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Florida Paralympians: Meet the athletes with ties to the Sunshine State competing in Paris

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place until Sunday. A handful of athletes are from Florida, with a couple of competitors representing the Tampa Bay area.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have officially started, and more than 4,000 athletes from around the world are competing in 549 medal events. A handful of those athletes are from the Sunshine State, with a couple of competitors representing the Tampa Bay area.

The Paralympics will take place until Sunday and will showcase more than 22 sports, including both individual and team sports.

Tampa Bay-area Paralympic athletes

  • Tracy Otto 
    • Hometown: Plant City, FL
    • Sport: Para Archery 
    • Education: University of Tampa
  • Jensen Van Emburgh 
    • Hometown: Bellair Beach, FL
    • Sport: Para Table Tennis
    • Education: Seminole High School

RELATED: Five years after brutal attack severed her spine, Tracy Otto proudly calls herself a Paralympian

Florida Paralympic athletes

  • Morgan Ray 
    • Hometown: St. Augustine, FL
    • Sport: Para Swimming
    • Education: University of North Florida 
  • Gemma Wollenschlager
    • Hometown: St. Augustine Beach, FL
    • Sport: Para-Rowing
    • Education: Temple University
  • Emma Meyers
    • Hometown: Pensacola, FL
    • Sport: Paralympic Triathlon
    • Education: Colorado Mesa University
  • Nicky Nieves
    • Hometown: Kissimmee, FL
    • Sport: Sitting Volleyball
    • Education: Valencia College ‘19, Sociology
  • Abbas Karimi
    • Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL
    • Sport: Para Swimming
Credit: Leighton Smithwick, Associated Press
Abbas Karimi gets out of the pool after swimming the Men's 50 backstroke at the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Swim Team Trials in Minneapolis, June 28, 2024.
Credit: Brittainy Newman, Associated Press
American sitting volleyball player Nicky Nieves during a press conference at the Olympic media summit on April 15, 2024 in New York.

Paralympians who went to Florida schools

  • Christie Raleigh Crossley
    • Hometown: Toms River, NJ
    • Sport: Para Swimming
    • Education: Florida State University
  • Lee Fredette 
    • Hometown: East Moriches, NY
    • Sport: Wheelchair Rugby
    • Education: University of Miami
  • Kyle Coon
    • Hometown: Carbondale, CO
    • Sport: Paralympic Triathlon
    • Education: Paxon School for Advanced Studies (Jacksonville, Fla.) University of Central Florida '13, Communication

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