Chelsea McClammer (born March 1, 1994) is an American Paralympic athlete with Team USA, she has won two silver medals and one bronze at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Early life
McClammer played basketball, tennis and athletics as a child, but injured her spinal cord in a car accident when she was six years old and then she had to start with a wheelchair.[1]
Career
Chelsea McClammer started competing in wheelchair racing when she was a tween.[2] She was introduced to wheelchair racing at a sports convention and hired coach Theresa Skinner to train her for competitive racing.[1] With Skinner as her coach, McClammer qualified for the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field Nationals at the age of 12.[3]
McClammer in 2018
As a freshman in high school, McClammer became the youngest member of Team USA in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing at 14 years old.[4] In Beijing, McClammer qualified for the T54 finals and bested her personal record.[5] She missed the first two weeks of school at Kiona-Benton City High School but upon her return, McClammer joined the school's cross country team. While competing with the team, she set a new state record with a time of 7:29 for 2.1 miles.[6] However, after undergoing surgery for scoliosis, she competed in class T53.[7]
In 2016, McClammer won two silver medals and one bronze in the women's 5,000 meters-T53/54, 4×400 relay-T53/54, and 1500 meter races at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[15] The next year, she competed with Team USA at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships where she won a silver medal with a time of 55.50.[16]
In 2019, McClammer tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a prohibited diuretic. USADA found that the HCTZ appeared as a trace contaminant in a permitted prescription drug, without McClammer's knowledge and without cause of negligence. As a result, she accepted a finding of no fault and was not disqualified from any past or future competitions.[17]
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