Darlene Quinlan
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameDarlene Quinlan, a T-12 paraplegic as the result of a childhood automobile accident, was one of Wheelchair Sports USA’s first great female multi-sport athletes. She began competing in 1967 in the sports of swimming, track & field, slalom, and basketball. The following year, at the 1968 Paralympic Games held in Tel Aviv, Israel, Darlene captured a gold medal in swimming and a bronze medal as a member of the first U.S. Women’s Basketball Team to compete internationally.
A four-time Paralympian, Darlene held national and world records in each of the field disciplines (shot put, discus, javelin) at one point during her career. The Michigan native captured more than twenty medals in eleven international competitions: four Paralympic Games, five Pan American Games, and two Stoke Mandeville competitions.
Darlene started competing in international competition while still a young teenager. As a versatile athlete, she was one of a rare few women wheelchair athletes in the world competing in the multiple sports of swimming, track & field, and basketball.
She is the second woman to be inducted into the Wheelchair Sports USA Hall of Fame. Darlene retired from track & field competition in 1984 but continued with her basketball career through the 1994 season.