COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – After three action-packed days of U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Track & Field competition at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Florida, 54 athletes – 28 men and 26 women – were nominated to the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team, the organization announced Sunday.

A mix of Paralympic veterans and newcomers will represent Team USA at the pinnacle of the sport this summer at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024.

“We are so proud of each and every one of these athletes,” Sherrice Fox, director, U.S. Paralympics Track & Field, said. “Each one of them has proven themselves to be among the best in the world, and we can’t wait to see them at their best in Paris.”

Headlining the roster is 20-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden (Baltimore, Maryland), who qualified for the team via the TCS New York City Marathon in November alongside Paralympic veterans Daniel Romanchuk (Mount Airy, Maryland), Susannah Scaroni (Tekoa, Washington) and Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota). The four wheelchair racers will also represent Team USA on the track after dominant performances in the T54 races at trials. It will be the seventh Paralympic appearance for both McFadden and Pike, while Paralympic champions Romanchuk and Scaroni earn their third and fourth berths, respectively.

They will be joined in wheelchair racing by three-time Paralympian Brian Siemann (Champaign, Illinois) who swept the men’s T53 races at trials. 21-year-old Hannah Dederick (Mead, Washington), Eva Houston (Omaha, Nebraska) and Jenna Fesemyer (Ravenna, Ohio) earn their second Paralympic Team nods, while 18-year-old Lauren Fields (Spokane, Washington) will make her debut.

A world record in the men’s 100-meter T38 at trials led Jaydin Blackwell (Oak Park, Michigan) to his first Paralympic Team nomination. Blackwell has exploded onto the scene since his world championships debut in 2023. He has since won four world championship titles and is undefeated in the 100-meter and 400-meter T38 events at world championships in the past two years.

Team USA has three of the strongest men’s T38 sprinters in the world headed to Paris, as Ryan Medrano (Savannah, Georgia) and Nick Mayhugh (Manassas, Virginia) will join Blackwell. It is the second Paralympic Games berth for the four-time Paralympic medalist Mayhugh, who has added long jump to his repertoire since Tokyo, and the first for Medrano, who won silver in the 400-meter T38 at the 2024 world championships.

After setting multiple records at trials, Hunter Woodhall (Syracuse, Utah) earns a spot on his third Paralympic Games team and will seek his first Paralympic title after setting personal bests in the 100-meter and 400-meter T62 events in Miramar. He will be joined by T62 teammate Blake Leeper (Kingsport, Tennessee), who makes his first Paralympic Team since winning silver and bronze at London 2012.

Representing Team USA in visually impaired sprints will be three-time Paralympic medalist and world champion Noah Malone (Fishers, Indiana), who makes his second Paralympic Team and will compete in the 100-meter and 400-meter in Paris.

Rounding out the men’s ambulatory sprinters will be returning Paralympians Desmond Jackson (Durham, North Carolina), Jonathan Gore (Fayetteville, West Virginia) and Rayven Sample (Jamestown, New York), as well as first-time Paralympian Korban Best (Southlake, Texas). Jackson last competed at the Rio 2016 Games. Gore and Sample competed in Tokyo and each make their second Paralympic Team.

On the women’s side, Paralympic and world champions Breanna Clark (Los Angeles, California) and Brittni Mason (Cleveland, Ohio) headline a strong group of ambulatory sprinters that also includes three-time Paralympic medalist Kym Crosby (Yuca City, California), Paralympian and world championships medalist Erin Kerkhoff (Coralville, Iowa) and first-time Paralympian and worlds silver medalist Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Washington). 2020 Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku (Boston, Massachusetts) also earns the Paralympic nod after a strong trials performance just six months after becoming a mother for the first time, while Lindi Marcusen (Spokane, Washington) is set for her Paralympic debut.

Six distance runners will represent Team USA, led by Paralympic champion Mikey Brannigan (Northport, New York), who makes his third Paralympic Games team. Brannigan is also the reigning world champion in the men’s 1500-meter T20.

Joining Brannigan in distance competitions are 2020 Paralympic silver medalist Liza Corso (Newmarket, New Hampshire), who also won silver at the 2023 world championships in her signature women’s 1500-meter T13 competition. Paralympian Joel Gomez (Encinitas, California) earns a spot on his second Paralympic Team, while Kaitlin Bounds (Russelville, Arkansas), Leo Merle (Folsom, California) and Shea Foster (Cypress, Texas) are set for their Paralympic debuts.

Team USA’s men’s throwers will be headlined by a pair of Paralympic and world discus champions in Jeremy Campbell (Perryton, Texas) and David Blair (Eagle Mountain, Utah). Campbell, the reigning F64 discus Paralympic champion and Blair, the reigning F64 world champion, return for their fifth and third Paralympic Games, respectively.

Also making the team in men’s throws are Paralympic medalists Justin Phongsavanh (Des Moines, Iowa) and Josh Cinnamo (San Diego, California). Both medaled in their Paralympic debuts in Tokyo, each earning bronze in the javelin F54 and shot put F46, respectively.

In women’s throws, two-time defending shot put F46 world champion Noelle Malkamaki (Decatur, Illinois) is set for her Paralympic debut. Fresh off a four-year stint at DePaul University, Malkamaki broke her own world record at trials to earn her spot. A pair of promising teenagers – Samantha Heyison (Adamstown, Maryland), 18, and Arelle Middleton (Rancho Cucamonga, California), 16, who both have already won world championships medals, will join Malkamaki in their first Paralympic Games. Both F64 throwers, Heyison and Middleton impressed in their world championships debuts in the past two years – Heyison won a pair of bronze medals in 2023, while Middleton took home a silver in 2024.

The veterans of the women’s throws team, Cassie Mitchell (Warner, Oklahoma) and Jessica Heims (Swisher, Iowa) return to the Paralympic stage for the fourth and third times in their careers. The three-time Paralympic medalist Mitchell, the only women’s seated thrower on the 2024 roster, has also amassed 10 career world championship medals. Heims, meanwhile, finished a career-best fifth in women’s discus F64 in Tokyo.

An experienced contingent of jumpers are set to represent Team USA. The groups is led by three-time Paralympic champion Roderick Townsend (Stockton, California), who will seek his third consecutive high jump T47 Paralympic title. The reigning men’s high jump T63 Paralympic champion in Sam Grewe (Middlebury, Indiana) and 2023 world chamopion Ezra Frech (Los Angeles, California) will go head-to-head as favorites in the event in Paris. Frech broke the world record in the event this weekend at trials.

A stacked long jump roster includes world champion and Paralympic bronze medalist Isaac Jean-Paul (Evanston, Illinois), who will compete at his second Paralympic Games after winning his first world title in long jump T13 in 2023.

Team USA will also feature a trio of men’s T64 long jumpers in Derek Loccident (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Trenten Merrill (San Juan Capistrano, California) and Jarryd Wallace (Athens, Georgia), all of whom have won world championship medals in long jump in the past two years. After winning 100-meter T64 bronze in Tokyo, Wallace’s fourth career Paralympic Games will be his first in the long jump after a scorching performance at trials, where he set a new Americas record at 7.95 meters. Merrill, meanwhile, is set for his third Games after also earning bronze in Tokyo. Loccident, a multi-event athlete making his first Paralympic Team, is coming off a stellar 2024 world championships in which he also won medals in high jump and the 100-meter T64 events and threw javelin at a major competition for the first time.

On the women’s side, long jump T47 world champion Taleah Williams (Norfolk, Nebraska) earns her third Paralympic berth and will seek her first career Paralympic medal. She is joined by Tokyo Paralympian Noelle Lambert (Manchester, New Hampshire), who, similar to Wallace, switched from sprints to long jump in the shortened Paralympic quad between Tokyo and Paris and has since set several area records in the women’s long jump T63. It’ll be Lambert’s first time long jumping at a major international competition. 2020 Paralympians Jaleen Roberts (Kent, Washington) and Beatriz Hatz (Lakewood, Colorado) earn spots on their second Games teams. Roberts was a breakout star in Tokyo, where she won silver in both long jump and the 100-meter T37, while Hatz earned the first world championships medal of her career in 2024.

Rounding out the women’s long jumpers in their Paralympic debuts will be two-time 2023 Parapan American Games silver medalists Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, New Jersey), and Annie Carey (Boise, Idaho), who also compete in sprints. Guimaraes made her first world championships team in 2024.

Track and field at the 2024 Paralympic Games is set to be contested August 30-September 8.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.

2024 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team

Women

Femita Ayanbeku

Kaitlin Bounds

Annie Carey

Breanna Clark

Liza Corso

Kym Crosby

Hannah Dederick

Jenna Fesemyer

Lauren Fields

Catarina Guimaraes

Beatriz Hatz

Jessica Heims

Samantha Heyison

Eva Houston

Noelle Lambert

Erin Kerkhoff

Noelle Malkamaki

Lindi Marcusen

Brittni Mason

Tatyana McFadden

Arelle Middleton

Cassie Mitchell

Jaleen Roberts

Susannah Scaroni

Taylor Swanson

Taleah Williams

Men

Korban Best

Jaydin Blackwell

David Blair

Mikey Brannigan

Jeremy Campbell

Josh Cinnamo

Shea Foster

Ezra Frech

Joel Gomez

Jonathan Gore

Sam Grewe

Isaac Jean-Paul

Desmond Jackson

Blake Leeper

Derek Loccident

Noah Malone

Nick Mayhugh

Ryan Medrano

Leo Merle

Trenten Merrill

Justin Phongsavanh

Aaron Pike

Daniel Romanchuk

Rayven Sample

Brian Siemann

Roderick Townsend

Jarryd Wallace

Hunter Woodhall

Fifty-four Athletes Nominated to U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team

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