Wisconsin wheelchair basketball athletes help Team USA clinch gold, silver medals

Wisconsinites helped propel Team USA to the medal podium this weekend, as the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold and the women’s wheelchair basketball team clinched silver.

Half a dozen men with Wisconsin connections were among the gold medalists on Saturday, when Team USA made history by becoming the first ever team to take home three straight gold medals following a 73-69 victory against Great Britain.

Milwaukee native Jake Williams was the top scorer in that final match, contributing a total of 26 points to what became his third gold-medal win.

The 33-year-old started playing wheelchair basketball as a teen, after he was hit by a car while riding his bike. The incident left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Williams played basketball in college for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and he currently serves as head coach for the university’s men’s team.

Williams was far from the only athlete in Paris with a UW-Whitewater connection. The university’s wheelchair athletics program dates back to 1973, and has earned 14 national titles from the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

Current UW-Whitewater student AJ Fitzpatrick, a 20-year-old from Iowa, was among the Team USA men’s gold medalists on Saturday. He was joined by UW-Whitewater men’s basketball alumni Talen Jourdan, Nate Hinze, Jeromie Meyer and John Boie.

Boie also works for UW-Whitewater as an academic advisor.

Coaches, captain from Wisconsin help propel women to silver

On the women’s side, coach Christina Schwab of Dane, Wisconsin led Team USA to a second-place finish Sunday following a 63-49 loss to the Netherlands.

Schwab, herself a former Paralympics gold medalist, previously coached UW-Whitewater women’s basketball. The 44-year-old currently works at the university as a manager of Learning Community Programs.

Joining Schwab in Paris was Team USA’s 34-year-old captain Becca Murray.

Murray, a UW-Whitewater alumna, was born with Spina bifida and grew up in Germantown.

Team USA’s assistant coach Desiree Miller and Lindsey Zurbrugg, a 25-year-old who played for the team in Paris, are also former UW-Whitewater student-athletes, according to the university.

Another Team USA silver medalist, Emily Oberst, grew up in the Milwaukee area.

The 26-year-old switched to wheelchair basketball in high school, when surgery for bone cancer in her leg made it difficult for her to run and play sports like she used to.

Oberst played wheelchair basketball collegiately for the University of Alabama and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Paralympians with Wisconsin connections also repped other nations

Paralympians with Wisconsin connections also represented other nations in Paris.

UW-Whitewater alumna Mariska Beijer played for the gold-winning Netherlands women’s team.

Additionally, former UW-Whitewater student-athletes Mareike (Adermann) Miller and Vanessa Erskine played for the German women’s team, and fellow alum Sammy White played for Team Australia on the men’s side.