Kevin Saunders
2016
Kevin Saunders turned tragedy into triumph, transforming a devastating accident into a life of world-class athletic achievement and national leadership.
After graduating from college, Kevin began training to become a federal inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In April 1981, while working at a grain elevator in Corpus Christi, Texas, an explosion changed his life forever. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down, but it did not diminish his determination.
Two years later, in 1983, Kevin’s brother Gerald encouraged him to enter his first wheelchair race — the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. Though untrained, lacking proper racing equipment, and completely new to the sport, Kevin competed with heart and discovered a new calling. The experience ignited a lifelong passion for competition and resilience.
In 1984, Kevin won his first medal at the National Wheelchair Games in Johnson City, Tennessee, and his rise from that point was meteoric. He began winning nearly every event he entered, across a wide range of disciplines — track, field, swimming, air rifles, and pistols. His versatility earned him multiple Best Athlete of the Games honors.
Kevin’s athletic dominance extended across distances and events, from 100 meters to 5,000 meters in track, as well as javelin and discus in field competitions. His crowning achievement came in 1989, when he won the World Track & Field Championships in England and was proclaimed “The World’s Greatest All-Around Wheelchair Athlete.”
At the 1992 Paralympic Games Trials in Salt Lake City, Kevin set a new world record in the pentathlon, simultaneously breaking the existing Paralympic record — an achievement that solidified his place among the sport’s elite. Over his career, he held multiple national, Pan American, world, and Paralympic records.
His success extended to road racing, where Kevin won events throughout the United States and abroad. His competitive career spanned three decades, culminating in 2014, when he won the USA Track & Field Half Marathon Championship in Houston, Texas.
Beyond his athletic achievements, Kevin broke barriers in national leadership. In 1989, at the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Kevin was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to serve on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition (PCFSN) — becoming the first person with a disability ever to serve on the council. Working alongside Chairman Arnold Schwarzenegger and other fitness leaders, Kevin helped expand the Council’s mission to include people of all abilities, advocating for accessibility, inclusion, and the power of sport to transform lives.
Through his determination, athletic excellence, and advocacy, Kevin Saunders became not only a record-setting athlete but also a trailblazer for disability inclusion and a national voice for adaptive sports and fitness — embodying resilience, excellence, and service to others.