The last Summer Paralympics were only three years ago, due to the pandemic, but here they come again, right on the heels of the Paris Olympics. Are you ready for this high-level competition of challenged athletes from around the globe? It all begins on Wednesday, August 28th, 2024, and many of the events can be viewed on the Peacock app. Who are we going to watch this year?

We have five patients who are Paralympians, and two of them have qualified for the 2024 Paralympics. Lizzi Smith is a Para Swimming competitor with two silver medals and one bronze from past Paralympics. Let’s hope she gets her gold this year! Lizzi has been selected as a team captain for Team USA this year:

Our patient Summer Schmidt, who graduated college this year and is also a swimmer, is headed to the Paralympics a second time, and is hoping to get onto the medal stand for the first time:

We have three other Paralympians, two who have qualified for past summer events and one Winter Paralympian. They include Michael Kacer is retired staff sergeant who started Taekwondo in 2017. “It has helped with more mental health and confidence in life when I needed it the most,” Michael told Team USA. You can watch his patient profile video here.

Katie Walker (pictured below) began her Paralympic career in track and field before being introduced to the velodrome and becoming a Paralympic cyclist. Katie very helpfully sent us a hand washing video right at the start of the pandemic to add to our blog article on hand washing with an upper limb prosthesis. She has also been a model for adaptive clothing. She’s a busy one!

Katie Walker 3 cropped

Lastly, our patient Danielle Aravich was in the 2022 winter games, where she came in eighth in the sprint cross-country. Even though we’ll be bummed when the summer games come to a close on Sunday, September 8th, at least we know we’ll have the winter games in Italy in 2026 to look forward to, and hopefully Aravich will be there!

We're so proud of our patients and so pleased that they chose us for their prosthetic care. Go Team USA!

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