Shirley Reilly, who is of Iñupiat descent, has compiled a noteworthy record as a world-class wheelchair racer. (The Iñupiat are a group of Alaska Natives; their wide-ranging traditional territory extends from Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea, to the United States’ border with Canada.) Shirley Reilly was born in Anchorage on May 29, 1985, to Kevin and Dora Reilly.
Shirley was delivered six weeks premature and with paralyzed legs and a badly damaged spine. For the first couple of years of her life, she and her family lived in the Alaskan city of Barrow (now known as as Utqiaġvik). “There was all kinds of medical stuff she needed that Alaska couldn’t do,” recounted Dora Reilly while discussing her daughter in a 2012 interview with Anchorage Daily News. “When she was 2, doctors said they would have to chop her legs off because they were turning purple. I said, ‘No, I don’t think I’ll have my baby’s legs chopped off.’”
The family subsequently moved to San Jose, California, so they could be near a Shriners Hospital to obtain the high-quality medical assistance that Shirley needed. She eventually underwent multiple surgeries at that hospital. One of these procedures involved removing a total of eight spinal discs and two ribs and fusing into place a titanium frame to strengthen what was left of her spine. She was about twelve years old at the time.
Over the next few years, another pivotal chapter for Reilly was opened when she became involved in a junior sports adaptive program for disabled youth. After pursuing athletic pursuits such as swimming and table tennis via this program, she was encouraged to give wheelchair racing a try. In a 2016 interview with reporter Shannon Conner for an article in the Arizona Daily Star’s This Is Tucson newsletter, Reilly addressed what her ultimate embrace of this frequently grueling high-speed sport meant to her. “I grew to really like it — the adrenaline,” noted Reilly. “I kind of realized I might be kind of good at this.”
The genesis of wheelchair racing as an organized sport can be traced to the first few years following the end of World War II. Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist and naturalized British citizen who had fled Nazi Germany, perceived and promoted that type of competition and others involving wheelchairs as something potentially beneficial for paraplegic war veterans. The first international wheelchair race was held in 1952, with the first national wheelchair games in the United States taking place five years later.
Reilly’s own considerable athletic accomplishments with that means of mobility have included participating in the Paralympic Games in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012), and Rio de Janeiro (2016). She won one gold, silver, and bronze medal each in London and another bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Reilly finished first in the women’s wheelchair race of the 2012 Boston Marathon. (The accompanying photo shows her with the trophy she was given for winning that competition.)
In the aforementioned This Is Tucson article, Conner highlighted Reilly’s vigorous and even versatile training in the vicinity of Tucson for those high-intensity races. “Maybe you’ve seen her on Silverbell Road or at the La Cima Middle School track,” wrote Conner. “Or spotted the wheelchair with a flag on the I-10 frontage road as she pushes to Picacho Peak.”
During her interview with Conner for that article, Reilly shared the best piece of advice that she has ever received. “Never know you can achieve until you try,” she stated. “Reach for the stars.”
Photo Credit: BU Interactive News (https://www.flickr.com/people/44462140@N08) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
For more information on Shirley Reilly, please check out https://www.teamusa.com/profiles/shirley-reilly-870845 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Reilly
Transportation History 
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