Scot Hollonbeck
2018
Scot Hollonbeck was a wheelchair athlete par excellence in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, a decorated Olympian and Paralympian, a pioneer of the disability civil rights movement and an enthusiastic mentor to junior athletes. It was athletes like Scot who helped the Paralympic movement grow into that of a highly recognized and respected sports initiative, something lacking on the national and international scene at that time.
Most people remembered Scot because of his impressive accomplishments on the track. Between 1992 and 2004, Scot won five Paralympic medals; two gold medals and a silver medal at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona and two silver medals at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. It was Scot’s work off the track, however, that made him such a transformative figure in the history of adaptive sports.
Scot encountered an able-bodied world strangely hostile to adaptive sports. At age 14, Scot was riding his bicycle to swim practice when a drunk driver hit and paralyzed him. Coaches in his small town of Rochelle, Illinois asked Scot to return to swim and track practice, knowing that sports could still be an important part of his life. He successfully advocated for increased University of Illinois disabled athlete scholarships.
He worked for seven years in Ecuador and Peru organizing UN funded disabled sports programming from 1994 through 2000. He served as the Global IPC elected Athletics athlete representative. He was also elected to the USOC Athletes Advisory Council and then served three times as the USOC Paralympic Athletes Council Chairman along with being invited to serve on numerous USOC and USATF Disability Inclusion Task Forces during a difficult and contentious time of inclusion at the USOC.
No matter where he travelled or what major competition was in the works, he took time to teach kids with a disability about wheelchair racing. More importantly, he was always there with a smile and a kind word, letting young disabled athletes know that even if they never made it to the Paralympics, they were part of something important.
In 2010 after coaching at a few Challenged Athletes Foundation triathlon training camps, his wife agreed to him training “a little, just to stay healthy.” Six years later he won multiple Ironman World Championship qualifiers earning one of the four global spots to compete in the 2013 and 2016 Kona World Triathlon Championships.
Scot’s induction into the Adaptive Sports USA Hall of Fame is a testament to Scot’s tireless work both on and off the track. The only thanks Scot ever needed was to see the smiles of countless kids with a disability over the years. Scot Hollonbeck’s contributions to the world of adaptive sports are as significant as any.