Darlene Hunter (born 16 April 1982 in

Walled Lake, Michigan Walled Lake is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,999 at the 2010 census. The city is bordered by Commerce Township on the north and the city of Novi on the south. As a western suburb of Metro Detroit, ...

) is an American wheelchair basketball player. She is a member of the United States women's national wheelchair basketball team.

Life

Hunter was born near Detroit in Michigan in 1982 to Donald Hunter and Julie Sisko who also have a son. Her spine was damaged in an accident with a

road grader A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply a blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during grading. Although the earliest models were towed behind horses, and la ...

when she was four. She was keen on athletics and when she went to college she was recruited into Wheelchair basketball.

Education

She studied at

Walled Lake Western High School Walled Lake Western High School (also known as "Walled Lake Western," "Western," or "WLW"), is a public high school of the Walled Lake Consolidated School District, located in Commerce Township, Michigan in Greater Detroit.< ...

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, University of Texas at Arlington, and

Texas Women's University Texas Woman's University (TWU) is a public coeducational university in Denton, Texas, with two health science center-focused campuses in Dallas and Houston. While TWU has been fully co-educational since 1994, it is the largest state-supported u ...

Wheelchair basketball

Hunter played Wheelchair basketball at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London where the US team came fourth. She and her team won the gold medal at the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. She became world champion at the

2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship The 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held in Birmingham, Great Britain from 7 to 17 July 2010. Both the men's and women's tournaments were held. The Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. ...

and she won the gold medal at the

2011 Parapan American Games The 4th Parapan American Games took place from November 12 to 20 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Games are an international multi-sport event for athletes with a physical disability. The Games were held 20 days after the 2011 Pan American Games beg ...

. Hunter competed at the

2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship Separate men's and women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship tournaments were held in 2014. The women's tournament was held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada between 20 and 28 June 2014. It was the largest women's ...

, and won the gold medal at the

2015 Parapan American Games 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 Pa ...

. She founded an annual women's wheelchair basketball camp. In 2017 she was recognised as an "Everyday Hero" at the "espnW: Women + Sports Summit". She received a $10,000 grant which she used to extend her free outreach work of her basketball camp. The camp is based at the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

. In 2019 she went to Peru to join the national team to compete at her second ParaPan American Games which that year was in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Darlene 1982 births Living people Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics American women's wheelchair basketball players Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for the United States Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics People from Walled Lake, Michigan Basketball players from Oakland County, Michigan