Nearly 20 Shriners Children's Patients and Alumni Preparing to Compete in 2024 Paris Paralympics

Athletes Share Common Goal of Helping Raise Awareness for People with Physical Differences

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- If Shriners Children's were a country competing in this year's Paralympic Games in Paris, it would be well represented. The nonprofit healthcare system which specializes in treating orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate regardless of a family's ability to pay, has a long history of seeing its patients go on to accomplish remarkable things. This year will be no exception with nearly 20 past and current Shriners Children's patients heading to Paris to compete in the Paralympic Games. 

"We're always thrilled to see the incredible things our patients go on to accomplish in life but to be able to say that so many of them are getting ready to compete at the highest level of their sport and potentially bring home a gold medal is just amazing," said Shriners Children's Chief Marketing Officer Mel Bower. "These athletes are a huge inspiration to all of our current patients because they understand better than anyone the challenges and adversity they've had to battle to get where they are today. They are helping our kids learn that anything is possible in life and are raising awareness for the country as a whole about the Paralympic Games. We're very proud to have been part of their journey."

Former Shriners Children's patients competing this year include Tatyana McFadden, Susannah Scaroni, Hunter Woodhall, Hannah Dederick, Noelle Malkamaki, Lauren Fields, Jillian Elwart, McKenna Geer, Brian Bell, John Boie, Natalie Sims, Bethany Zummo, Alexis Shifflett, Kaitlyn Eaton and Zion Redington. While the athletes are competing in everything from para canoeing, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, shot put, para track, sitting volleyball, para swimming and para shooting, they all share a common belief that Shriners Children's helped them learn how to never let their physical differences stop them from achieving their dreams. 

"What really made Shriners Children's special is they weren't just focused on treating my condition, they cared about helping me develop as a person," Eaton, a former Shriners Children's Texas patient and U.S. women's wheelchair basketball player, said. "Shriners Children's helped me become independent. That's really important for kids with disabilities. Just because a child has challenges doesn't mean they can't do life like anybody else. Shriners Children's never told me I can't do this or that. Obviously I'm going to Paris and doing all these incredible things and I wouldn't be able to do that without Shriners Children's; that's what they're all about."

Former Shriners Children's Twin Cities patient Alexis Shifflett, who is hoping to bring home a third gold medal this summer as part of the U.S. women's sitting volleyball team said she remembers her Shriners Children's care team encouraging her and making her any kind of prosthetic she needed for her sports, and to not be afraid of breaking them.

"I felt bad because I was breaking a prosthetic foot probably every six months because I used them to the absolute limit," Shifflett said. "Shriners Children's was all about giving me the right resources and the best chance to succeed. As an adult, it feels like sometimes the clinics I go to now are more likely to say, 'This is just what life is as a disabled person.' I don't like that mindset. Shriners Children's always made me feel like I could do anything I wanted to do in life and that's a mindset I've carried with me." 

Many of this year's athletes continue having close ties to their former care teams, and some, like Jillian Elwart, who will be competing in the para canoe/kayak sprint, now works as a prosthetist at Shriners Children's Shreveport - the same hospital she received treatment from as a child.

"It is nice to be able to serve the population that allowed me to have the childhood that I had," Elwart said. "Being a prosthetist, I'm getting to create devices that help kids do the things they love. At first, I don't tell the children I'm treating that I also have a prosthesis. I let them figure it out. When they do realize it, they look at their parents and you see the realization on their face as they say, 'She has a prosthesis, too and look what she's doing.' I want them to know that anything is possible."

This year's Paralympic Games will be happening from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8. Shriners Children's is planning patient and staff watch parties at several of its locations nationwide to cheer on this year's Paralympic athletes. 

About Shriners Children's
Shriners Children's improves the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, conducting innovative research, and offering outstanding education programs for medical professionals. Children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care, regardless of the families' ability to pay, and receive all care and services in a compassionate, family-centered environment. For more information, please visit shrinerschildrens.org.

SOURCE Shriners Children's