Steve Serio

Sport: Wheelchair Basketball
Residence: Westbury, NY

Steve Serio started playing wheelchair basketball at the age of 14 and now as a junior at the University of Illinois, majoring in Kinesiology, he plays for his University wheelchair basketball team as well as for the National Wheelchair Basketball Team.  Steve is a self-proclaimed basketball junkie and wants to be on the court as much as possible.

At the age of 11 months old, Steve had a spinal tumor removed that resulted in the compression of his spinal cord.  The surgery left him paralyzed and he is classified as an incomplete paraplegic.

In 2007, Steve was part of the gold medal USA Wheelchair Basketball team at the Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  In 2006 he was part of the silver medal USA team at the IWBF Gold Cup, World Championships, in Amsterdam.  Steve’s focus now is to train to make the 2008 Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball Team and compete in Beijing, China.

Steve works with The Hartford, founding sponsor of U.S. Paralympics®, to help positively change public attitudes and perceptions about disability.