South Sound Magazine
Gig Harbor Athlete Makes Paralympic Team
A motorcycle accident eight years ago didn’t stop Gig Harbor’s Megan Blunk from following her Olympic dreams.
Blunk, 26, is a member of the United States Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team competing in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. The team’s first game is Sept. 8. The U.S. team is favored to medal.
Metro Parks – Megan Blunk, a member of the U.S. Paralympic basketball team who will be flying to Rio on Sunday. Photos by Russ Carmack
Metro Parks – Megan Blunk, a member of the U.S. Paralympic basketball team who will be flying to Rio on Sunday. Photos by Russ Carmack
Metro Parks – Megan Blunk, a member of the U.S. Paralympic basketball team who will be flying to Rio on Sunday. Photos by Russ Carmack
She was a five-sport athlete at Peninsula High School before her accident. After meeting another athlete later on, she got involved with Metro Parks Tacoma’s Adaptive Recreation program and honed her skills with the Tacoma Titans coed team.
She went on to play college wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois, where she completed a bachelor’s degree and is on track for a master’s in social work in 2017.
She’s an advocate for adaptive sports and speaks to groups and one-on-one with other athletes.
“Whenever I meet someone recently disabled, I reach out to them,” she said. “I would be there in a heartbeat if someone asked me to see someone who had just been injured.”
You can catch the 2016 Paralympic Games on NBCSN.
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