Sharon Hedrick (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Rahn, born April 26, 1956) is an American former

paralympic swimmer Para swimming is an adaptation of the sport of swimming for athletes with disabilities. Para swimmers compete at the Summer Paralympic Games and at other sports competitions throughout the world. The sport is governed by the International Para ...

wheelchair racer 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 ...

and wheelchair basketballer. Hedrick was born in

Horsham, Pennsylvania Horsham is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,842 at the 2010 census. Horsham is located entirely within Horsham Township, and it is home to the Horsham Air Guard Station at the form ...

. At the age of nine, she was accidentally shot by a 12-year-old boy playing with a loaded gun. This left her paralyzed from the waist down. Hedrick is the only US athlete to have won gold in both the

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

. Eight-time Boston Marathon winner and Paralympic athlete,

Jean Driscoll Jean Driscoll (born November 18, 1966) is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive ...

, cites Hedrick as one of her sporting inspirations.

Athletic career

Sharon Hedrick did not get involved in

wheelchair sports Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing able-bodied sports, while others have been specifically created for ...

until she was 19, when she was seen training her dog at a local fair and encouraged to join

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

's athletic team. She went on to play for the wheelchair basketball team at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, winning six MVP awards. In 1977 Hedrick was the first female wheelchair competitor in the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

; she finished with a time of 3:48:51. In 1980 Hedrick competed in the Paralympic Games for the first time as a wheelchair basketballer. The team gained the bronze medal. Hedricks did not compete in the 1984 team which failed to bring a medal home, but returned to win gold and then silver in the two subsequent games in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

1988, and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

1992. In 1984 Hedrick turned down a place on the Paralympic team to become the first wheelchair athlete in the world to win a gold track medal at an Olympic Games by breaking the world record. She finished with a time of 2:15.73. She successfully defended this title at the following games in South Korea. 1990 saw the first Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in

St. Etienne ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

, France. Hedrick claimed gold as part of the winning USA team.

Honors

In 1977 Hedrick won the Top Female Athlete Award at the National Wheelchair Games. In 1985 she was presented with the Southland Olympia Award, which recognizes excellence in sport and the embodiment of the 'amateur ideal'. Hedrick was the first wheelchair athlete to be presented this award. Hedrick was awarded the Jack Gerhardt Outstanding Wheelchair Athlete Award in 1988. Also in 1988 Hedrick was the recipient of the Athlete of the Year Award from USOC. In 1989 the Women's Sports Foundation nominated Hedrick in their list of the Top 10 Women Athletes in America. In 1991 Hedrick's alma mater,

Hatboro-Horsham High School Hatboro-Horsham Senior High School is a comprehensive public high school, serving grades 9 -12, located in Horsham, Pennsylvania, about 17 miles outside of Philadelphia. Hatboro-Horsham Senior High School, a successor of the Loller Academy, origi ...

, inducted her into their Athletics Hall of Fame In 1992 Hedrick was inducted into the WASUSA Hall Of Fame. In 1994 Hedrick became the first woman to be inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame. 2012 saw Hedrick becoming a member of Barack Obama's Presidential Delegation to the London Paralympic Games alongside fellow wheelchair athlete

Personal life

Hedrick is married to Dr. Brad Hedrick, a basketball coach and Director of the Division of Disability Resources and Education Services (DRES) at the University of Illinois. Hedrick was coached by her husband in the USA Women's Wheelchair Basketball team in 1988 when the team won their first gold. They have one adopted son, Nathan. Hedrick is now retired

Selected works

Books

* Introduction to Wheelchair Track & Field – with Brad Hedrick and S. Figoni (1995). * A Guide for Wheelchair Sports Training (1988)

Book chapters

* Women's wheelchair basketball. In A Century of Women's Basketball: From Frailty to Final Four. pp. 367–378. - with Brad Hedrick (1991)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedrick, Sharon 1956 births Living people People from Horsham Township, Pennsylvania University of Illinois alumni American women's wheelchair basketball players American female wheelchair racers American female swimmers American sports coaches Wheelchair racers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Wheelchair racers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Paralympic wheelchair racers Medalists at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic silver medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States People with paraplegia Sportspeople from Pennsylvania American shooting survivors Sports coaches from Illinois Olympic wheelchair racers of the United States Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in swimming Wheelchair basketball players at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Paralympic track and field athletes of the United States Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of the United States 21st-century American women