Sharon Rahn Hedrick

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Achievements

In 1984, Sharon Rahn Hedrick became the first wheelchair athlete to win an Olympic medal. While 90,000 spectators looked on in the L.A. Coliseum, Sharon won the Gold Medal in an 800 Meter exhibition event for women wheelchair athletes during the XXIII Olympiad. A few years prior to this historic event, Sharon was well on her way to an illustrious career in both wheelchair racing and basketball. During thirteen years in track competition, she was undefeated in every national and international race that she entered, setting fifty national and world records in the process. She held the fastest women’s times for every track event she entered during this time span.

At the same time, Sharon was the top female wheelchair basketball player in the USA. She was the all-time leader for points points scored, rebounds and assists in national and international competition. Sharon led the University of Illinois team to five consecutive national championships and was named to the National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball All-Tournament Team fifteen separate times. She was inducted into the NWBA Hall of Fame in 1994, the first woman to be so honored.

Sharon was not only a world class athlete…she was a pioneer in sports for women. She was the first woman to compete in the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair and the first female wheelchair basketball player to consistently shoot with one hand. Sharon Hedrick was not the first woman to compete in wheelchair sports but no one had demanded so much of herself, trained so hard or competed in so many events at such a level.