From College To The Paralympics, Hannah Dederick Felt Massive Support For Wheelchair Racing This Year

Hannah Dederick has been involved in the elite wheelchair racing scene since she was in middle school. From the start of her racing career back in 2015 with ParaSport Spokane in Washington, to competing in the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, Dederick has always felt support from her fellow Para athletes. 

That inclusion has not always extended to her college career, though. Dederick recently started her senior year at the University of Illinois, where she is a sports management major.

When the Mead, Washington, native first moved to Champaign, Illinois, for school in the fall of 2021, there was no official championships for wheelchair racers. That changed last year, as the first national collegiate wheelchair 100-meter championships took place during the Drake Relays in April.

The wheelchair title races took another step up this past season, as the NCAA included them as part of its Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, held June 5-8 at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

The 21-year-old Dederick cruised to the women’s 100 title with a time of 16.15 — 1.45 seconds faster than runner-up, and Illinois teammate, Hoda Elshorbagy.

“It feels pretty surreal,” she said. “I felt the most inclusion in competition outside of the Paralympics.”

Inclusion at school, and in college athletics, she said, is “the most impactful inclusion, for people with physical disabilities to be involved with their able-bodied peers.”

The Eugene competition gave Dederick and her teammates an opportunity to show a much wider audience how competitive wheelchair racing at the collegiate level is, and to compete on the biggest stage in college track and field at one of the sport’s iconic venues.

“It was amazing to do that at Hayward Field along with hundreds and hundreds of collegiate athletes and at the most competitive collegiate level,” she said.

Dederick said that she did not come in expecting to win but knew she would once the race began. She was there, she said, primarily for the experience of competing alongside her able-bodied peers in the sport.

“I wanted to be able to take that opportunity to compete alongside, and at the same competition, as other collegiate athletes. And I want to open that opportunity for more,” she said.

While competing at the outdoor championships gained more exposure for wheelchair racers, there’s still more strides Dederick would like to see from the NCAA. She was disappointed that ESPN did not livestream her event, for example. And she acknowledged that she and her fellow wheelchair athletes are still not invited to every big meet.

Dederick said that inclusion has “improved every year” of her career at Illinois and she expects that to continue. One unforeseen side effect of the exposure, she said, was an uptick in followers on social media.

Those followers then got to watch Dederick at the Paris Games, where she competed in the women’s 100, 400 and 800 T54 races. 

Competing in what she described as the strongest field in the history of wheelchair racing, Dederick qualified in for the final in all three events. Her best result came in the 400, as she was 0.67 seconds off the podium in fourth place.

Racing against the world’s best has only inspired Dederick to work even harder.

“To be able to make three finals in a row and to be top five, this is such a fuel going from these Games to make me want to be a better athlete going forward,” she said.

The fan support Dederick has experienced this season is unlike anything she’s seen before. Not only did she witness the increased awareness of wheelchair racing at the collegiate level, but she got to experience a Paralympics with fans for the first time.

After competing in empty stadiums in Tokyo, Dederick will never forget racing in a packed Stade de France.

“The city has been nothing but amazing,” Dederick said. “I mean, just to be able to be in a crowd so many people who support the Paralympics, it’s something I’ll forever cherish.”

Dederick has been focused on sprints at her first two Games, but she plans to switch up her distances over the next Paralympic cycle.  

With Paris in the rear-view mirror, she plans on a “reset of everything — new chair, new wheels,” and a move towards the longer distance. She hopes to snag a marathon spot at the LA Games in 2028.

Lela Moore is a freelance contributor to usparatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.