Randy Snow

Randy Snow

Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1959-05-24)May 24, 1959 Austin, Texas, U.S.
Died	November 19, 2009(2009-11-19) (aged 50) El Salvador
Retired	2004
Plays	Right Handed
Int. Tennis HoF	2012 (member page)
Singles
Career record	140–36
Highest ranking	No.2 (March 23, 1993)
Masters	W (1994)
Paralympic Games	File:Gold medal Paralympics 1988-94.svg Gold Medal (1992)
Doubles
Career record	70–26
Highest ranking	No.1 (July 18, 1995)
Paralympic Games	File:Gold medal Paralympics 1988-94.svg Gold Medal (1992)
World Team Cup	File:Gold medal world centered-2.svg Champion (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995)
Medal record Representing United States Paralympic Games Men's athletics Silver medal – second place 1984 Los Angeles 400m 4 Silver medal – second place 1984 Los Angeles 800m 4 Bronze medal – third place 1984 Los Angeles 1500m 4 Men's wheelchair tennis Gold medal – first place 1992 Barcelona Singles Gold medal – first place 1992 Barcelona Doubles Men's wheelchair basketball Bronze medal – third place 1996 Atlanta Team

Randy Snow (May 24, 1959 – November 19, 2009) was the first Paralympian to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the first paralympian to win medals in three different sports: track, basketball and tennis.

Biography

Thomas Randall Snow was the oldest of four children of Alison Lee McElhone, a kindergarten teacher, and Thomas Snow, a real estate attorney. He was born in Austin, Texas and later his family moved to Terrell, Texas. In 1975, at the age of 16, his spine was crushed by a 1000-pound bale of hay, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin in 1977, where he indulged in the fraternity party life, until forming a wheelchair basketball team under the direction of Jim Hayes, the University of Texas at Arlington wheelchair sports director. Soon afterward, he began wheelchair racing, and in 1980 transferred to Arlington in order to work with Hayes, eventually establishing himself as the best wheelchair tennis player in the United States.

In 1984, the Summer Olympics added a men's 1500-meter wheelchair race as an exhibition event. Snow went into heavy training, relocating to Houston, Texas, to train on the same track as Carl Lewis. This was the first Paralympic event to appear before a large audience, and the public was unsure of their feelings for wheelchair-using athletes. Snow received a silver medal, and the crowd gave the athletes a standing ovation at the end of the exhibition.

In the 1990–91 season, Snow won 68 consecutive matches and 15 straight tournaments, becoming the first International Tennis Federation Wheelchair World Champion. Snow went on to win gold medals in the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona for singles and doubles tennis, and at the 1996 Atlanta Games was a member of the bronze medal-winning wheelchair basketball team. He also competed in men's wheelchair tennis singles at the 2000 Summer Paralympics but lost in the third round to eventual gold medalist David Hall of Australia.

He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame on July 1, 2004.

Randy Snow died in El Salvador on November 19, 2009, while volunteering at a wheelchair tennis camp. He was posthumously inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 14, 2012.

External links

• Official website
• Randy Snow at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Randy Snow at the International Tennis Federation
• Randy Snow at the International Paralympic Committee
• Randy Snow at the Team USA Hall of Fame (archive)