Michelle Stilwell
Encyclopedia
Michelle Stilwell (born July 4, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian wheelchair racer. She is the only female Paralympic athlete to have ever won gold in two separate summer sport events. 

In Sydney, during the 2000 Paralympic games, she and her team won Gold in wheelchair basketball by beating Australia in the final 46-27. At the time, she was the only female quadriplegic to compete in the Paralympic Games. Recently in Beijing, she won two gold medals in the woman's T52 200m and 100m events.

She currently holds the world record in the 100m at 19.60 and the 200m at 35.36 in the T52 class.

Biography

Stilwell, whose father is from Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 and mother from the small community of Ashern, Manitoba
Ashern, Manitoba
Ashern is a Canadian community located in the Rural Municipality of Siglunes, in Manitoba's Interlake region. The RM of Siglunes was incorporated in 1917. The village of Ashern was named after A. S...

, in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

's Interlake region, was injured while piggy back riding on a friend at the age of 17. Multiple surgeries and complications (Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis simply means an infection of the bone or bone marrow...

 and acquired Arnold–Chiari malformation) arose from the fall leaving her an incomplete C7 quadriplegic. She grew up in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba and attended River East Collegiate
River East Collegiate
River East Collegiate is a public high school located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that belongs to the River East Transcona School Division....

 before her first years at the University of Winnipeg
University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg is a public university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and theology as well as graduate programs. The U of W's founding colleges were Manitoba College and Wesley College, which merged...

. She moved to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

 where she completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...

.

She represented Canada at the Sydney 2000 Summer Paralympics
2000 Summer Paralympics
The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 October to 29 October. The eleventh Summer Paralympic Games, an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the Sydney programme. They commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000...

, where she won gold in wheelchair basketball. After her retirement from basketball competition in 2001 she became involved in coaching young wheelchair athletes, became pregnant and gave birth to her son Kai in July of 2001.

In 2004 while coaching basketball she met a National Team Athletics coach who encouraged her to try a different sport. By 2005 she was at the European Championships, and in 2006 a 200m World Champion at Assen
Assen
Assen is a municipality and a city in the north eastern Netherlands, capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809. Assen's main claim to fame is the TT Circuit Assen the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Saturday in June the Dutch TT is run...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...



She attained greater success on the track winning gold in the 100m and 200m at the Beijing 2008 Summer Paralympics
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....

.  This was followed by 3 gold (with World Championship records) and one Silver at the 2011 World Championships in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.
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