SPOKANE, WASH- Hannah Dederick is no stranger to the Paralympic games.
“This time around will be my second Paralympics,” Dederick said.
Dederick is working on earning an in three events including the 100-meter, 400, and 800 for wheelchair racing. She was born in China and adopted by an American family.
“I live up in Mead and wet to CV,” Dederick said.
Born with spina bifida and abandoned at the steps of a hospital in China, she’s lived across the country with her family but has called Spokane home since 2012. Now—in college at the University of Illinois—she’s a force. “It feels empowering to be a Paralympian,” Dederick said.
Dederick attributes the push to get involved in sport to Shriners Children’s Hospital which connected her to Para Sport Spokane and helped her start the journey. “Shriners is passionate about people with disability getting involved in a sport,” Dederick said. “Every child deserves to have opportunity in life, I was inspired to get involved because of their influence.”
She follows in the tracks as many other top athletes who went through the Paris sport Spokane program. Dederick said she pulls inspiration from Susanna Scaroni a multi-time Paralympian from Tekoa, Washington who went through the program.
Becoming an athlete was an immediate decision and it took her time to figure out what sport she wanted to be a part of. “I wanted to do a sport that involved racing and wheelchair racing was the perfect sport to get involved with,” Dederick said. She became involved with para sport when she was 10 years old, now 21 she’s made a career of it even becoming a collegiate athlete.
Dederick says she feels ready for another opportunity at the Paralympics – and it was because of the support she received right here in Spokane that positioned her to take on this goal of bringing home gold.
“Para sport for sure, set me up for success and it’s set up my future as a person with a physical disability,” Dederick said.
Dederick also attributes Shriners Children’s Hospital for their support in her journey. With the trails at the end of July, she says she is staying focused and practicing with hopes that her ticket to Pairs will be punched.
“I am excited to go into it and see what I can do,” Dederick said, “I have been training hard. I have a great support system.”
