It’s been almost three weeks since the end of the Olympic Games. Everyone’s had the opportunity to recalibrate their sleep schedules. We’ve shed that weird sense of nationalism that comes with cheering for your home country, lest it turn into something more insidious. We’ve had time to follow all the athletes that tantalized us — women’s rugby! women’s basketball! gymnastics! — and prepared ourselves to follow them to whatever comes next. Surely, I’m not the only person to buy tickets to Gold Over America, right?
But now that we’ve had a chance to recover, we have an opportunity to do it all again. The Paralympic Games kick off today from Paris and, for the next 12 days, we’ll get to watch some of the world’s greatest athletes compete, across 22 Paralympic sports. I just hope they’ve cleaned the water in the Seine in time for the swimming competition.
As is our wont, we scoured the Paralympic rosters looking for all the queer, trans, and non-binary athletes competing in this year’s games…and we made you a list. We’re added a short write-up about each athlete we found, in hopes of countering what we found was a dearth of information about these incredible Paralympians.
If you’re looking to fawn over these gorgeous athletes support these athletes in their competitions, simply click their names to access their Paralympic.com profile. It should have the most up-to-date scheduling information. Additionally, if you’re interested in learning exactly how a certain Paralympic sport might be different from its Olympic counterpart, check out the applicable sport link.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Back in 2021, fresh off a bronze medal finish in Tokyo, the National Wheelchair Basketball Association announced that the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team would retain its head coach, Lawrence “Trooper” Johnson. The decision was met with an immediate outcry from past and present members of the team, including Josie Aslakson. Their coach had been emotionally and verbally abusive to his players; their complaint wasn’t the first but it was, undoubtedly, the loudest. Aslakson wrote, “my teammates and I were quieted, demeaned, and manipulated into playing under fear-based leadership.” Three days later, Johnson resigned.
Now, Aslakson is at the forefront of building a new culture in wheelchair basketball, both as a player on the U.S. team and as the coach of Arizona’s women’s wheelchair basketball team.
Sport: Para Rowing (PR3 Mixed Double Sculls)
Growing up, rowing was just a hobby for Nikki Ayers. She’d done some surfboat rowing but her big passion was playing rugby. But when an errant tackle shortchanged her rugby career, she turned that hobby into her main focus. Ayers said, “I never thought about not doing anything. I was in the gym with my sister when I was still on crutches. The biggest challenge was overcoming my injury and being able to believe in my potential.”
Ayers will be competing in her second Paralympics game this year and, after finishing fourth in 2020, is eyeing a place on the podium in 2024. It’s hard to imagine she and crewmate Jed Altschwager won’t do better this time after a stellar showing in 2023. They won the World Championship. They broke the world record, twice! They were named Para Crew of the Year and Ayers racked up a host of individual accolades. Can 2024 measure up?
Sport: Para Triathlon (PTS2)
When Hayley Danz arrived at Northwestern University, she was still grappling with her relatively new identity as a someone with a disability. That was hard enough, she surmised, so she focused on that and pushed the questions about her sexuality to the backburner. Danz found triathlon and threw herself into the training, taking part in her first triathlon in July 2011. She found success almost immediately, winning her first World Championship in 2012…and she hasn’t stopped winning since, including two silver medal finishes in the Paralympic Games.
But eventually, Danz realized that hiding her sexuality was weighing her down and it was impacting every facet of her life. She came out in a Instagram post in 2020 and now she’s living her best life with her girlfriend, Hayley Bevan, and with a chance to finally capture that elusive Paralympic gold.
Sport: Para Cycling Road (B Individual Time Trial and and B Road Race) and Para Cycling Track (B Road Race and B 1000m Time Trial)
Back in May, Katie-George Dunlevy and her tandem partner, Eve McCrystal, climbed on their bike at the UCI Paracycling World Cup in Italy, the last of the Paralympic qualification events. Ireland needed points to secure their qualification and, through much of the race, Dunlevy and McCrystal looked ready to secure it. But then, with two laps remaining, the pair went down. Dunlevy screamed out, in excruciating pain. Then she climbed back on the bike and finished the race. The tandem finished in fourth place — two slots behind where they were when the crash happened — and secured Ireland’s Paralympic qualification. Post-race tests revealed that Dunlevy had broken her collarbone.
Dunlevy’s competed in every Paralympic Games since 2014 and every year she’s made steady progress towards the podium. In 2020, she finally capture silver and looks to improve upon that finish this year. With the tenacity she displayed at the World Cup, you’d be foolish to doubt her.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Along with her teammates on Team USA, Kaitlyn Eaton is one of the stars of a new docuseries from Outsports and Q.Digital called “Ballin’ Out.” The series focuses on team’s journey — from camp to competition — to the World Championships in Dubai. Surprisingly, though, Eaton doesn’t make the final roster, despite having been a part of the 2020 Paralympic team that won bronze. She admits, “sometimes life really does just get in the way of your dreams and your goals.”
That was the second time Eaton had been cut from the National Team roster. In 2017, she’d been cut but was offered a slot when another player went down with an injury. For a moment, she pondered leaving the sport but, instead recommitted to putting in 100% effort. Clearly, she did the same following that second cut…and now she’s back on Team USA and hoping to get on the podium in Paris.
Sport: Para Triathlon (PTS2)
Shortly before the 2023 World Triathlon Para Series — one of the races for Paralympic qualifying — Anu Francis injured her back. She pressed on and finished in second place. It’s par for the course for Francis, whose relentlessness has always driven her athletic ambitions. Back in 2020, she fell just short of qualifying for the Paralympics in rowing but, determined to become a Paralympian, she transferred into triathlon. Did it matter that she hadn’t ridden a bike since she was a kid? No. Did it matter that she couldn’t swim at all? Nope. Anu Francis was determined to make it to Paris and nothing was going to stand in her way.
Sport: Para Swimming (100m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke – S3)
Edênia Garcia had always been a swimmer: she started swimming when she was seven for fun and later as part of her rehabilitation. But in 2000, her father — a bus driver in Natal, Brazil — picked up a young man wearing a Brazilian national team shirt. As it turns out, that young man was Francisco Avelino, a champion swimmer who was in town training for the Paralympic Games. Once she understood what was possible for her, Garcia immediately began training and qualified for her first World Championship in 2002. She’d join that young man from her father’s bus on the Brazilian Paralympic team in 2004. In Paris, Garcia will compete in her sixth Paralympics Games and hope to reclaim a spot on the podium, just as she did 20 years ago.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
As a child, Bo Kramer had dreams of becoming a professional footballer. She didn’t just enjoy the thrill of the games, she loved the preparation. She was invested in doing the work to get better each and every day. Even when cancer cut her footballing dreams short, that drive persisted and, eventually, pushed Kramer to become one of the best wheelchair basketball players in the world. She has won at all levels: the Dutch team are the reigning European, World, and Paralympic champions. Can the Netherlands repeat as gold medalists? With Kramer’s drive pushing them, you’d be foolish to doubt them.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
The last time Tara Llanes tried to retire — back then, as an accomplished mountain biker and BMX racer — she crashed in her penultimate race. As she recovered, Llanes’ friends pushed her towards Hand Cycling and she excelled at it, winning a national championship. But even though the sport allowed Llanes’ athleticism to shine, her heart wasn’t in it. Perhaps it was too close to what she’d lost. After that, she just stopped — stopped competing, stop doing anything — for five years.
It was Llanes’ then-wife who got her into wheelchair tennis. Then, in an effort to get better at tennis, Llanes started playing wheelchair basketball. Once she started playing, Llanes was hooked and immediately set a goal for herself: “I wanna go to the Paralympics. I wanna play at the height of this sport.”
In Paris, she’ll play at the height of the sport for a second time and afterwards, hopefully with a medal around her neck, she’ll retire properly.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Robyn Love learned a lot from watching Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh. The British field hockey players were a couple who married in 2013 and won Olympic gold together in 2016. The couple modelled what going public with an intrasquad romance could look like and how to maintain that relationship without disturbing the chemistry of the team. It convinced her to go public with her relationship with her teammate, Laurie Williams. They’ve leveraged social media not only to show what teammates, partners, and now mothers go through…but also disabuse the public of misconceptions they have about disabled people.
Love returns to the Paralympic games after having considered retirement (and, possibly, shifting her focus to her first sporting love, tennis). Thankfully, she reconsidered and helped Great Britain qualify for the Paralympics. Now, she’ll be able to go for gold with her daughter, Alba, watching.
Sport: Para Judo – Women’s -70kg (J2)
Since her debut in 2014, Alana Maldonado has been a dominant force in Para Judo. The four time Para Judoka of the Year is the reigning champion of her weight class, having won the gold in Tokyo. With the win, she became the first Brazilian woman to take home a Paralympic gold. But, in 2023, an ACL tear forced Maldonado to the sidelines for seven months and she’s slipped to #3 in the world rankings. Can she reassert her dominance at the Paralympics? One thing’s for sure: however she does, Maldonado will have her wife — and fellow judoka — Wedja Maldonado cheering her on.
Sport: Sitting Volleyball
Growing up, Monique Matthews had always been athletic, competing in basketball, softball, and track. But following her accident, she didn’t know which way to turn and fell into a malaise. She admits, she “basically laid at home for two years, doing nothing.” But one day, while being fitted for a prosthetic, she saw a brochure for Team USA’s sitting volleyball program…and the rest, as they say, is history. Over her 14 year career, Matthews is building a dynasty as part of USA Volleyball. She has arguably been the best player on the best team during that run, racking up MVP awards and winning Female Sitting Team Player of the Year three times.
The Paris Paralympics will give Matthews a chance at her third gold medal. She’ll be supported by her trans husband, Landon Matthews.
Sport: Para Taekwondo (K44 +65kg)
Débora Menezes has always wanted to be a Paralympian. But when Para athletics qualification event was cancelled, dashing her hopes of competing in the 2016 Games, Menezes nearly gave up. She stopped training and was close to ending her sporting career. But her dreams survived that 2016 disappointment and Menezes rededicated herself to chasing Paralympic glory. She turned to taekwondo — a sport that, until then, had just been a hobby for her — and, by 2017, was competing in the World Championships. Menezes comes to Paris this year, hoping to improve on her silver medal finish at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
We hear about athletes — and, in particular, female athletes — and ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears all the time. They happen, the athlete is forced to take about a year off to have surgery and rehabilitate and then they come back and we hardly remember what happened. But for Mareike Miller, the story goes a little differently: she tore her ACL at 14 years old, had surgery, rehabbed, came back…and then injured her knee again…and again…and again. Eventually, she was forced to give up on her hoop dreams. Or, at least, reimagine them.
A coach introduced her to wheelchair basketball and it fed Miller’s competitive spirit. She made her debut with the German team in 2010 and then went on to win gold at the 2012 Paralympic Games. When she suits up in Paris this year, she’ll be looking to recapture that glory, after second and fourth place finishes in the 2016 and 2020 games, respectively.
Sport: Para Cycling Road (C4 Individual Time Trial) and Para Cycling Track (C4-5 500m Time Trial and C4 3000m Individual Pursuit)
Kate O’Brien’s story is one that’s ripe for a movie adaptation. She was a stellar athlete, competing in bobsled, hoping to earn a slot in the Winter Olympics. While learning to pilot the bobsled, she was recruited to Cycling Canada and began to compete on the international circuit in bobsled and track cycling. She excelled at both and, eventually, was named to Canada’s 2016 Olympic team for cycling. A year after competing for Olympic gold, tragedy struck: her back tire blew out during a race and she hit the back of the pacing motorbike in front of her. She nearly died.
Lucky to be alive, doctors told O’Brien all the stuff she’d likely never do again…but she refused to take no for an answer. She persevered. Things aren’t back to “normal;” instead, O’Brien is redefining normal. Now her normal is setting world records in Para Cycling and winning world championships. Now her normal is vying for Paralympic gold with her wife, Meghan, and newborn son, Robin, looking on.
Sport: Para Triathlon (PTWC)
There are athletes who become great, through rigorous training, and those rare athletes who are just gifted with innate athleticism. Brenda Osnaya Alvarez might fall into that latter group. How else do you explain that she has competed in five different paralympic sports — roller skating, swimming, powerlifting, athletics, and now triathlon — and excelled in all of them? Some folks are just built different. This year, Osnaya Alvarez will look to improve on her fifth place finish at the 2020 Paralympic Games.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
In 2020, Cindy Ouellet told part of her story in the pages of her own comic book. “The Adventures of Cindy” recounted her high school years: the cancer treatments and the depression and bullying that followed. With the support of her friends and family, she reclaimed her life and forged a new path in para sports. She began with track and swimming but eventually discovered — and fell in love with — wheelchair basketball. A few years after that discovery, Ouellet was playing the game at the highest levels: competing with Team Canada at the 2008 Paralympics Games. She was just 17.
This year, Ouellet will compete at her fifth Paralympic Games and look to medal for the very first time.
Sport: Para Cycling Road (C5 Individual Time Trial and and C4-5 Road Race) and Para Cycling Track (C5 3000m Individual Pursuit, C4-5 500m Time Trial, and C1-5 750m Team Sprint)
Prior of the start of the Olympic Games, Marie Patouillet took part int he Olympic torch relay in her home country. The opportunity to carry the flame raised her profile and, in turn, gave her a broader platform to share her activism. It’s something she’s done repeatedly in her career: being selective about the companies she works with and the opportunities she takes on, to bolster her cause. Patouillet has long been an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and anti-discrimination. She wants to spark a conversation about LGBT issues.
“I hope that the (2024) Games in Paris will give rise, or at least be an opportunity for certain athletes, to speak out on these subjects and that, after that, there will be changes on this,” she told Reuters last year.
But none of her activism obscures her success in cycling, though. She won world championships on the road and track and comes to Paris looking to improve on her bronze medal finish in 2020.
Sport: Para Athletics (200m, 400m – T12)
Valentina Petrillo always wanted to compete at the highest levels. At eight years old, she watched fellow Italian, Pietro Mennea, win the gold medal at the Olympics (1980), and decided that that was the future she wanted for herself. But a few years later, she lost her ability to see and her dream seemed dashed. She didn’t start running again for another 27 years, competing and winning multiple sprinting national titles.
But if she was going to compete at the highest levels in the sport, Petrillo wanted to do it as her authentic self. She came out as trans in 2017 and began transitioning two years later. She’ll compete in her first Paralympic Games this year because the World Para Athletics (WPA) allows transgender athletes to compete, if they declare their gender identity and submit a year’s worth of evidence of their testosterone levels.
According to the International Paralympic Committee, contrary to reports, Petrillo is not the first transgender athlete to compete in the Games. This is just the first time so many have chosen to feign outrage about it.
Sport: Para Athletics (100m, 200m, Long Jump – T37)
Jaleen Roberts didn’t grow up knowing the Paralympics were a thing. She didn’t know that there were female athletes with disabilities for her to admire. In high school, her track coach introduced her to the Paralympics and educated her about the opportunities that could be available to her. At first, Roberts was reluctant; after all, she’d been competing in able-body sports — basketball, gymnastics, track, and wrestling — for so long. But eventually, she was persuaded. Roberts realized that she could be the female athlete with a disability for the next generation to know and admire.
The road to Paralympic glory hasn’t been easy. Roberts has been candid about her struggles with mental health, in hopes of eliminating the stigma associated with asking for help. Prioritizing all facets of her health helped Roberts earn two silvers in Tokyo and she’ll be looking to improve on that in Paris.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Lucy Robinson grew up playing football and had big dreams of achieving stardom on the pitch. But following her injury, she had change her discipline but the dream remained very much the same. She’d attend an open wheelchair basketball event, sponsored by her hometown club, the Leicester Cobras, and found her new calling. Wheelchair basketball gave her the opportunity to feed her competitive spirit and enjoy the same team camaraderie that she’d experienced playing football. She excelled at the sport, winning the World Championships with the Under-24 team in 2018 and capturing a bronze medal with the Under-25 team.
In 2020, Robinson would make her National Team debut at the Tokyo Olympics. She was the youngest member of GB’s team. Now, she returns to the team this year, a wily veteran, looking to improve upon the team’s seventh place finish.
Sport: Para Rowing (PR2 Mixed Double Sculls)
In 2008, Lauren Rowles’ dream was born. She was transfixed by the Summer Olympics and watched the Athletics events with a keen interest. The British would win eight medals in those track and field events, including Christine Ohuruogu’s comeback win to grab gold in the 400m. Rowles had always loved running…she loved being the fastest at school…so on that day, she scribbled a new dream in her diary: she wanted to be professional runner at the Olympics.
After being diagnosed with a rare neurological condition in 2012, Rowles worried that her dreams might be thwarted but her mother showed her they were still possible. She took Rowles to the 2012 London Paralympics. Seeing others with disabilities convinced Rowles that her dreams were still possible. She’d switch disciplines, taking up rowing in 2015, but quickly excelled at the sport. She’ll be back in Paris this year, looking to claim her third Paralympic gold medal.
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Growing up, a big part of Courtney Ryan’s identity was being an athlete. Her talents earned her a soccer scholarship and, in her sophomore season, she was named an All-American. When an errant slide tackle left her paralyzed, she thought she’d lost that part of her identity but her family pushed her to consider adaptive athletics. With wheelchair basketball, Ryan reclaimed her identity, thriving at all levels: college, club, and country. The story is etched on her left bicep in a tattoo that also pays tribute to her heritage.
Ryan will compete in her second Paralympic Games this year and hope to add another medal to go along with her 2020 bronze. Her wife and former Arizona State teammate, Molly Bloom, will be cheering her on.
Sport: Para Rowing (PR1 Women’s Single Sculls)
Moran Samuel was born to compete at the highest levels. Initially, her athletic prowess led to a promising basketball career, so much so that she was called to join the Israel women’s national basketball team. After becoming disabled, Samuel made what seemed like a natural transition to wheelchair basketball…and while she was successful at it, she knew that she’d never get the opportunity to compete at the highest levels. She made the move to Para Rowing, partially because of her wife’s encouragement, but also because she wanted to compete in the Paralympic Games.
Her move has paid dividends. Samuel has been a force in Para Rowing. She returns to the Paralympics for the fourth time this year. Having previously won the silver (2020) and bronze (2016) medals, perhaps this year she can breakthrough and take home the gold.
Sport: Wheelchair Tennis (Singles and Doubles)
Lucy Shuker didn’t dream of being a Paralympian. She never dreamed of playing in Grand Slam tournaments. All she wanted, following the accident that left her disabled, was a reason to smile again. She wanted to know that the joy in her life hadn’t been lost. She took up wheelchair tennis — at the urging of Paralympic gold medalist, Peter Norfolk — to find that joy again. She said, “[playing tennis] meant I could go and play with my friends and family and it was something that helped me find a way to accept both my accident and my disability.”
But while being a Paralympian and playing in a Grand Slam might not have been the goal, Shuker has done both in her career — multiple times — with great success. This year, Shuker will compete in her fifth Paralympic Games and look to build on her silver medal finish from Tokyo.
Sport: Para Athletics (Shot Put – F33)
Maz Strong’s story is the stuff of fairy tales. They’d been an Athletics official for three years, working local, state, and national competitions. They noticed the camaraderie between the athletes and wanted to experience for themselves. And so, on a whim, they “decided to have a go [themself].” And just like that, Strong wrote a new chapter in their life: this time as an Athletics athlete at the age of 48!
Strong, who identifies as non-binary, earned a slot on Australian’s 2020 Olympic team and won a bronze medal in shot put. In doing so, they broke Australian/Oceanian and Paralympic records. But like a fine wine, Strong keeps getting better with age: last year, they exceeded their Olympic throw and placed second in the World Championships. Can Strong, at 53 years young, continue to outrun Father Time and bring Paralympic gold back to Australia?
Sport: Para Canoe (Kayak Single 200m and Va’a Single 200m – VL2)
Emma Wiggs’ first Paralympics Games experience wasn’t in Canoe. In 2012, she participated in the Games as part of Great Britain’s Sitting Volleyball Team. It was a disappointing showing for the team — they lost each of their matches in group play — but it ignited a drive in Wiggs to achieve Paralympic success. She switched her focus to Para Canoe soon thereafter and, within a year, she was crowned a World Champion. Since then, she has been one of the most dominant athletes in the sport. She returns to the Paralympics Games looking to defend her 2020 gold medal but without the expectation that she’ll win. She said, “I have never lined up expecting to win and I think that drives me to do everything, every day to make the boat faster. I also just love testing myself to see what we can achieve.”
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
When Laurie Williams first started competing as a paralympic athlete, she was drawn to wheelchair racing. While competing at the Greater Manchester Youth Games, the wheelchair basketball coach caught her performance and invited her to consider trying a new sport. It was Williams’ first time competing with other disabled kids. The speed she honed as a wheelchair racer paid dividends on the court — they called her “Whippet” — and she quickly found her niche.
Williams also found love on the British Wheelchair Racing team: she met her wife, Robyn, in 2014 when they played together on the national team. She’ll return to Paris, the site of their engagement, looking to finally get Great Britain to the podium.
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wow i like her so much more now