Paralympic California athletes to watch
Mohamed Lahna of Morocco during the ITU World ParaTriathlon Yokohama on May 12, 2018 in Yokohama, Japan. (Photo by Delly Carr/Getty Images)
PARIS - The Paralympic Games kick off Wednesday as roughly 4,400 athletes with disabilities, permanent injuries or impairments prepare to compete for 549 medals across 22 sports over 11 days in Paris.
Team USA will send a total of 225 athletes from 39 states to the French capital, which just hosted the Olympics.
California has the most Paralympians overall, with a total of 29 athletes competing, although Minnesota is home to the most Paralympians per capita in the nation: 1.93 per 1 million people in the state.
Some of those California athletes include:
- Volleyball champion Bethany Zummo, a Dublin native, who currently coaches at Livermore's NorCal Volleyball Club and was born with congenital disorders that led to the amputation of her right foot at age 2.
- Mohamed Lahna, a resident of Hayward who was born in Casablanca, Morocco, will compete in the triathlon. Lahna was born with a rare birth defect that effectively left him without a right femur and fibula.
- Skyler Espinoza of Menlo Park, who has a bachelor's from Columbia University and a master's from Stanford University, where she was also on their rowing teams. She will be competing in the cycling category, an activity she discovered following back surgery.
The sports categories range from sitting volleyball to wheelchair basketball.
The games run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
Here's a list of the Californian Paralympic athletes, according to Team USA:
Judo
Christella Garcia, Sacramento
Para-cyling
Samantha Bosco, Claremont
Hannah Chadwick, El Cerrito
Skyler Espinoza, Menlo Park
Bryan Larsen, Windsor
Branden Walton, Windsor
Jamie Whitmore, Somerset
Paratriathlon
Mark Barr, Davis
Zack Goodman, San Diego
Mohamed Lahna, Hayward
Powerlifting
Ashley Dyce, Colton
Shooting
YanXiao Gong, Malibu
Kevin Nguyen, Westminster
U.S. volleyball player Bethany Zummo at the Olympic media summit on March 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Sitting volleyball
Bethany Zummo, Dublin
Swimming
Jamal Hill, Inglewood
Noah Jaffe, Carlsbad
Track and field
Josh Cinnamo, San Diego
Breanna Clark, Los Angeles
Kym Crosby, Yuba City
Ezra Frech, Los Angeles
Joel Gomez, Encinitas
Leo Merle, Folsom
Trenten Merrill, San Juan Capistrano
Arelle Middleton, Rancho Cucamonga
Roderick Townsend, Stockton
Wheelchair basketball
Courtney Ryan, San Diego
Jorge Salazar, Delano
Wheelchair rugby
Clayton Brackett, Irvine
Wheelchair tennis
Dana Mathewson, San Diego
This story was reported from Oakland, Calif.