Masters won a third of Team’s USA total medal count
Oksana Masters won five medals in Milano Cortina ( Photo by Mark Reis/USOPC)
Oksana Masters, who trains at Disability Resources and Educational Services at the University of Illinois, finished with five medals at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, including four golds in biathlon and cross-country skiing events.
Masters, 36, also won a bronze medal in the 20km Para cross-country skiing event, bringing her career Paralympics total to 24 medals. She had a third of Team USA’s 15 total medals at Milano Cortina, extending her legacy as the most decorated Winter Paralympian in U.S. history.
“To look back now and it’s my eighth games and I have 24 medals that I’ve brought home for Team USA … It’s just incredible,” Masters told reporters. “It’s something that I just could not have achieved on my own and I have so many people helping me and I’m so thankful for that.”
Other Team USA Paralympic competitors from the University of Illinois were Aaron Pike, who finished fourth in the men’s 12.5km biathlon, and Travis Dodson, who helped bring home Team USA’s fifth-straight gold in sled hockey.
Oksana Masters has won three gold medals in Milano-Cortina (Photo by Mark Reis, USOPC)
Oksana Masters, who trains at the University of Illinois’ Disability Resources and Educational Services, continued her amazing run at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in Italy.
Masters captured gold in the women’s sitting 10km to secure her third gold medal of these Paralympic Winter Games after completing the four laps and crossing the finish line in a time of 26:31.6. The victory brings Masters’ remarkable Paralympic medal count to 22, including 12 gold medals, continuing to add to one of the most decorated careers in Paralympic sport.
“I don’t even know what to think and I can’t believe it’s actually happening,” Masters told reporters. “I woke up very sore, and I knew it was going to be a really tough race right out of the gates. Our team was incredible, they were screaming and giving me updates out on the course and said, ‘How bad do you want this?’ I wanted it badly. This is an amazing team effort.”
Illinois has three DRES-affiliated Paralympians competing in Italy
Oksana Masters won the women’s sprint sitting event on the first day of competition at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Oksana Masters, who trains at the University of Illinois’ Disability Resources and Educational Services, took gold in the women’s biathlon sprint at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday to earn the 20th Paralympic medal of her career and her 10th gold.
“My emotions are just pure shock—I did not expect a podium finish, to be honest, let alone a gold,” Masters told reporters. “It means the world to me. I feel like now I can kind of relax and enjoy the Games, enjoy the moment. I’m always shooting for gold, but that’s not the ultimate reason and I know it doesn’t define me. To be able to just have that gold knowing that everything went to plan, my team, my ski coach, my strength coach, everyone. I think that’s what means the most.”
Masters finished the course in a time of 21:21.3 and she added to her title as the most decorated U.S. winter Paralympian of all time.
In the men’s sitting class, Illinois alumnus Aaron Pike—who is engaged to Masters—finished sixth.
In Sunday’s competition, Masters placed fourth in the in the women’s sitting individual biathlon, while Pike finished fourth in the men’s sitting class.
Faculty, students and staff engaged in a spirited game of wheelchair football during Adaptive Rec Day (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
It wasn’t even 11 a.m. and Gym 2 at the Activities and Recreation Center on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was already buzzing.
Illinois’ first annual Adaptive Rec Day had just begun, drawing students, faculty and staff. Inside the gym, sport wheelchairs gleamed beneath the lights. Basketballs and footballs echoed across hardwood. At center court, members of Illinois’ wheelchair athletics teams smiled, ready to welcome newcomers with open arms.
Illinois’ Campus Recreation held the inaugural Adaptive Rec Day as a way to celebrate the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association’s (NIRSA) Recreational Sports and Fitness Day.
Developed by Recreation, Sport and Tourism graduate student Noah Eckelberg, students got the opportunity to learn about adaptive sports and recreation while competing alongside Illinois’ wheelchair athletes. Students enrolled in RST courses Community Planning and Engagement and Inclusive by Design also participated in the day’s scrimmages.
Campus Recreation was awarded $16,168 as part of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC) 2025 Direct Effect 2nd Cycle. The funding was used to put on the event and purchase adaptive recreation equipment, including harnesses for the climbing wall, hand cycles that will be available at the Campus Bike Center and adaptive sleds for use at the Ice Arena, said Alex Williamson, associate director of marketing-programming at Campus Recreation, as well as body-weight straps and a boccia ball set that can be checked out during open recreation.
Martrell Stevens, a Recreation, Sport and Tourism major and captain of the Illini men’s wheelchair basketball team, spun lightly in his chair, greeting a student who had never seen a sport wheelchair up close.
“This is a really, cool experience and an opportunity to just teach other people about adaptive athletics, and not just wheelchair basketball, but all the different sport there is to know,” Stevens said, gesturing toward courts set up for wheelchair basketball, football and volleyball.
“Growing up playing wheelchair basketball has changed my life so much. It’s allowed me to meet the best friends of my life who are going to be in my life for a very long time. It’s allowed me to travel, see the world. It’s allowed me to go to college. If I can teach other people about the sport, and they can teach other people, we can spread awareness and get as many people as possible playing adaptive athletics so they can have the same similar opportunity as me growing up.”
Paralympic medalist Susannah Scaroni nodded vigorously. Scaroni, whose racing career has taken her from campus tracks to the world stage as the defending champ of the Boston, New York and Chicago Marathons, leaned into the question about what an Adaptive Rec Day could teach people.
“Man, I agree with that,” she said with a grin. “And I’d just say we want to change perceptions to be what is right. We just want people to know what recreation sport is, and sport is, and disabled sport—as oxymoronic as that sounds—people learn hands-on.”
And that was exactly what was happening.
Some faculty and staff climbed into a sport chair for the first time, wobbling before finding balance. Students experimented with the wheels, marveling at the speed. Laughter broke out as people discovered just how much upper-body strength the sports demanded.
Mak Nong, a former captain of the Illini wheelchair basketball team and now program manager for Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA) in Lake Forest, Illinois, talked to a crowd gathered after the sport demonstrations were done. His tone carried both urgency and excitement.
Being physically active, moving, it’s what the College of Applied Health Sciences is all about: wellness across the lifespan.”
Jean Driscoll
Paralympic medalist and associate dean of advancement, College of Applied Health Sciences
“I think just for you guys, just really understanding that you’re at a point in time where adaptive sports is in a frying pan right now,” he said. “It can jump off at any second and you guys can trail blaze that. Please use the people that came before you to help you champion that and continue to grow these different opportunities.
“… there’s so many different things that you guys can grow adaptive sports, whether it’s (Name, Image and Likeness) deals for intercollegiate sports, the different equipment that the athletes will eventually use. The sky’s the limit for you guys. And I’m so excited to see what you guys do with this.”
In the gym, Paralympic multi-medalist Jean Driscoll watched as people navigated their chairs, some for the first time, in competition. A legend in wheelchair racing and a longtime advocate for adaptive athletics, Driscoll smiled at the sight of recreation in its purest form.
“Well, I know this is Rec Day,” she said when asked what the event meant to her. “And we all took sport beyond recreation, and we’re elite-level athletes. But I think to Susannah’s point, recreation is the name of the game. Being physically active, moving, it’s what the College of Applied Health Sciences is all about: wellness across the lifespan.”
She gestured toward the swirl of activity.
Women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, left, and Paralympic medalists Jean Driscoll, center, and Susannah Scaroni took part in Adaptive Rec Day (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
“And so being active some way, you don’t have to be a superhero every day. Just do things for yourself, what makes you happy. For us, training makes us happy. But you can do it for fun too. And if you do it for fun, if you’re having fun, you’ll keep doing it. And that’s really what’s important.”
For Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, the event was also an opportunity to quash some misconceptions about adaptive sports.
“I would say the biggest misconception that we have is it’s not physical or that it’s not real sport,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s what we try to do here at U. of I. is introduce wheelchair basketball, wheelchair racing, whatever sports it might be as a sport. I think that’s the biggest misconception is that it’s not a sport, that it’s not hard, it doesn’t require skill because we are disabled, that anybody can play, and that anybody can be good. I think what that aligns with is the way we think about disability in society.
“It’s not necessarily a positive representation. Whenever we’re encountered with that, we always say come to a game come to a practice because as soon as you see it, you’ll fully understand that skill is required. It’s physical. It’s fast. It’s fun. Just coming to watch it, I think, kind of washes that away pretty quickly.”
Near the end of the event, Nong—who played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe—addressed the crowd, mostly composed of students.
“What I love the most about today is that it has been led by quite a few of our student athletes. And so shout out to all of our student athletes who have played a huge role in making today happen,” he said. “And that’s really important to us because in our program, one of our biggest founding philosophies is that we pay it forward.”
As the final basketballs and footballs were rolled away and chairs lined neatly along the wall, the energy in the ARC felt less like an ending and more like a starting line.
Illinois’ first annual Adaptive Rec Day had been about t-shirts and snacks. But it had also been about perception, possibility and paying it forward.
And if the laughter, shouting and spinning wheels were any indication, this was only the beginning.
Steve Serio had seven assists to lead Team USA over host France in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
The U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team is a step closer to a record third straight gold medal.
Led by Illini Paralympians Steve Serio and Brian Bell, Team USA routed France 82-47 on Wednesday in Paris.
Serio and Bell each had seven assists as Team USA had 34 assists total and just one turnover.
“They’re not ready for the speed that we can bring,” U.S. coach Robb Taylor told reporters. “It’s probably not something that they can practice. So when they see us coming up in a press Steve, Tre (Jenifer), Jake (Williams), Brian, (John Boie), it’s a formidable five to try to beat.”
From the very start of the game, Team USA was not fazed by the boisterous French crowd. Within the first 70 seconds, the score was 6-0, and France was forced to take a time out.
“Our starting five has been there before,” Taylor said. “A number of them have been around for a couple of Paralympics so they know how to handle crowd size. Those are the guys that we lean on when we need to… and they set the tone for us early.”
The U.S. next faces Canada on Thursday in the semifinals.
Steve Serio takes a shot against Spain during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Aug. 29, 2024 in Paris. (Photo by Joe Kusumoto/Getty Images)
Illinois alum Steve Serio had a triple-double as the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team began its pursuit of a third straight Paralympics gold medal with a 66-56 win over Spain on Thursday in Paris.
Serio, who has helped lead Team USA to gold the past two Paralympics, had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. Serio, who is a graduate of the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the College of Applied Health Sciences, credited the team’s depth for the win.
“We’re 12-deep. We’re 12 (players) strong, and we’re going to be a tough team to beat moving forward,” Serio told reporters.
The Americans pulled away late in the fourth quarter, highlighted by Serio’s pass to John Boie for a layup.
“JB is a great player for us,” said Serio, the team’s captain. “He’s been a constant for us over the last couple of years. We have the utmost confidence in him not only as a role player but as a scorer as well. When I dumped that ball down to him, I had no doubt that the ball was going to drop.”
The game was close early, as Serio struggled to find his shot. But in the second quarter, Team USA erased a 23-22 Spanish advantage with consecutive buckets from Serio and fellow Illinois alum Brian Bell. Bell had 10 points. Jake Williams had a game-high 22 points for the U.S.
“It’s definitely frustrating when your shot’s not dropping,” Serio said. “The good thing about it is that I found another way to be productive. The best thing about this team is that it’s never one guy, never one player. It’s going to come down to the 12 of us, and we know we got each other’s backs.”
Team USA next faces the Netherlands on Saturday.
Find out more about Steve Serio in this podcast he did with AHS before the Tokyo Paralympics.
The U.S. women’s team also won its opener in Paris, defeating Germany 73-44. Team USA, which won the bronze in Tokyo got strong performances from Courtney Ryan, who scored a team-high 17 points while Rose Hollermann (16) and Ixhelt Gonzalez (15) combined to score 31.
Illinois athletes Ali Ibanez (two rebounds, one block) and Kaitlyn Eaton (plus+2 in four minutes) also contributed to the win.
“Our team was successful because we stuck to the game plan,” said head coach Christina Schwab. “We talked about things that we can control, the distractions that may be there, and just staying present and focused. We were able to play 12 deep and our energy was great.”
Team USA returns to the court on Saturday for a contest against the Netherlands, the defending gold medalists.
Steve Serio celebrates Team USA’s Paralympic gold in Paris (Getty Images)
By VINCE LARA-CINISOMO
If this really was Steve Serio’s final Paralympic Games appearance, he went out in style.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alum had 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as Team USA won its record third straight Paralympic Games gold medal, holding off Great Britain 73-69 in Paris.
“This team has grown so much over the course of the last couple of years,” said Serio, the five-time Paralympian, team captain and graduate of the College of Applied Health Sciences. “We knew that Great Britain was going to be a great opponent, a really tough group of guys. Right now, we’re just excited that we won a basketball game and got to bring home another gold medal for our country.”
Serio and Jake Williams combined for 19 points in the first quarter for the U.S., including a late 3-pointer from Serio to put Team USA in the lead. Great Britain clawed back within three points with three minutes to go in the game, but timely buckets from Serio, Williams, and Illinois alum Brian Bell as well as a few defensive stops put the game to bed. Team USA won its third consecutive gold medal—the first time that’s ever been accomplished—and its eighth all time.
Before the game, Serio said the Paris Games would be his last.
“This entire Games I’ve tried to be present,” Serio said. “Live in the moment more than I have in the past. You look at the game, you look at this experience a little bit differently when you know it’s going to be your last one. I can’t think of a better way to go out, I’m going to remember this for a really long time.”
The USA women’s wheelchair basketball team won a silver medal, falling short in its attempt at gold. The U.S. lost in the final to defending champ Netherlands, 63-49. The women’s team, which included Illini athletes Kaitlyn Eaton, Ali Ibanez and Emily Oberst, has not won gold since 2016.
In track and field, Illinois alum Susannah Scaroni took her fourth medal of the 2024 Games, winning bronze in the women’s marathon T54 came after a battle with Australian Madison de Rozario and China’s Zhaoqian Zhou.
“There was a moment in the race where Madison and I were working so hard and going back and forth and honestly, I didn’t care what color the medal was, but I was hoping she and I could get silver and bronze,” Scaroni said. “That’s what happened and I’m so happy for her.”
As for other Illini athletes competing in Paris, two-time medalist Daniel Romanchuk was Team USA’s top men’s finisher, taking fourth in the men’s T54 race with a time of 1:32.23. Romanchuk won the second Paralympic title of his career in Paris in the 5,000-meter T54 race on the track and also took bronze in the 400-meter.
Seven-time Paralympian Aaron Pike followed Romanchuk with a seventh-place finish in 1:36.23.
Matching Pike’s seventh-place finish on the women’s side was Tatyana McFadden, who won her 21st Paralympic medal in Paris and became the most decorated U.S. Paralympic track and field athlete in history.
Two-time Paralympic medalist Brian Siemann and two-time Paralympian Jenna Fesemyer rounded out Team USA’s results in 11th and 13th place in the men’s and women’s races, respectively. Siemann, who in his fourth Paralympic Games won his first two medals in Paris, finished in 1:51.56 while Fesemyer clocked a time of 2:05.42.
Brian Bell had 31 points for Team USA against Canada (Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images for IPC)
Team USA’s wheelchair basketball teams have two shots at gold this weekend.
Illinois alum Brian Bell had 31 points as the Team USA men overcame an early deficit to beat Canada 80-43 Friday to advance to the gold medal game of the Paralympics in Paris.
The American men will seek an unprecedented third straight gold on Saturday against Great Britain.
The women, meanwhile, rallied to beat China—who they lost to in the semifinals in Tokyo three years ago—50-47 and will play for gold on Sunday.
For the men, Canada jumped out to an 8-2 lead and led 16-10 before the U.S. went on a 19-5 run and never looked back. Bell also had 10 rebounds and Jake Williams and Illini alum Steve Serio combined for 20 assists.
Bell credited Williams and Serio for allowing him to get open.
“I know that teams are going to jump Jake,” Bell told reporters. “He’s one of the best shooters in the world. So just to be able to capitalize on that, and then once they jump, being able to attack their two-on-one and utilize the inside presence.”
Canada was held to 38 percent shooting from inside the 3-point line and scored just 11 points in the entire second half as the U.S. cruised to victory.
“Our plan was to push up the tempo a little bit,” Bell said. “So press them a little bit, make their top threats a little tired. We know that that would benefit us as the game goes on because we can rotate some of our guys in and out.”
Serio, 36, who is competing in his fifth and final Paralympics, says that the gold medal match will be a night to remember, no matter the outcome.
“I’m sure there is going to be tons of emotions after the game, but honestly when it comes down to it, it has nothing to do with legacy, it has nothing to do with reflection, but I’m going to do everything I can do to help our team win a basketball game,” Serio said.
Illini athletes lead the way for Team USA (Getty Images)
In a big night for wheelchair racing and jumps, Americans—led by athletes from the University of Illinois—brought home five medals in front of another electric crowd at the Stáde de France in Paris.
Illini Paralympians Susannah Scaroni, Brian Siemann and Daniel Romanchuk all brought home bronze in their wheelchair racing events.
Siemann, who is competing in his fourth Paralympic Games, earned his first career Paralympic medal in Sunday’s 400-meter T53 race. The 34-year-old won his first world championships medals in 2023 and said that trusting his training is what has helped him to peak at this point in his career.
“I’ve managed to do this with the support of my teammates,” he told reporters in Paris. “I’ve been lucky to train with some really great athletes. Real legends in the sport. I think they’ve always been the force that’s pulling me, sometimes quite literally, across the track to get a little bit better and a little bit faster. That’s what’s gotten me here. Their commitment to making me a better athlete.”
Siemann clocked a personal-best time of 47.84 and said it was an emotional moment.
“I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw my name on the board because I’ve been in that position when I’ve been waiting and I look and I see my name in fourth place by a hair. To finally see it up there and to race as fast and as well as I did is really exciting. There’s still more work to be done.”
Siemann said his training at the University of Illinois led him to reach his potential.
“I went off to Illinois as a student back in 2008 and so it’s like I’ve lived there almost now as long as I’ve lived in New Jersey, and so that really sort of did lay the foundation for my success today,” he said. “You know, it’s been a very long road to get here, but getting the opportunity to train with the best wheelchair athletes in the world on a daily basis has just pushed me to be that much better, not only in terms of my academics when I was a student but now also as an athlete, too.”
“Mo, we did it!,” he added, referencing Maureen Gilbert, coordinator, Office of Campus Life at Disability Resources and Educational Services, who is considered the heart of DRES and its trailblazing Paralympic training facility.
Scaroni took a risk on an inside line in the final 100-meters of the women’s 800-meter T54 and it paid off, resulting in her second medal in as many days. The now five-time Paralympic medalist earned bronze in 1:43.42, eking ahead of teammate and 20-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden, who clocked a time of 1:43.58 and finished fourth. The third American in the race, two-time Paralympian Hannah Dederick, also from the University of Illinois, kicked off her second Games with a seventh-place finish.
For Scaroni, both Paris medals have come as a result of strategic execution of her race plan. In today’s 800-meter, she sat at the back of the pack until the final 200 meters of the race, where she turned on the power and chose the correct line.
“There’s a lot of strategy, there’s a lot of going as hard as you can while being able to respond what’s going on,” she said. “I’ve realized Tokyo was Tokyo, this is a new Games. It’s been really fun for me to focus on the racing. Tokyo, no one had raced for awhile, and it was going to be kind of mysterious. Here, I know the strengths of this field and I’m just excited to race.”
Scaroni returns to the track for her 1,500-meter competition on Sept. 3, while McFadden and Dederick are set for the 100-meter on Sept. 4.
Scaroni credited the University of Illinois for her training.
“Illinois has prepared me in so many ways,” she said. “Not only am I surrounded by the best environment for a wheelchair racer but I also have an incredible education. They’re really highly ranked in nutrition, and so I was able to couple my nutrition degree with my sport and do a master’s in exercise sociology, and then that obviously has helped as well. So I think that as I’ve become a better athlete, I’ve become a better professional person with a disability by being surrounded by such an inclusive campus, and hopefully a good nutrition educator too.”
Also earning his second medal of the competition was Romanchuk, who found an extra gear at the end of the men’s 400-meter T54 and took bronze, just a day after winning the 5,000-meter event. Romanchuk’s time of 45.11 put him comfortably in third, over half a second ahead of the fourth-place finisher.
Roderick Townsend (gold, men’s high jump T47) and Jaleen Roberts (silver, women’s long jump T37) also won medals for Team USA in their respective sports.
On the basketball court, the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team won its third straight game Sunday, rallying past Australia 76-69 behind 18 points from Illinois alum Brian Bell. With a 3-0 finish, the U.S. secured the top spot in Group B, meaning they will face the fourth-place team of group A in the quarterfinals. The Americans return to the court on Tuesday for the quarterfinal round. Its opponent and game time are still to be determined.
Jenna Fesemyer’s approach to her academic pursuit matches her attitude on the track (Photo provided)
Jenna Fesemyer’s enduring love of wheelchair racing boils down to two factors. First, like other skill-heavy sports, there always a way to fine-tune her mechanics and improve her craft, she said.
The second reason is simpler: “I love the feeling of going fast,” Fesemyer said.
While the Ohio-born Paralympian keeps up her competitive pace, she’s also racing toward her next professional challenge: obtaining a Ph.D. in recreation, sport and tourism from the University of Illinois.
In many ways, Fesemyer’s approach to her academic pursuit matches her attitude on the track. She’s organized, consistent and utterly committed to both disciplines as avenues for personal growth.
“When I first met her, I worried how she’d manage both being this high-level athlete and doing a Ph.D., which is so time-consuming,” said her advisor, RST Associate Professor Toni Liechty. “But it seems like she takes the same dedication she applies to her training and her sport and she brings that to the Ph.D. She doesn’t do anything halfway.”
Fesemyer graduated from Illinois’ kinesiology program in 2019 and stayed to earn her master’s degree in education policy, organization and leadership. Initially, she wanted to be a physical therapist, but now has her sights set on becoming a faculty member at a university.
Now she’s returned to her “intellectual home” in the College of Applied Health Sciences, entering her second year of the RST Ph.D. program. Fesemyer chose RST to focus her research on the psychosocial benefits of sport interventions for youth with physical disabilities and building more inclusive recreation communities.
“Our faculty is really strong—I’ve enjoyed every single class that I’ve taken so far,” Fesemyer said. “When you have faculty that believes in the power of being in the classroom and passing on their legacy of their knowledge to their students, it makes a big difference.
“I’m excited to have my own classroom one day.”
Track star without a track
Tracing back, Fesemyer’s future in athletics seemed a far cry from the opportunities she had in hometown Ravenna, Ohio, about an hour south of Cleveland.
Due to a rare congenital condition known as proximal femoral focal deficiency, she was born without a hip socket. Her high school had an old cinder track, unsuitable for wheelchair sport.
“It’s interesting how I ended up being a track athlete not having access to a track,” she said.
So, Fesemyer and her family forged a path of her own; growing up with her two triplet siblings, competed in basketball, volleyball and golf with the use of a prosthetic leg and even threw discus and seated shotput for school track teams.
Fesemyer attributes a lot of her competitive nature to growing up as a triplet. But sibling rivalry never stood in the way of their bonds: The trio decided to stay in the same classrooms whenever possible.
“We were always competitive, but we always acknowledged we were teammates and advocates for each other,” Fesemyer said. “Watching them take on this role of constant allies for me as a sibling with a disability, we really have grown a lot together through those different facets. I attribute a lot of who I am to those experiences.”
In 2013, Ohio’s high school athletics association added wheelchair events to the state track meet. With some persuasion from her parents, Fesemyer began making the half-hour trip east to Newton Falls High School to practice wheelchair racing, and “quickly fell in love” with it.
As her skills grew and college drew nearer, she began investigating schools that would help to take her talent to the next level.
She reached out to University of Illinois wheelchair track coach Adam Bleakney and scheduled a visit in fall 2014. Immediately, the fit felt right—the proximity, the academic programs and the history of the school’s accessibility and wheelchair athletics.
Fesemyer’s application to Illinois was the only one she submitted.
“I put all my eggs in one basket. I’m very happy it worked out,” she said.
Early Illinois track practices were a wake-up call, Fesemyer said. She was back at the “bottom of the totem pole” athletically, and training became an all-day endeavor, maintained by constant hydration, good sleep and good fuel.
What helped her adjustment period was the understated style of Bleakney. His reserved nature and methodical approach to practice and competition appeals to Fesemyer and many of his student-athletes.
Fesemyer’s “sunny disposition” is near-constant, Bleakney said, to the point where her peers draw on her positivity to keep spirits high in tough practices.
“(Jenna’s) always had an attitude of comprehensively applying her work ethic, self-discipline and drive to all areas of her life—academics, athletics and work,” Bleakney said. “She shares my philosophy as a coach: We’re training versatile student-athletes who are successful not only in athletics and academics, but in skills that will make them more employable.”
That approach has carried Fesemyer’s improvement in the sport, culminating in an appearance the 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, where she placed seventh in the women’s 5,000-meter T54 race and shattered her personal best time.
Three marathons remain for Fesemyer this year: Berlin on Sept. 24, Chicago on Oct. 8, and the New York City race on Nov. 5, which doubles as a Paralympic trial for wheelchair racers to punch their ticket to the 2024 Paris Games.
“We’ve had a really good block of training over these past couple of weeks and so I’m feeling really good—getting stronger, but also growing in that confidence piece as well,” Fesemyer said.
Circular moment
Fesemyer’s athletic and academic journeys crossed for in a moment this January when she hosted a wheelchair track clinic in Columbus, Ohio, for middle school and high school athletes.
While helping adolescent wheelchair athletes with their skills, the clinic served a broader purpose: It set the stage for her pilot academic study, where she’ll revisit Columbus for a follow-up next January.
“It really was a full-circle moment for me, starting as an athlete in Ohio in wheelchair racing to be able to go back and serve that same community through this wheelchair track clinic,” Fesemyer said.
So far, her academic endeavors number from collaborating on a paper about inclusivity in recreation centers to working in Department of Kinesiology and Community Health Associate Professor Laura Rice’s lab on a fall prevention project for people with disabilities.
Fesemyer’s experience in kinesiology has made it easier for her to collaborate across the college, her advisor said.
“I think she’s a great representation of AHS as a whole, and why our college goes together,” Liechty said. “Because she understands why lifestyle fitness is important, why it’s important for people with disabilities and how organizations or recreation or fitness centers can facilitate that happening in a way that promotes health.
“She’s kind of the epitome of everything we do in this college,” Liechty said.
Not all of Fesemyer’s contributions take place on the track, classroom or the lab. She recently served as a tour guide for the RST program during summer “Illini Days.”
Prospective students were particularly interested in her Paralympic resume—despite her best efforts.
“I don’t know why, but I always try to hide that part of my identity when I give tours because the identity of a student, for me, comes first,” she said. “That’s really important for me to showcase that, because my identity coming to Illinois was always to be a student first and celebrate the opportunity of being an athlete on the side.
“But it’s sports, and students get excited about sports which is great too.”
As year two of her four-year Ph.D. program begins, Fesemyer is continuously grateful to return to full classrooms and in-person experiences with her graduate cohort.
“Having that experience with my peers, coming in at the same time and progressing through the program at the same time has been a remarkable experience,” she said. “I believe in working in community and working with others.”
