Candace Cable
Competition | 2014
Competition | 2007
Growing up in Southern California, Candace moved to Lake Tahoe after high school to work in a casino. Two years later, while on a steep mountain road, she was involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Struggling with depression and substance abuse, Candace returned to SoCal to enroll at Long Beach State University. While at Long Beach State she was introduced to wheelchair sports and the rest was history.
Candace Cable participated in nine different Paralympic Games in three sports and was the first U.S. woman to win medals in both the Paralympic Summer and Paralympic Winter Games. She won 12 medals in track events, including eight gold medals and had 84 career first-place marathon finishes. Candace competed in the Summer Paralympics in 1980 in Arnheim, Netherlands; 1988 in Seoul, South Korea; 1992 in Barcelona, Spain; and the Paralympics in Atlanta. Competing in the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill events, Candace was a Team USA member in Albertville, France in 1992; Lillehammer, Norway in 1994; Nagano, Japan in 1998; Salt Lake City in 2002; and Turin, Italy in 2006. In addition, Candace won a bronze medal in the first ever Women’s 800 Meter race in the Coliseum at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
In addition to her success in competition, Candace became a role model for other people with disabilities. She served in an advocacy role for individuals with disabilities in the areas of inclusion, transportation, accessibility and equal employment. Candace also served in the role of Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the organizing committee working on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
