To get quick for the Games , archer Matt Stutzman created an adrenaline - inducing practice scenario where he shot an arrow through his house and his race car and hit the target without damaging the eloquent medal hang from it !
The Paris 2024Paralympicsare here!
Here are 17interesting factsabout the Paralympians competing at the 2024 Paris Games:
1.British archer Jodie Grinham won a gold medal and a bronze medal while competing seven months pregnant.
2.Team USA track and field athlete and silver and two-time bronze medalist Hunter Woodhall is married to Team USA track and field athlete and Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall. They met at a track meet in Idaho in 2017.
3.Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo is the first out trans runner tocompetein the Paralympics. She’s also the second trans athlete to compete in the games. There’sreportedlya documentary about her in the works.
4.American archer Matt Stutzman prepared for Paris by creating an adrenaline-inducing target practice scenario at home. He challenged himself to shoot a target with his silver medal hanging from it, but he raised the stakes by taking the doors off his race car, parking it in front of the target, and shooting through his house with the front and back doors open. He made the shot without damaging any of his prized possessions.
5.At 8'1, Iranian volleyball player Morteza Mehrzadselakjani is thesecond-tallest manin the world.
6.If American track and field athletes Ryan Medrano and Noelle Lambert seem familiar, it’s probably because theycompetedonSurvivorSeason 43 in 2022!
7.American archer Tracy Ottoacceptedher partner Ricky Riessle’s proposal under the Eiffel Tower after her competition. Making their time in Paris even more special, the couple alsoannouncedthat they’re expecting their first child together!
8.Ahead of his competition, Team USA jumper Roderick Townsend went to a Parisian salon to get his hair colored in a Picasso-esque design because he’s “a showman.”
9.After his match, Brazilian badminton player Rogerio Junior Xavier de Oliveira got down on one knee with a sign and a ring box toproposeto his partner, Edwarda Dias, who’s a Brazilian Paralympic volleyball player.
10.Indian archer Sheetal Devi dreamed of becoming a teacher when she grew up until, at age 14, she took up archery. Within three years, she reached the Paralympic level.
11.American judoka Liana Mutia, who’s also a Comcast software engineer, prepares for her matches months in advance by scouting her competitors and creating spreadsheets with info about them.
12.15-year-old French sprinter Marie Ngoussou is the youngest Paralympian on TeamFrance. After the Games, she’s going tostudythe care of the elderly and children in a professional baccalaureate class.
13.Team USA fencer Ellen Geddes, who was formerly a competitive equestrian,workswith horses as a breeder, facility manager, trainer, and instructor on her parents' farm in South Carolina.
14.American swimmer Jessica Long was only 12 when shemadeher Paralympic debut at the 2004 Athens Games, where she won three gold medals.
15.Colombian sprinter and jumper Karen Tatiana Palomeque’s pre-competition ritual ispaintinga little Colombian flag on her face.
16.American swimmer Anastasia Pagonis has a popularTikTokaccount with 2.5 million followers. She creates beauty and lifestyle content alongside educating her viewers on what life’s like as a blind person.
17.And finally, French sprinter Timothée Adolphe is a hip-hop artist, and he alsocreatedthe first inclusive multiplayer video game that visually impaired and non-visually impaired gamers can both play.
