Stephen Welch (born July 28, 1972) is an American

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 ...

player.

Biography

Welch was born in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. Since he was four-years-old he was into a competition. By the age of eight he was diagnosed with Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome. He won 100 major titles since 1992, which includes three U.S. Open titles. He also won 5

National championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

in the

National Wheelchair Basketball Association National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) is composed of 181 wheelchair basketball teams within twenty-two conferences. Founded in 1949 by Timothy Nugent, the NWBA today consists of men's, women's, intercollegiate, and youth teams throug ...

and also three MVP awards. He attended

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 ...

starting from 1996, but only won one silver medal for singles and one silver for doubles in the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympic Games, Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games ...

and won gold for singles and another bronze for doubles at the Sydney Paralympic Games. He also participated 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 ...

where he won gold medal for doubles and a bronze one for singles. In 1996 and 2000 he played

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

for the Olympics but didn't get any medals for it. In 2001 Steve challenged radio jockey Howard Stern to a tennis match. They played at the Crosstown Tennis at Fifth Ave in New York City in a single set match where Steve defeated Howard Stern 6-0.

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic silver medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States American men's wheelchair basketball players Paralympic wheelchair tennis players for the United States Wheelchair tennis players at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Sportspeople from Fort Worth, Texas Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in wheelchair tennis ITF World Champions 20th-century American people {{US-tennis-bio-stub