁄4 in) at the 2019 Mt. SAC Relays to take his world record over 7 feet. [7]
Townsend-Roberts sustained permanent nerve damage to his right arm and shoulder at birth. [8] He played football for two years at Lincoln High School in Stockton, California, and served as the team captain in 2009. He has a degree in communications from Boise State University and used to work as an athletics coach at Northern Arizona University. He currently lives in Kentucky with his wife Tynita Butts. [1]
Ralph Harold Boston was an American track athlete who received three Olympic medals and became the first person to break the 27 feet (8.2 m) barrier in the long jump.
Tianna Bartoletta is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the long jump and short sprinting events. She is a two-time Olympian with three gold medals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she placed fourth in the 100m race then won her first gold by leading off the world record-setting 4 × 100 m relay team. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won two more golds, first with a personal best to win the long jump then again leading off the victorious 4 × 100 m relay team.
Elexis LaVelle "Lex" Gillette is a blind Paralympic athlete from Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States competing in T11 (track) and F11 (field) events for the United States.
The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The Relays are held in mid-April each year since the first edition held on April 24-25, 1959. The meet was started by Mt. San Antonio College track coach Hilmer Lodge, and flourished under his direction until his retirement in 1963. The meet attracts all levels and disciplines of the sport of Track and Field. They claim to have had as many as 9,000 competitors participate in a single year. Because of the stature of the meet, the stadium and most meet literature contains the phrase "Where the world's best athletes compete".
The 2015 Parapan American Games, officially the V Parapan American Games and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 ParaPan-Am Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, celebrated in the tradition of the Parapan American Games as governed by the Americas Paralympic Committee, held from August 7 to 15, 2015, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Marking the first Parapan American games hosted by Canada, and the second major Paralympic sports event hosted by Toronto since the 1976 Summer Paralympics, the Games were held at venues in Toronto and four other Golden Horseshoe communities. Both the Parapan American and Pan American Games were organized by the Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015).
Erik Kynard Jr. is an American track and field athlete who competes in the high jump. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as a 21-year-old, he won a silver medal in the men's high jump. His silver medal was upgraded to gold in 2021 with the disqualification of original champion Ivan Ukhov from Russia for doping.
Markeith LeRoy Price is a visually impaired Paralympic athlete raised in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States competing in T13 (track) and F13 (field) events for the United States.
Vashti Cunningham is an American track and field athlete specializing in the high jump. She is the daughter of retired National Football League (NFL) quarterback Randall Cunningham, niece of retired NFL fullback Sam Cunningham, and the younger sister of Randall Cunningham II. Her mother is Felicity de Jager Cunningham, a former ballerina with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Vashti, like her brother two years ahead of her in school, jumped for Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada until March 2016 when she signed with Nike. She announced at that time she intended to continue her education at a university while competing as a professional athlete.
Sandi Morris is an American pole vault record holder. She won the silver medal in the pole vault event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also won silver at the pole vault event at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and another silver at the 2019 World Championships in Athletics. In 2018 she won gold at the World Indoor Championships. Morris has a personal best vault of 4.95 m indoor, set on March 12, 2016, in Portland, Oregon. She matched this height at the 2018 World Indoor Champships when setting a new championship record. July 23, 2016, Morris cleared 4.93 m at American Track League in Houston at Rice University breaking Jennifer Suhr's American outdoor record in the pole vault. Morris cleared 5.00 m at 2016 IAAF Diamond League Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 9, 2016, to set the U.S. women's outdoor pole vault record.
DeAnna Marie Price is an American track and field athlete competing primarily in the hammer throw. Price's personal best in the hammer is 80.31 m (263 ft 5 in), the American record, set at the 2021 US Olympic trials. The throw ranked her as the #2 women's thrower in history.
Robert Griswold is an American swimmer. He was a member of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Paralympic Swimming Teams. He holds multiple American and world paralympic swimming records in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and individual medleys. He competes in the Paralympic classes S8/SB7/SM8, and has cerebral palsy that affects coordination and strength. The United States Center for SafeSport temporarily suspended Griswold in 2020, reinstated him prior to the 2021 Paralympic Games, and then temporarily suspended him again in 2022, after he was accused of raping a fellow member of the US Paralympic Team at the 2021 Paralympic Games and thereafter; Griswold was later removed as a member of the US National Team.
David Brown is a visually impaired American sprint runner. He competed over 100–400 m distances at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics and 2013 and 2015 world championships and won the 100 m event in 2015 and 2016. He currently holds the world record in the 100 m and 200 m run for the T11 class – being the first totally blind athlete to run 100 m within 11 seconds – as well as the paralympic record in the 100 run.
Chelsea McClammer is an American Paralympic athlete with Team USA, she has won two silver medals and one bronze at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Hannah Elizabeth Aspden is an American Paralympic swimmer. She was the youngest swimmer on Team USA to medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics in 2016. During the 2019–20 season at Queens University of Charlotte, Aspden broke two American Paralympic Short Course Meters Swimming records in both the 100-Meter Backstroke and the 100-Meter Freestyle.
Twanisha "TeeTee" Terry is an American sprinter specializing in the 100 meters distance. She earned two major medals as part of U.S. women's 4 × 100 m relays, including gold at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Jaleen Roberts is an American track and field athlete. Born with cerebral palsy, she has won medals for Team USA at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, 2019 Parapan American Games, and 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.
JuVaughn Krishna Harrison is an American high jumper and long jumper. He won the silver medal in the high jump at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Bethany Zummo is an American sitting volleyball player. She is a member of the United States women's national sitting volleyball team. She won with the team the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She also won with the team the 2015 Parapan American Games and 2019 Parapan American Games.
Amy Watt is a Canadian-American former Paralympic athlete who mainly competed in the long jump in international level events. She was born missing her left arm just below the elbow due to amniotic band syndrome. Watt competed for the United States at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She competed in the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Long jump T47 for Canada, placing fifth. Watt decided to retire from international Paralympic competitions after Tokyo 2020.
Nicholas "Nick" Mayhugh is an American T37 and T38 Paralympic sprint runner and soccer player. He represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Media related to Roderick Townsend-Roberts at Wikimedia Commons