Cheri Blauwet

Sport: Track and Field
Residence: Larchwood, Iowa

Cheri Blauwet is a medical student at Stanford University in California and a Paralympic Gold Medalist in wheelchair racing. Originally born and raised on a farm in Iowa, she has built upon her athletic success and academic performance to travel the world and create a platform that draws upon the perspectives of health, wellness, social change, and personal empowerment.

A snapshot of her past athletic success includes:

• 2008 Paralympic Games, Beijing, China: 4th place-5000m, 800M & 400m; 5th place- Marathon
• 2008 Swiss Series Track Meet, Ibach, Switzerland:  800 final: 1:54.10 (2nd), 1500 final: 3:33.68 (2nd), 5000 final: 11:30.57 (3rd) (previous world record of 11:39)
• Bronze Medal, 2008 Boston Marathon
• Winner, 2008 Los Angeles Marathon
• Winner, 2004 and 2005 Boston Marathon
• Winner, 2003 and 2004 New York City Marathon
• Winner, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Los Angeles Marathon.
• Gold Medal, 2004 Athens Paralympic Games: 800 meters
• Bronze Medals, 2004 Athens Paralympic Games: 5000 meters and Marathon

As a result of these wins, she was nominated for the 2003 Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year, in addition to two consecutive nominations, in 2004 and 2005, for the ESPY award in the category Best Disabled Athlete. Cheri was also a nominee for the 2005 Laureus World Sport Award within the category “World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.”

Ultimately, Cheri sees sports as one platform through which she can promote disability rights and empowerment at an international level. In 2004, she was named a winner of the 2004 Paul Hearne Leadership Award, given to 3 emerging leaders annually by the American Association of People with Disabilities. She has also done work at the International Paralympic Committee, promoting international sporting opportunities and a mechanism for international development, and with Rehabilitation International, a large multilateral disability rights member organization with both governmental and non-governmental representatives. Currently, Cheri is a fifth year medical student at Stanford University. Her ultimate goal is to pursue physical medicine and rehabilitation and to promote physical activity and social empowerment as a means of achieving better physical and mental health for all individuals.

In her spare time, Cheri enjoys nothing more than exploring San Francisco, breathing the fresh California air, and booking plane tickets to far off and exotic places. She loves adaptive sport because it instantaneously reverses stereotypes surrounding disability. Also, as she says, it gives her an excuse to travel, meet fascinating people, encounter eclectic experiences, and make passers-by in the street to a double-take.

For several years, Cheri has worked closely with The Hartford, founding sponsor of U.S. Paralympics®, to raise public awareness of what people with disabilities can achieve at work, in sport and in all aspects of life.