Troy Davis
Competition | 2024
Hometown: Lake Oswego, OR
Troy Davis, from Lake Oswego, Oregon, was born with a brittle bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. Most of his bones were broken during birth.
While growing up in Arizona, Davis would be introduced to wheelchair sports in 1989 by Coach Gregg Baumgarten and would started racing in his everyday chair until he could afford a racer. Davis would earn numerous national records in the sprints (100 meter and 200 meter) within that decade. In 1994, he would compete at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany, winning a bronze medal in the 4 X 100-meter Relay. In 2000, Davis would be a member of Team USA for the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia,
When the University of Arizona started its Wheelchair Athletics Team, Davis was recruited for and a member of the initial program. Since 1998, the University of Arizona has become one of the finest collegiate wheelchair track teams in the country. Davis was not only a stellar athlete on campus, he would also make the Dean’s List and earn a degree in management information systems and am on the Dean’s List. He would also be the recipient of the Gene Autry Courage Award for excellence in athletics, an award presented annually to both a professional and national amateur athlete exhibiting outstanding courage in overcoming challenges while pursuing athletics.
In addition to being an athlete himself, Davis would begin coaching the Arizona Heat in the mid 2000’s and grew the team to 32 athletes. He has also been inducted into the City of Mesa Sports Hall of Fame.
Subsequently, Davis moved to Oregon to become the Senior Director of Marketing Automation and CDP Engineering at Nike. Since living there, he has started a track team in Portland, beginning with six athletes and successfully approached the Prefontaine Classic to include wheelchair divisions in the race.
