Lonnie Hannah II (born February 17, 1964) is an American former

ice sledge hockey Sledge hockey, also known as Sled hockey in American English, and Para ice hockey in international competition, is an adaptation of ice hockey for players who have a physical disability. The sport was invented in the early 1960s at a rehabilitat ...

player. He won medals with Team USA at the

2002 Winter Paralympics The 2002 Winter Paralympics, the eighth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, from March 7 to 16, 2002. A total of 416 athletes from 36 nations participated. They were the first Winter Paralympics in the Ameri ...

and

2006 Winter Paralympics The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games ( it, Giochi paralimpici invernali del 2006), the ninth Paralympic Winter Games, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. They were ...

Life and career

As a child, Hannah was a

roller skating Roller skating is the act of traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sid ...

champion. At 20 years old, he was injured at work by a falling shelving unit which broke three

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...

and paralyzed him from the waist down. He was diagnosed with

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

in 2005. He won three national

wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, a ...

championships (two doubles and a single). In 1996, he was named Player of the Year by the

National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people American roller skaters American sledge hockey players Paralympic sledge hockey players for the United States Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States Ice sledge hockey players at the 2002 Winter Paralympics Ice sledge hockey players at the 2006 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Paralympics Paralympic medalists in sledge hockey Wheelchair tennis players {{Sledgehockey-bio-stub