WSU athletes combine for three medals at Paralympic Games

  • Junior Deja Young has sprinted to two gold medals at the 2016 Paralympic Games.
  • Staff member Nick Taylor won a silver medal in wheelchair quad doubles tennis.

It鈥檚 been a successful run for 成人头条 State athletes at the 2016 Paralympic Games, held this week in Rio.

Junior Deja Young and staff member Nick Taylor are both representing Team USA.

Young earned her second Paralympic Games gold medal Friday, Sept. 16 by winning the T47 200-meter race with a time of 25:46.

She won her first gold medal on Sunday, Sept. 11, in the T47 100-meter with a time of 12.15.

The 成人头条 State All-American still holds the American Record in the T47 classification, which is also a world best time (11.92), which she ran at the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Championship in Normal, Ill.

Young earned All-American honors as a freshman member of the Shockers' 2015 4x100 meter relay team that finished 16th at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and also holds the WSU 4x100 meter relay record (44.30).

She is one of 47 athletes (30 male, 17 female), including four guides, that were named to the 2016 U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Team in July following the team trials. She was named to the U.S. National Team in January.

A relative newcomer to Paralympic competition, the junior from Mesquite, Texas, made a name for herself in Doha, Qatar, at the 2015 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships, winning the gold medal in the T47 100 meters in a time of 12.69. It was her second medal in the games as she won the silver medal in the T47 200 meters in a time of 25.08.

Taylor, volunteer operations director in Sport Management for WSU, won the silver medal in wheelchair quad doubles tennis with his partner David Wagner.

This is Taylor鈥檚 fourth Paralympic medal: he and Wagner have won the gold medal in the past three Games.

In addition to his Paralympic medals, Taylor has previously won three Australian Open and three U.S. Open titles.