Megan Blunk (born September 12, 1989) is an American wheelchair basketball player for the United States women's national wheelchair basketball team. She won a gold medal for Team USA during 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 ...

Early life

Blunk was born September 12, 1989, in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

to parents Wendy Ricketts and David Blunk. After graduating from Peninsula High School in 2008, Blunk became paralyzed from the waist down due a motorcycle crash. Following this, two of her friends committed suicide, which increased her depression. Despite this, Blunk accepted a placement at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign's women's wheelchair basketball team. It was during summer break from the University of Illinois that Blunk began para-canoeing at the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Club.

Career

In 2013, she competed with Team USA at the ParaCanoe World Championships, where she won two silver medals However, after qualifying for the final roster with the 2015 United States women's national wheelchair basketball team, she competed in 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 ...

, and later tried out for the United States para-canoe trials. With Team USA, Blunk helped take home a gold medal under coach

Stephanie Wheeler Stephanie Wheeler (born in Norlina, North Carolina on January 16, 1981) is an American wheelchair basketball player who was on two gold medal-winning Paralympic teams. She also played on the gold medal-winning team at the 2007 Para-Pan-American G ...

. Deciding to stick with basketball, Blunk helped Team USA win a gold medal at the

by beating Germany 62–45 in the medal finals. In 2018, Blunk participated in former

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

player

Colin Kaepernick Colin Rand Kaepernick ( ; born November 3, 1987) is an American civil rights activist and football quarterback who is a free agent. He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). In 2016, he knelt dur ...

's viral Nike commercial.

References

External links

Team USA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blunk, Megan Living people Basketball players from Tacoma, Washington 1989 births American women's wheelchair basketball players Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics American disabled sportspeople Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for the United States People with paraplegia 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes