PARIS, France — West Michigan athletes are getting ready to compete on the biggest stage in the world as the 2024 Paralympic Games kick off in Paris on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
There will be four Paralympians from West Michigan representing Team USA in this year's games, hoping to earn medals in four events in France.
Meet the athletes that will be competing for Paralympic gold later this month:
Kate Brim - Lowell
A cyclist will be representing Lowell, Michigan in Paris at the 2024 Paralympics.
Kate Brim, 26, is no stranger to the Olympic stage. She became a world champion in women's handcycling after winning four gold medals in her Paralympics debut in 2022.
She garnered two gold medals in the time trial and road race at the World Cup and the final two in the time trial and road race at the World Championship. Brim then went on to win nearly every major race in which she has competed.
That's why she was selected as one of just 13 cyclists from across the country selected to represent Team USA at the Paralympic Games.
Brim had complications from a surgery when she was 19 and developed a spinal cord injury that slowly made her lose strength and function. She spent a year and a half recovering at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids.
Her injury provided a new opportunity — it “set a fire in me,” Brim said.
While recovering, she joined the Grand Rapids Thunder wheelchair rugby team and Mary Free Bed's handcycling team. Her first year competing was in 2021, when she was crowned the winner of the woman's handcycle division of the Amway River Bank Run.
“I’m not going to let this injury define where I go in life," Brim said.
Brim will compete with Team USA in the Paralympics beginning in late August.
Evan Medell - Grand Haven
In the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Evan Medell was facing off against Croatia's Ivan Mikulic in the semi-final of the men's taekwondo tournament.
"I felt really good about my chances against him," Medell said.
The winner would earn a trip to the gold medal match. Medell barely got going before disaster struck.
"...second or third kick I threw was a back leg round kick and I just nailed his elbow and it just kind of caved in my foot," Medell said. "Before I even hit the ground, it was all swelled up. I couldn't, I couldn't bend my ankle or nothing."
Medell went on to lose 28-9 before eventually winning the bronze medal. He became the first American to medal in the newly-added Paralympic sport.
If he won gold, Medell planned to retire.
"Once I achieved that I had nothing else to really achieve, so I was kind of ready to walk away," Medell said. "But not achieving that relit that fire... let's run it back, and then see if I can come out on top."
Medell is back for redemption in this year's Paralympic games in France. The goal is the same: win gold, and step into retirement as a champion.
"...if I come out on top, I don't have anything less left to prove in the sport," Medell said.
Medell has won gold medals in the Parapan American Games (2019), Canadian Open (2016), U.S. Open (2016), and Asian Championship (2015).
He's done it all with brachial plexus palsy, a condition that weakens parts of the arm. Medell has had the condition since birth, leading to stunted growth and limited mobility in his right arm.
"I wasn't able to stimulate growth plates in my arm...my right arm is smaller my left arm," Medell said. "I don't have good grip strength."
Taekwondo-wise, it limits Medell's balance. It becomes easier for him to overextend himself when throwing certain kicks.
"...when I throw my right leg, I know I have to maybe shortchange my rotation a little bit because I'll over rotate if I throw it too committed," he said.
Medell grew up with the condition in Grand Haven, Michigan, where he learned some of the values that he brings to Taekwondo.
He grew accustomed to West Michigan's grind mentality that often included long hours and days not seeing the sun.
"Everybody works hard, and everybody takes pride in their work, I think. And that's what makes West Michigan special to me."
Medell could potentially be entering the final weeks of his decorated Taekwondo career. But even after the light dims, he wants to be remembered as a trailblazer.
"Hopefully I'm someone people can look up to. And have a blueprint of how I succeed in the sport," Medell said. "Hopefully, people surpass my performances and I'm someone who's kind of looked upon as the first generation in the first wave."
Tyler Merren - Greenville
Tyler is a husband, a father, a business owner, a personal trainer, a motivational speaker, and now an almost five-time Paralympic athlete in the sport of goalball.
Merren, an Allegan County native now living in Greenville, secured a ticket to Paris for the 2024 Paralympics. He's also one of 16 people picked to be sports ambassadors for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes (USABA).
"I was born with tunnel vision. It was an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, and it was a progressive eye condition. So, as I got older, my vision got worse and worse. So I started to learn about the world of being blind - learning to read Braille, and using a cane. I worked with teachers who taught me how to do all of that," Merren said.
"I started getting involved in adaptive sports for the blind and traveling all over the world competing in the sport of goalball."
The USABA calls goalball the most popular team sport for people who are blind or visually impaired. Two teams of three players face across from each other on a court and roll a basketball-sized ball with bells toward their opponent's goal. Opponents listen for the ball and try to block it with their bodies.
Merren calls goalball the "greatest sport you've never heard of." He has played on multiple goalball teams that have medaled in the Paralympics.
Bobby Body - Eaton Rapids
Bobby Body is set to represent the United States as a powerlifter in his first trip to the Paralympics at age 50.
Body is a West Michigan native who lives in Eaton Rapids and graduated from Ferris State University.
Body was born in an Army hospital and he and his sister spent their early years in a military orphanage. He would later study at Ferris State University before joining the Army following 9/11. Body lost his leg to a roadside bomb during a mission in Iraq.
Body recently finished ninth in the para powerlifting world championships in 2023. He also won gold at the Parapan American Games Santiago in 2023.
