Sharon Hedrick (

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

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

paralympic swimmer Para swimming is an adaptation of the sport of swimming (sport), swimming for athletes with disability, disabilities. Para swimmers compete at the Swimming at the Summer Paralympics, Summer Paralympic Games and at other sports competitions through ...

wheelchair racer Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and field, track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are c ...

and

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is a style of basketball played using a sports wheelchair. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as ...

er. Hedrick was born in

Horsham, Pennsylvania Horsham is a census-designated place in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 15,193 at the 2020 census. It is home to the Biddle Air National Guard Base at the former site of Naval Air Station ...

. 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 bet ...

and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. 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 consecutiv ...

, 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 non-disabled sports, while others have been specifically created fo ...

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 university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

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

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, winning six

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

awards. In 1977 Hedrick was the first female wheelchair competitor in the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight 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 ins ...

; 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 Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

1988, and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

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, 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 The Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit charity focused on female involvement in sports. Founded in 1974 by tennis player Billie Jean King and initially supported by Olympic athletes Donna de Varona and Suzy Chaffee ...

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 Township, Pennsylvania, about 17 miles outside of Philadelphia. Hatboro-Horsham Senior High School, a successor of the Loller Acad ...

, 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 Sportspeople from Montgomery County, 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 Olympic female wheelchair racers 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 for 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 for the United States Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for the United States 20th-century American sportswomen