Boccia
The lone competitor in Boccia, Austin Hanson (Topeka, Kansas) won his opening match with a strong 6-1 win over Japan’s Keita Kato. Hanson then took on Paul Gauthier of Canada, but lost 1-7 which knocked him out of the competition.
Cycling
During the first day of road competition, the U.S. cycling team had a seven medal haul with female racers accounting for five of the seven medals. Six-time U.S. Paralympian Allison Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.) won gold in the women’s Individual C1-3 Time Trial. The win made Jones, who is also a Paralympic alpine skier, only the second female athlete in U.S. Paralympic history to win a gold medal in both a summer and a Paralympic Winter Games. Megan Fisher (Mizzoula, Mont.) won gold in the Individual C4 Time Trial, and Muffy Davis (Salt Lake City, Utah) won gold in the Individual H1-2 Time Trial. Monica Bascio (Evergreen, Colo.) won silver in the Individual H3 Time Trial, and Kelly Crowley (Redwood City, Calif.) won bronze in the women’s Individual C5 Time Trial.
In men’s action, Marine Corps veteran Oz Sanchez (San Diego, Calif.) won bronze in the Individual H4 Time Trial. Joe Berenyi (Aurora, Ill.), who won gold and bronze medals in track cycling competition, completed his set with a silver medal in the Individual C3 Time Trial.
Goalball
The U.S. Paralympic women’s goalball team fell to China 0-5 on Wednesday morning. The loss dropped the Americans to 2-3 in the preliminary group D, eliminating them from the goalball competition.
Powerlifting
Team USA’s Mary Stack, (Ann Arbor, Mich.) gave it her all in the women’s 82.5kg division, but was unsuccessful in making the podium as she finished in a respectable fourth place position with a lift of 129kg.
Sailing
With podium positions riding on the line for the U.S. Paralympic Sailing Team, Day 5 of the Paralympic Sailing Regatta was a crucial point in the competition. Adding to the excitement was a change in wind conditions, with 15-20 knots of wind, the most seen during the Games. Jen French (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and JP Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.) relished the conditions and held tight to their 2nd place overall in the SKUD-18 event (Two Person Keelboat). For Mark LeBlanc, in the 2.4mR (One Person Keelboat) and Paul Callahan, Tom Brown and Bradley Johnson, in the Sonar (Three Person Keelboat), the day didn’t bring the advanced standing they had hoped to achieve. They are in 6th and 7th overall, respectively. Two races were held in the SKUD-18 and 2.4mR, with three completed in the Sonar.
Sitting Volleyball
The women advanced to the finals after winning three straight sets and defeating Ukraine at the Excel Center on Wednesday. They are 3-0 with wins earlier this week over Brazil and Slovenia and will take on China for the gold medal on Friday. Katie Holloway (Lake Stevens, Wash.) and Heather Erickson led the team in points with 13, and 15 points respectively.
Swimming
The U.S. swim team added five more medals on Wednesday highlighted by a gold medal performance in the 400m freestyle S10 by Ian Silverman (Baltimore, Md.). Tucker Dupree (Raleigh, N.C.) also medaled for Team USA by coming in second in the100m backstroke S12.
Jessica Long (Baltimore, Md.) turned in another gold medal performance in the 200m IM S8. She now has six overall medals including four gold. Teammates Susan Beth Scott (Cape Giradeau, Mo.) and Noga Nir-Kistler (Allentown, Pa.) each turned in bronze medal performances in the 400m freestyle S10 and 100m breaststroke SB5 respectively.
Track & Field
The track and field team turned in four medals Wednesday highlighted by a gold medal from Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Md.) in the 800m T54. Jessica Galli (Hillsborough, N.J.) earned bronze in the women’s 800m T53, as did Joshua George (Herndon, Va.) in the men’s 800m T53 .
In the 100m T52, the U.S. finished in third, fourth and fifth with Kerry Morgan (St. Louis, Mo.), Cassie Mitchell (Warner, Okla.) and Cheryl Leitner (Toms River, N.J.) all putting in strong performances. Angela Madsen (Long Beach, Calif.) was hoping to follow her bronze medal finish in shot put with another podium appearance in javelin, but she ended the javelin competition in fifth place.
Men’s Wheelchair Basketball
Team USA beat Germany by a score of 57-46 and benefited from a balanced scoring attack which included 10 points each from Josh Turek (Council Bluffs, Iowa), Steve Serio (Westbury, N.Y.), and Paul Schulte (Bradenton, Fla.) and another nine points from Jason Nelms (Arlington, Texas). Up next: Team USA will play Australia in the semi-finals.
Wheelchair Fencing
From the side of piste 7, Ryan Estep (Florence, Miss.) was watching the duels of his competitors while he awaited his preliminary bouts of men’s epee individual wheelchair fencing on Wednesday. He was expecting a much better experience, but did not advance out of the pool playround, losing four of his five matchups for the afternoon.
Wheelchair Rugby
The opening round match between the U.S. and Great Britain was tightly contested early on, but thanks to solid play by some of the squad’s veteran players and a staggering 14 goals from first-time Paralympian Chuck Aoki (Minneapolis, Minn.), the Americans prevailed, 56-44. They face Japan Thursday and close out pool play versus France on September 7.
Wheelchair Tennis
Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kansas) and doubles partner David Wagner (Hillsboro, Ore.) pulled off a record-setting performance in wheelchair tennis when the duo won their third consecutive gold medal in the men’s quad division. They defeated Great Britain’s Peter Norfolk and Andy Laphorne in a thrilling three set victory 6-2, 5-6, 6-2 Wednesday afternoon. It will be USA vs. USA when they play each other in the quad men’s singles on Thursday.
Videos from members of the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team are available on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/usparalympics and we encourage you to share it on your organization websites and Facebook pages or link to it through electronic newsletters or other channels. You can pick and choose what videos to share with your audience. It’s as easy as clicking “Share” on the video and then following the instructions to embed it on a website, post it on Facebook, etc.
Additional results and stories on the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team can be found on www.usparalympics.org.
Go Team USA!
# As posted by:
U.S. Olympic Committee, Paralympic Division
1 Olympic Plaza | Colorado Springs, CO 80909
paralympicinfo@usoc.org | www.usparalympics.org
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