Steven Serio (born September 8, 1987) is a

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (o ...

player. As a co-captain of the USA Men's National Wheelchair Basketball Team, he led the American men to their first Paralympic gold medal since 1988 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games and defended the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He currently plays for the New York Rolling Knicks in th
NWBA
Championship Division. He grew up in

Westbury, New York The Incorporated Village of Westbury is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is located about east of Manhattan. The population was 15,404 at the 2020 census. History The f ...

and graduated from Carle Place High School in 2005. When Steve was 11 months old, he had surgery to remove a spinal tumor which resulted in the compression of his spinal cord. Consequently, he was left paralyzed and is classified as an incomplete paraplegic. Steve began his wheelchair basketball career as a sophomore in high school with the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in New York State. He was a tremendous asset to this team, eventually leading them to the team's first National Championship in 2005 where was named the tournament MVP. In that same year, he played on a USA U-23 Team played at the Australian Junior National Games for the Disabled in Sydney. He played point guard for the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

. Steve was named a 2nd Team All-American in both the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 seasons at Illinois. At the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament at Oklahoma State University on March 15, 2008, Steve led the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to a NIWBA Championship over the

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', whic ...

. Steve took home the Championship Game Player of the Game, NWBA Tournament MVP, and the NWBA 31st NIWBT Player of the Year in the process. Steve also plays on the U.S.

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team, which came in second place at the World Championships in Amsterdam in the summer of 2006. In the summer of 2007, the U.S. National Team won a gold medal at the Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Steve made his Paralympic debut with the U.S. National Team in 2008 in Beijing, China. The team finished in fourth place, just missing a medal. Since the disappointing Paralympics, the U.S. National Team took the gold medal at the 2009 America's Cup in Richmond, Canada and finished third at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham, England. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010, where he studied Kinesiology. He is currently living in Germany and playing for

RSV Lahn-Dill The RSV Lahn-Dill (''shortened: Wheelchair sport association Lahn-Dill, in German: Rollstuhl Sport Verein Lahn-Dill'') is an association for wheelchair basketball in Wetzlar. The Association was founded in 1983. The Association counts to the ...

. His contract was recently extended through the 2016 season.

Major achievements

Juniors

* 2005: First place - Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships * 2005: Tournament MVP - Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships * 2005: Gold medal - World Junior Basketball Championships

Intercollegiate

* 2008: National Champion - U.S. Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball * 2008: MVP - NWBA College Division

US National Team

* 2006: Silver medal - IWBF Gold Cup (World Championships), Amsterdam, The Netherlands * 2007: Gold medal - Parapan American Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * 2008: Fourth place -

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

, Beijing, China * 2008: First place - North American Cup, Birmingham, Alabama * 2009: First place - America's Cup, Richmond, BC, Canada * 2010: Third place -

Wheelchair Basketball World Championship The IWBF World Wheelchair Basketball Championship is an international wheelchair basketball competition contested by the men's and the women's national teams of the members of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation ( IWBF), the sport' ...

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, UK * 2012: Bronze Medal -

, London, UK * 2016: Gold Medal -

, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * 2021: Gold Medal -

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

, Tokyo, Japan

Professional

* 2011: German DRS Cup Champion * 2011: German Championship * 2011: IWBF Champions League Silver Medal * 2012: German DRS Cup Champion * 2012: German Championship * 2021: IWBF Champions Cup Champion

Notes

External links

* * (2008, 2016) * (2012) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serio, Steve 1987 births Living people American men's wheelchair basketball players Wheelchair category Paralympic competitors Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of the United States Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes People from Westbury, New York People with paraplegia Sportspeople from Nassau County, New York American expatriate basketball people in Germany