Since 1960, the Paralympic Games has convened thousands of athletes from across the world to compete in a swath of adaptive sports, from wheelchair fencing to goalball.
This year, for the Tokyo Paralympic Games, 10 Team USA members are former NCAA athletes who competed at the Division III level. Meet three of those athletes:
A 2017 Puget Sound graduate, Clara Brown is set to compete in the individual pursuit, time trial and road race cycling events at the Paralympic Games. (Photo by David Berding / Getty Images)
Clara Brown, Puget Sound
A 2017 Puget Sound graduate, Clara Brown is set to compete in the individual pursuit, time trial and road race cycling events under the WC3 classification.
After sustaining an incomplete spinal cord injury at 12, Brown became paralyzed from the neck down. She spent months in rehabilitation, ultimately learning how to walk again and regaining some motor function.
Brown knew she wouldn't let this injury stop her. She became a coxswain on a rowing team during high school and then continued with the sport as a freshman at Puget Sound. During that first year of college, Brown took an interest in cycling. The following summer, she had a custom bike built in her home state of Maine. A natural athlete, she began competing shortly after in international cycling competitions, collecting wins and paving her path to Tokyo.
Joseph Peppersack competed as a Division III swimmer for Mary Washington before the Paralympic Games. (Photo by Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
Joseph Peppersack, Mary Washington
Jillian Williams was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma as a freshman volleyball player at Texas Lutheran. (Photo courtesy of USA Volleyball)
Swimmer Joseph Peppersack will be competing in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter breaststroke and 100-meter backstroke events, respectively, under the S8, SB7 and SM7 classifications.
He was born with tibial hemimelia, a rare condition in which part of the tibia — or the bone altogether — is missing. The condition led to the amputation of Peppersack's right leg when he was just 4. Five years later, he took up swimming.
In the decade since, Peppersack has made a splash in swimming, earning Virginia's Disability Swimmer of the Year award in 2014, winning silver in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Peru, and placing second (100-meter freestyle, 100 backstroke), third (400-meter freestyle) and fourth (100-meter breaststroke) at the 2019 World Para Swimming World Series in Indianapolis.
Jillian Williams, Texas Lutheran
Jillian Williams played volleyball for Texas Lutheran in 2015 as a true freshman, appearing in 22 matches and collecting 41 kills and 23 blocks. That same year, she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare cancer of the bone or soft tissue.
After completing 26 rounds of chemotherapy in 34 weeks, she had rotationplasty surgery, a procedure in which surgeons amputated the lower portion of her leg and reattached the ankle and foot where the cancerous knee joint once was.
Williams' fight against cancer has not slowed her down. She played on the 2019 Parapan American Games sitting volleyball team that won gold and will compete with the U.S. Paralympic team in Tokyo. In addition to continuing her volleyball career at the global level, Williams operates a foundation called Live n Leap, which fulfills needs and grants dreams to patients ages 18-29 with life-threatening illnesses.
