Jessica Galli (born December 1, 1983) is a female

wheelchair racing Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and partially sighted (when combined with another ...

athlete. Raised in

Hillsborough Township, New Jersey Hillsborough Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is centrally located in the Raritan Valley region within the much larger New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the tow ...

, Galli has participated in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, and

2008 Paralympic Games The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It wa ...

. At the 2000

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Paralympic Games she won the silver medal in the 800 meter T53 female wheelchair race. Galli set a world record holder in the T53 400 m race with a time of 55.82 at the 2007 European Wheelchair Championships on June 7 in

Pratteln Pratteln (Swiss German: ''Brattele'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, located in the district of Liestal (district), Liestal. History Pratteln is first me ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In January 2008, she was named the

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

's 2007 Paralympian of the Year. That summer, Galli was nominated for an

ESPY Award An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

for ''Best Female Athlete With A Disability''. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics in September, she won five medals: 1 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze. Galli is a

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

as a result of a September 1991 car accident when she was 7 years old. She became involved in Paralympic Sports by joining the Children's Lightning Wheels PSC at the recommendation of a recreational therapist at

Children's Specialized Hospital Children's Specialized Hospital (CSH) is a children's rehabilitation hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It has 140 beds. Founded in 1891, the hospital supports a wide range of research with five core areas of research focus - autism, mobility ...

, where she underwent rehabilitation.

References

External links

*
Jessica Galli on US Paralympics
1983 births Living people People with paraplegia American female wheelchair racers Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes Sportspeople from Hillsborough Township, New Jersey Paralympic track and field athletes of the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic silver medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States World record holders in Paralympic athletics Paralympic wheelchair racers Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) 21st-century American women {{US-athletics-bio-stub