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The Queen has paid tribute to the athletes who have brought home over 100 medals from the Tokyo Paralympics, earning the UK the second spot in the rankings. The Paralympics came to an end on Sunday in a colourful ceremony at the National Stadium on Sunday overseen by the country's Crown Prince Akishino, the brother of Emperor Naruhito. The Olympics, which preceded the Paralympics 13-day run, closed almost a month ago. The UK came second in the games behind China, taking home 41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze medals....

Ernie Gawilan is a fighter. The 30-year-old champion swimmer made a name for himself after competing in the 2016 Paralympics and becoming the first Filipino gold medalist at the Asian Para Games in 2018. Now, he’s in Tokyo for the 2021 Paralympics, where he will compete and carry his country’s flag in the closing ceremony. But Ernie’s first win came in 1991, when he survived an attempted abortion that left him with no legs and an underdeveloped left arm. “I must have been a good swimmer even in my mother’s womb because I survived the abortion. I just swam,” Ernie...

After Toyota’s Super Bowl ad captured the touching life story of Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, the media raced to report on the athlete. But many of them bypassed crucial details about the 28 year old – including her Christian faith and pro-life position.Toyota, a partner of Team USA, highlighted the 13-time Paralympic gold medalist on Sunday. Her story is one worth telling: She was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a baby and lost both of her legs as a toddler only to become the second-most decorated U.S. Paralympian in history. But there’s more to the story. She centers her...

Officials are considering banning the Russian national team from this summer’s Paralympics after the World Anti-Doping Agency has exposed evidence of a state-run doping scheme that has also put the country's status for the Olympics in jeopardy, according to the New York Times. At least 35 positive doping tests by Russian Paralympians had been covered up by the Russian sports ministry since 2011, according to the Times. An additional 19 doping samples from the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi were tampered with, much like the samples of other Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

A Dutch-built ark plans to travel the world and stop along California's coast.Noah’s Ark will travel to San Diego, but not without making a few stops first. Beginning this summer, the massive boat will be shipped by barge 5,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Fortaleza, Brazil during the 2016 Olympic Games and later onto Rio de Janeiro for the Paralympic Summer Games, according to the Ark of Noah Foundation director, Herald Janssen. Shortly after the ark’s trip to Brazil, the barge will likely begin to bring Noah’s Ark to the California coast. "We cannot promise how long it...

The 2014 Winter Paralympics began on March 7 and runs until March 16, in Sochi, Russia. For anyone interested, the Opening Ceremonies will be broadcast today on NBC, and many events, including hockey, will be broadcast on NBCSN or other channels that showed the Olympics in February.I am posting this specifically for the 'Hockey Ping List' members, and also because as a wheelchair athlete myself, I am personally interested.If you want to see the main Paralympics site, click here - 2014 Winter Paralympics

The United States announced Monday it would boycott the upcoming Paralympic Games in Sochi to protest Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, as a State Department spokesperson said it was “likely” that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Russia. The boycott effectively means a presidential delegation will not be attending the games, an announcement that comes as President Obama and Congress scramble to respond to Russia’s aggression on Ukrainian territory in Crimea. “In addition to other measures we are taking in response to the situation in Ukraine, the United States will no longer send a Presidential Delegation to the upcoming Winter Paralympic...

The world is getting smaller and smaller every day, and in the last 30 years it has even become smaller for those who are limited to wheelchairs due to crippling injuries or birth defects. In the three videos I offer for your viewing, you can see British artist Sue Austin as she navigates underwater in a swimming pool and around a coral reef in the Ocean using a specially designed wheelchair.Sue Austin, is a British artist who has been disabled since 1996. Sue has created her own style of artistic expression she calls "Freewheeling". Before her new found fame with...

The world is getting smaller and smaller every day, and in the last 30 years it has even become smaller for those who are limited to wheelchairs due to crippling injuries or birth defects. In the three videos I offer for your viewing, you can see British artist Sue Austin as she navigates underwater in a swimming pool and around a coral reef in the Ocean using a specially designed wheelchair.Sue Austin, is a British artist who has been disabled since 1996. Sue has created her own style of artistic expression she calls "Freewheeling". Before her new found fame with...

Brian Siemann, a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, N.J., will represent the United States in track and field at the 2012 Paralympic Games, which begin Aug. 29 in London. (CNS/courtesy Brian Siemann) LAWRENCE, N.J. (CNS) -- On Brian Siemann's first day at Notre Dame High School in Lawrence in 2004, Coach Joe McLaughlin invited the young man who required a wheelchair for his mobility to do something he had never before considered. "You're coming out for the track team," McLaughlin recalled telling the then-perplexed student. Paralyzed from the waist down at birth after a hospital accident, Siemann...

FORT BENNING, Ga. --(Ammoland.com)- Nine years after losing his leg in a rocket-propelled grenade attack while on patrol in Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class Josh Olson has reinvented his Army career. Going from an Infantry squad leader to a wounded warrior, he is now a Paralympic shooter. But in October of 2003, Olson’s future had been less certain. Recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with the loss of his right leg still fresh in his mind, Olson didn’t know if the last page in his Army story had just been written. He was confident he would complete rehabilitation in time...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – An Afghan insurgent's homemade bomb shattered Marc Esposito's lower legs, broke his back and knocked him cold for four days. But the Air Force staff sergeant says the worst part was being torn from his Special Operations teammates who stayed in the field after he was evacuated. A year later, Esposito says, he's found a new team fighting a different kind of battle — the U.S. military's first Warrior Games for wounded servicemen and women at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. "Just like you would in a wartime scenario or a battlefield, you...

http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/ "PARALYMPIC GAMES: VANCOUVER 2010 WINTER PARALYMPICS" "With Glowing Hearts March 12-21, 2010

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2010 – Some 200 wounded active duty members and military veterans will compete in the inaugural Warrior Games May 10-14 in Colorado Springs, Colo., Defense Department officials announced today. The U.S. Olympic Committee will host the games, and events will include shooting, swimming, archery, track, discus, shot put, cycling, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball, Army Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek, commander of the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command, said at a Pentagon news conference. Athletes will be recruited from each of the military services, including the Coast Guard, through an independent selection processes. Many already participate in some...

CHULA VISTA, Calif., July 22, 2009 – Army Sgt. Jerrod Fields hasn’t just learned to adapt as an amputee since hitting a roadside bomb in Iraq. He is on his way to becoming a record-holding sprinter. Army Sgt. Jerrod Fields, an Army World Class Athlete Program sprinter and Paralympic hopeful, works out at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. A below-the-knee amputee, Fields won a gold medal in the 100 meters with a time of 12.15 seconds at the Endeavor Games in Edmond, Okla., on June 13, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2009 – Wounded warriors will get a chance to compete in sports while working toward their rehabilitation this week when the Warrior Transition Battalion on Fort Lewis, Wash., hosts a Paralympics Military Regional Sports Camp. More than 30 WTB soldiers and veterans are scheduled to participate in the battalion’s first-ever Paralympics sports camp May 5-8. The camp will expose them to adaptive sports as part of their recovery and continued transition in life. "We are thrilled to host the Paralympics Military Regional Sports Camp here, enabling our warriors and other veterans to improve their physical and...

FORT BENNING, Ga., March 27, 2009 – An infantryman for most of his Army career, Army Staff Sgt. Josh Olson never dreamed he would someday become an internationally ranked shooter with the Army's World Class Athlete Program. Army Staff Sgt. Josh Olson trains with a .22-caliber rifle at Fort Benning, Ga. Olson, a member of the Army Marksmanship Unit's international rifle team, spends about 15 hours training each week and participates in between 10 and 15 national and international matches each year. Olson is the only wounded warrior in the AMU. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Marin Morrison did not come close to winning a medal or setting a record at the recent Beijing Paralympics. Swimming in three events with her body partially paralyzed from treatment for incurable brain cancer, the one-time Olympic aspirant barely completed three events powered by one arm and leg, far behind her competitors.

OMAHA, Neb., Aug. 7, 2008 – With the world’s attention focused on the Olympic Games that open tomorrow in Beijing, a former 3rd Infantry Division soldier severely wounded in Iraq is gearing up to compete in the Paralympic Games that open there Sept. 6. Former Army Spc. Scott Winkler, a 3rd Infantry Division soldier severely wounded in Iraq, has his sights set on winning gold medals in discus, shot put and javelin during the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. Defense Dept. photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Former Army Spc. Scott Winkler has his sights...

Iraq war veteran Melissa Stockwell set an American record Thursday in the women's 400-meter freestyle in the U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials, finishing in 5 minutes, 3.08 seconds at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Stockwell, competing in the S9 class, lost a leg in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. "The training I have been doing is really paying off. I felt good going in to the pool and I was pushed by my competition," Stockwell said. "I have unbelievable support, but I still have to keep my focus for the remainder of the competition. I feel relaxed and settled in...