Kerri Morgan
 Kerri Morgan before the 2012 London Summer Paralympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born |
June 14, 1974 Port Jefferson, New York |
| Residence | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Sport | |
| Sport | sprinting |
Medal record
| |
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Kerri Morgan (born June 11, 1974) is a United States Paralympian athlete competing in the category T52. At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, she won the Women's 800m - T52 race becoming world champion.
Personal history
Morgan was born in 1974 in Port Jefferson, New York. She completed a degree in psychology at Texas Christian University, later gaining a master's degree in occupational therapy from Washington University.[1] She later worked as an intern at the White House before taking on the role as occupational therapist at Washington University.[1]
Sporting career
Morgan did not set out to be a wheelchair sprint athlete, preferring to play wheelchair rugby and became the first woman to make the U.S. rugby team.[2] In 2009 she was part of the U.S. Rugby team that won gold at the IWRF Americas Championship in Buenos Aires.[3] She took to the track in an attempt to improve her speed on the rugby court, only to find that she had an aptitude to racing.[2]
In 2007 she took first place in the 200m and second place in the 100m at the U.S. national meet. The next year she achieved the same results at the U.S. Paralympic Trials for Track and Field event at Tempe, Arizona. Her success at the trials saw her chosen for both sprint events in the T52 class at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. In Beijing Morgan finished fifth in both races.[1]
In 2011 she joined the U.S. team at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. Morgan competed in four events, 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m. She won the 800m becoming world champion in the T52 class, while she collected silver in the other three races. In all three events where she finished second she was beaten by Canadian Michelle Stilwell, but at 800m it was Morgan who beat Stilwell into second place.
Morgan qualified for her second Paralympic Games in 2012 in London. She entered both the 100m and 200m sprint taking bronze in both.[4] The next year Morgan travelled to France to take part in the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon. There she won the bronze in the 100m, and silver in both the 200m and 800m, denied by her old rival, Michelle Stilwell.
References
- 1 2 3 "Kerri Morgan". mo-il-olympians.org. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- 1 2 Glaus, Heidi (August 6, 2012). "Kerri Morgan goes for gold in London". ksdk.com. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- ↑ "Kerri Morgan: Track and Field". teamusa.org. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- ↑ "Congratulations, Kerri Morgan!". paraquad.org. Retrieved July 29, 2013.