Paralympic Dreams at Stake for Two Homegrown Athletes
CHARLOTTE, NC (WCCB Charlotte) — Paul Peterson and Jill Moore have been training for years in hopes of representing team USA at the Paralympic Games in Rio this summer. Peterson and Moore will have at least one advantage on the rest of the competition — the team trials are in their backyard.
The Paralympic Team Trials in Swimming and Track & Field will be in Charlotte from June 30-July 3. Nearly 500 athletes with Paralympic-eligible impairments will come to the Queen City as the event is set to be the largest Trials in U.S. history.
Three athletes from each event move on to represent their country.
“Yeah, It’s home-track advantage,” said Paul Peterson, who practices at Johnson C. Smith daily and will compete in the 100-meter sprint during the Paralympic Trials. “Me training there every-day is a mind thing and comforting to me.”
Peterson has been timed as fast as 11.23s in the 100-meters.
Jill Moore will be competing in the 100m, 400m, and 800m race.
“We’re putting everything we have got into this, just like the Olympic athletes,” Julie Moore, a Concord native who is currently a student-athlete at the University of Illinois, said. “I went to high school at Northwest Cabarrus so I have my coaches coming and they have taught he from ‘yea-big’, so they are going to be see me working so hard for something I have always wanted.”
The event is looking for volunteers and donations to make sure the weekend runs smoothly. To donate, go to PartnersforParks.org donate and designate funds for the 2016 U.S. Paralympic Trials
The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will be the largest in history, with more than 4,500 athletes from 176 countries expected to compete. The Paralympic Games is the third largest sporting event in the world.
Complete details about the Trials can be found at usparalympics.org/
