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Two CSUN Alums to Represent Team USA at 2024 Paralympics
8/28/2024 11:54:00 AM | General, Women's Basketball, Women's Track & Field
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---Two former CSUN student-athletes will represent Team USA at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris beginning this week. Katie Holloway Bridge, a women's basketball student-athlete from 2005-08, will compete in her fifth Paralympic Games as a member of the sitting volleyball team while Jamie Whitmore, a track & field student-athlete from 1995-98, will make her third appearance in paracyling.
The 2024 Paralympic Games will stream on Peacock with coverage also on NBC, USA and CNBC.
Katie Holloway Bridge / Sitting Volleyball / Five-time Paralympian
Bridge has helped lead the sitting volleyball team to gold over the past two Paralympic Games. In Tokyo, she was named MVP of the 2020 Games as a team captain while she took home gold in Rio de Janeiro as well in 2016. Her team would also win silver medals in 2008 and 2012.
Bridge has enjoyed a prolific sitting volleyball career, which first began in 2006. She was the team's leading scorer in her first Paralympic Games in 2008. In her career, she has won gold twice at the ParaPan American Games in 2015 and 2019 while her team won silver at the World Championships in 2014 and 2018. Bridge was the U.S. flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Her list of accolades also include Best Blocker at the 2018 World Championships in Arnhem, Netherlands, Best Spiker at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London as well as MVP of the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico and a two-time Female Sitting Team Player of the Year as named by USA Volleyball (2011, 2012).
While at CSUN, Bridge was the first female to compete with a prosthetic limb in the history of Division I basketball. Born with fibular hemimelia, Bridge was missing a fibular bone in her right leg, which would lead to an amputation of her foot and ankle when she was two years old. A 6-4 center, Bridge went on to have a successful four-year career with the Matadors as she was named Big West Sixth Woman of the Year as a sophomore and junior. She also garnered All-Big West Second Team honors in her senior campaign while she ended her CSUN career second in school history in field goal percentage (53.2) and blocked shots (110), third in free throws made (296) and sixth in rebounds (546).
The U.S. sitting volleyball team will compete in Pool A at the 2024 Paralympics along with China, France and Italy. USA opens pool play on Friday, Aug. 30.
Jamie Whitmore / Paracycling / Three-time Paralympian
Whitmore has competed in paracycling on the road and track with Team USA over the past two Paralympic Games. She won her first gold medal at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro in the road race while she won silver in the 3,000-meter track event.
After leaving CSUN, Whitmore competed in triathlons where she racked up a number of accolades. She competed in the XTERRA Triathlon, an event that combines swimming, mountain biking and running. Whitmore won the world championship in 2004 while accumulating 37 victories and six national titles by 2008. However, after the 2008 World Championships, Whitmore was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a tumor growing through her pelvic area. After the initial surgery, the tumor returned and increased in size leading to a second surgery which removed a part of her tail bone, the rest of the sciatic nerve and her left gluteal muscle. Whitmore also overcame nearly fatal sepsis during that period of time.
Whitmore would eventually work her way back into competition and begin paracycling in road and track events, accumulating 22 World Championship medals including 11 gold.
While at CSUN, Whitmore ran distance races and lettered four seasons for head coach Don Strametz. Nearly three decades after she last competed at CSUN, Whitmore still appears in CSUN's all-time top-10 lists in several categories including the 5,000m and the 10,000m events.
Whitmore will compete in paracycling road events in 2024. She begins competition in Paris for Team USA on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
To learn more about Katie Holloway Bridge, Jamie Whitmore and past Paralympian and guide runner Wesley Williams, visit the CSUN Newsroom's feature, Red and Black and Gold.
#GoMatadors
The 2024 Paralympic Games will stream on Peacock with coverage also on NBC, USA and CNBC.
Katie Holloway Bridge / Sitting Volleyball / Five-time Paralympian
Bridge has helped lead the sitting volleyball team to gold over the past two Paralympic Games. In Tokyo, she was named MVP of the 2020 Games as a team captain while she took home gold in Rio de Janeiro as well in 2016. Her team would also win silver medals in 2008 and 2012.
Bridge has enjoyed a prolific sitting volleyball career, which first began in 2006. She was the team's leading scorer in her first Paralympic Games in 2008. In her career, she has won gold twice at the ParaPan American Games in 2015 and 2019 while her team won silver at the World Championships in 2014 and 2018. Bridge was the U.S. flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Her list of accolades also include Best Blocker at the 2018 World Championships in Arnhem, Netherlands, Best Spiker at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London as well as MVP of the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico and a two-time Female Sitting Team Player of the Year as named by USA Volleyball (2011, 2012).
While at CSUN, Bridge was the first female to compete with a prosthetic limb in the history of Division I basketball. Born with fibular hemimelia, Bridge was missing a fibular bone in her right leg, which would lead to an amputation of her foot and ankle when she was two years old. A 6-4 center, Bridge went on to have a successful four-year career with the Matadors as she was named Big West Sixth Woman of the Year as a sophomore and junior. She also garnered All-Big West Second Team honors in her senior campaign while she ended her CSUN career second in school history in field goal percentage (53.2) and blocked shots (110), third in free throws made (296) and sixth in rebounds (546).
The U.S. sitting volleyball team will compete in Pool A at the 2024 Paralympics along with China, France and Italy. USA opens pool play on Friday, Aug. 30.
Jamie Whitmore / Paracycling / Three-time Paralympian
Whitmore has competed in paracycling on the road and track with Team USA over the past two Paralympic Games. She won her first gold medal at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro in the road race while she won silver in the 3,000-meter track event.
After leaving CSUN, Whitmore competed in triathlons where she racked up a number of accolades. She competed in the XTERRA Triathlon, an event that combines swimming, mountain biking and running. Whitmore won the world championship in 2004 while accumulating 37 victories and six national titles by 2008. However, after the 2008 World Championships, Whitmore was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a tumor growing through her pelvic area. After the initial surgery, the tumor returned and increased in size leading to a second surgery which removed a part of her tail bone, the rest of the sciatic nerve and her left gluteal muscle. Whitmore also overcame nearly fatal sepsis during that period of time.
Whitmore would eventually work her way back into competition and begin paracycling in road and track events, accumulating 22 World Championship medals including 11 gold.
While at CSUN, Whitmore ran distance races and lettered four seasons for head coach Don Strametz. Nearly three decades after she last competed at CSUN, Whitmore still appears in CSUN's all-time top-10 lists in several categories including the 5,000m and the 10,000m events.
Whitmore will compete in paracycling road events in 2024. She begins competition in Paris for Team USA on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
To learn more about Katie Holloway Bridge, Jamie Whitmore and past Paralympian and guide runner Wesley Williams, visit the CSUN Newsroom's feature, Red and Black and Gold.
#GoMatadors
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