Shirley Reilly (born May 29, 1985) is an American

wheelchair racer Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and partially sighted (when combined with another ...

who competes in track races and the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair di ...

distance in the T53/T54 categories.Shirley Reilly
Paralympians. Retrieved on May 13, 2012. She has represented the United States at the

Summer Paralympics The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebra ...

in 2004, 2008 and 2012. She was the winner of the 2012

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several 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 ...

race.

Early life

Reilly was born in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

. She was paralyzed from the waist down at birth as she was delivered six weeks premature. Her early life was marked by frequent operations, including surgery around 1997 when she had eight spinal discs and two ribs removed.DeMarban, Alex (April 26, 2012)
Alaska Native headed to London Olympics for wheelchair racing
''Alaska Dispatch''. Retrieved on May 13, 2012.

Career

She moved to California and graduated from a school in

Los Gatos Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of th ...

in 2003. Reilly took part in competitive sports at high school and focused on track athletics. She competed in the 2002

IWAS World Games The International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) World Games (or IWAS World Games) are a multi-sport competition for athletes with a disability, which were the forerunner of the Paralympic Games. The competition has been formerly known as t ...

and achieved her aim of participating in the

at the

2004 Athens Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

.Shirley Reilly
Team USA. Retrieved on May 13, 2012. Shirley Reilly 2012 Boston Marathon winner

Reilly began to move towards road events thereafter, particularly the marathon. She was runner-up in the wheelchair section of the

Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon (formerly known as the City of Los Angeles Marathon) is an annual running event typically held each spring in Los Angeles, California, since 1986. The marathon was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Ga ...

in 2005 and returned to following year to win the race. She became a regular performer at the

, coming fourth in 2005, improving to third in 2006, then taking fifth in 2007. She came fourth in the wheelchair race at the Peachtree 10K in 2008. In her second Paralympic appearance, she competed in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athle ...

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

and the

(finishing seventh in the latter event). The following year she was runner-up at the

Gasparilla Distance Classic The Gasparilla Distance Classic is a road race which is held in late February or early March on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, Florida. Over 30,000 competitors participate each year. It is named after the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which takes pl ...

, and third at both the 2009 Boston Marathon and

Grandma's Marathon Grandma's Marathon is an annual road race held each June in Duluth, Minnesota, in the United States. The course runs point-to-point from the city of Two Harbors on Scenic Route 61 and continues along Lake Superior into the city of Duluth. Th ...

. She debuted in the

New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon (currently branded TCS New York City Marathon after its headline sponsor) is an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 finishe ...

in November and took seventh place. She came in fourth at the

2010 Boston Marathon The 2010 Boston Marathon was the 114th running of the annual marathon race in Boston, United States and was held on April 19. The elite men's race was won by Kenya's Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot in a time of 2:05:52 hours and the women's race was won ...

with a time of 1:57:23 hours and set a personal best of 1:41:01 hours at the 2011 race, finishing as runner-up behind

Wakako Tsuchida (born 15 October 1974) is an athlete from Tokyo, Japan, who is an accomplished women's wheelchair marathoner, ice sledge racer and triathlete. She was the first professional wheelchair athlete from Japan and the first Japanese athlete to win go ...

. Reilly represented her country at the

2011 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from January 21 to 30, 2011. Athletes with a disability competed, and the Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Ove1000 athlete ...

. She defeated Tsuchida at the

2012 Boston Marathon The 2012 Boston Marathon took place in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday April 16, 2012. It was the 116th edition of the mass-participation marathon. Organized by the Boston Athletic Association, it was the first of the World Marathon Majors series ...

, beating her at the line by a margin of one second to win the Boston Marathon title and set a best of 1:37:36 hours. Later that month she took part in the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

for the first time and came in fourth after Canada's Diane Roy.2012 London Marathon
London Marathon. Retrieved on May 13, 2012.

Personal life

Reilly is of

Iñupiat The Iñupiat (or Inupiat, Iñupiaq or Inupiaq;) are a group of Alaska Natives, whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current ...

heritage.

References

External links

Interview
before London Marathon in 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Reilly, Shirley 1985 births American female wheelchair racers Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Inupiat people Living people Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2015 Parapan American Games Native American sportspeople Olympic wheelchair racers of the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic silver medalists for the United States Paralympic wheelchair racers People from North Slope Borough, Alaska People with paraplegia Sportspeople from Anchorage, Alaska Track and field athletes from Alaska Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic track and field athletes of the United States University of Arizona alumni 21st-century American women 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans