Meet the Athletes

Anjali Forber-Pratt

Natick, MA
Sport: Track and Field

When Anjali Forber-Pratt was just 5, she remembers seeing wheelchair racers for the very first time competing in the Boston Marathon. This moment planted a seed, and she soon got her very first racing wheelchair and went to her first junior national competition at age 9.

Born in India, Anjali was adopted as an infant. Shortly after her arrival in the U.S. she contracted transverse myelitis, an inflammation in the spinal cord that left her paralyzed from the waist down. What some people might view as a tragedy, Anjali would come to view as a positive, life-altering event.

London will hopefully be Anjali’s second Paralympics. In the 2008 Beijing Games she won bronze medals in the women’s 400m T53 and in the women’s 4x100m T53/54 relay. Most recently, during the 2011 season in track and field, Anjali won gold in the 200m, silver in the 100m, and silver in the 400m at World Championships, and she later went on to break the World Record in the 200m. Additionally, she is the American record holder for the 4x100m and 4x400m.

Anjali hopes to use these successes as a foundation for a strong performance at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

But Anjali is more than an athlete. She earned her doctorate at the University of Illinois in education in March 2012, and was awarded the USOC Amazing Mentor Award in April 2012. She is the co-author of an educational coloring book for children, "Color Learn & Play: All About Sports for Athletes with Physical Disabilities." And she’s the cover story of Challenge Magazine (Disabled Sports USA) in June 2012.

Anjali Forber-Pratt will be blogging for MEDAL QUEST in July. She has a personal website at www.anjfp.com, where her motto is "Dream. Drive. Do." She is on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/anjalifp) and Twitter (@anjalifp).

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