Amanda Wins Olympic Athlete of the Year
McGrory Wins Athlete of the Year
Amanda recently won voter polling for the 2011 Female Olympic Athlete of the Year, via Universal Sports. Amanda won the voting by more than three-times her nearest competitor. This was a huge win for Paralympic athletes striving for mainstream recognition. Read about her tremendous accomplishment HERE.
It all started with a bribe. Amanda McGrory thought of herself as a sprinter. She raced the short stuff and she was good at it. Former American marathon champion Scot Hollonbeck disagreed. He looked at Amanda, her lean physique, endless supply of energy and flawless technique, and saw a marathoner. Hollonbeck made a deal with Amanda. If she raced the 2006 Colfax Marathon in Denver, Colorado he would invite her to his world class training camp.
Hollonbeck had a hunch Amanda would be a good marathoner, but little did he know she would become the best in the world.
At the age of five, Amanda’s life turned in a drastically new direction when she was diagnosed with a rare disease called transverse myelitis, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Always an energetic toddler, the Philadelphia-area native immediately adapted to life in a wheelchair and began a quest to find ways to be active at a high level. After an extensive rehabilitation program, Amanda attended a Variety Club camp in southeastern Pennsylvania, where a new sports program was starting up for children with disabilities. It was there, at the age of 10, that her parents enrolled her in a wheelchair sports program, and began her love affair with the sport of wheelchair racing.
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