Meet the Athletes

Alana Nichols

Farmington, NM
Sport: Wheelchair Basketball

Alana Nichols says she’s always been an athlete and a risk taker. Growing up in northern New Mexico she was an avid snowboarder and softball player, excelling in both sports. At age 17 she broke her spine attempting a backflip while snowboarding, and became paralyzed from the waist down.

In an interview with MEDAL QUEST, Alana credits sports with helping her recovery. First she picked up wheelchair basketball, quickly moving to the elite levels of competition. She won a scholarship to play at the University of Arizona, completing her undergraduate degree in education while also serving as an alternate for the U.S. women’s team in the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games.

The next year, Nichols qualified for the national team, and she helped the team win silver in the 2006 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship, gold at the next Paralympics in Beijing, 2008, and, most recently, gold at the 2011 Parapan American Games.

Nichols has also returned to the slopes for serious training as an alpine skier. Her first win came in February 2009 when she beat the reigning Paralympic gold medalist in the super-G at the North American Cup. A year later, Alana competed in the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she won two gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal.

She is the first American woman with gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Games

In 2012, Nichols is continuing her winning record: she took six medals -- three of them gold -- in the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals. Now the focus is on London and winning with her team in women’s wheelchair basketball.

Alana also has a master’s degree in kinesiology, the study of human movement and mechanism, from the University of Alabama. Her Facebook page is at Facebook.com/alanajanenichols, and she tweets at @alananichols21.

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