Multiple medals for Utah athletes in Paris Paralympics

Paris Paralympic countdown clock on the bank of the River Siene, and in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, counted down to zero as the Games come to an end. Photo: Augie Roepke

PARIS — Two silvers, one bronze and one gold-adjacent medal were won in the final few days at the 2024 Paris Paralympics by athletes with connections to Utah.

Silver for road racing’s Dennis Connors, a graduate of the University of Utah’s graduate school earning his masters degree in Recreation, and Tourism. His whole family was in Paris from Oregon to watch his race, his wife and two children. He coaches his daughter’s soccer team and told NBC that he always tells them, “End on ‘E’ ” and he took his own advise pedaling his three-wheeled bike from a chase group into a sprint finish. The first-time Paralympian and veteran also said after his race to NBC, “This medal is for all the people in the military who didn’t make it back, I just want to make them all proud.” He’s still recovering from a stroke he suffered in 2020.

In Connors’ comp, China won gold with a finish time of 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 8 seconds. His silver was from 2 minutes later, and Columbia followed mere seconds behind for the bronze medal. He’s classified as a T2.

Women’s wheelchair basketball was won by the Netherlands, silver went to Team USA with a score of 63-49 points, and China got bronze. The US Team had Salt Lake City’s Ali Ibanez on it. Playing in her second Paralympics she lives with a disease which profoundly impairs the joints and muscles of the lower body. She’s Classifies as a sport-specific 2.5.

Seven-time Summer and Winter Paralympian, and seven-time medalist Muffy Davis was at Ibanez’s game. Davis lived in Park City and skied for the National Ability Center (NAC)  before becoming a member of the International Paralympic Committee Advisory Board. As such, she was the one who got to proudly place the medal around Ibanez’s neck, Davis from her wheelchair and Ibanez in hers. Ibanez adds this medal to the bronze she won in Tokyo.

David Blair was born, raised, threw discus in high school, and at Weber State University in Ogden. The 48-year-old, is the father of four daughters with his wife. In his third Paralympics he competes with a lower limb deficiency in the T64 Classification. In Paris, the gold went to USA’s Jeremy Campbell at a distance of 61.4, silver went to Trinidad and Tobago at 59.66 and Blair’s bronze was thrown to 57.76 on his fifth of six throws. He adds this medal to the gold one he won in Rio. He’s classified as an F64.

Park City’s Chris Wadell was an elder statesman in Paris, a panelist in a brief in-studio discussion about the oft-controversial classification system for disability severity of the Paralympic Movement. The seven-time Paralympian and 13-time medalist in Summer and Winter acknowledged that it’s not perfect. Some see it as fraught with inconsistencies and subjectivities, however most see it as a work-in-progress constantly striving towards improvement and ultimately physical fairness. 

Wadell said Sunday on NBC in the studio, among other co-hosts and commentators that moving forward, “The objective, for me, is the timeliness of it.” Referring to the fact that para athlete’s medical assessments can be in flux even within a Paralympics and medals get shifted to and away from nations after a podium presentation. As long as, “We ensure that people get their moment. When you win, you win, and you get that moment to win.” This discussion took place amid complaints having been lodged of intra-Paris-Paralympic bullying surrounding USA Women’s Swimming.

The discussion occurred mere minutes before Wadell was a co-commentator for the Closing Ceremony. He said in the studio on NBC that a highlight of these Games for him was watching and working as a commentator for his sport of Track and Field, and especially, hours earlier seeing the Wheelchair Marathon on the cobblestones of the Champs Elysee and around the Arc De Triomphe. “Paris stadiums were packed with friends, families, and fans, something that athletes-with-disabilities are not used to enjoying,” Waddell said.

Realene Elam of St. George, sitting volleyball women’s team alternate, doesn’t receive one of the gold medals her teammates won, however is by definition, a Team USA Paralympian.