Photo courtesy of the Lakeshore Foundation
Brian Bell is competing in the 2024 Paralympics, making him a three-time Olympic athlete after he competed with the USA Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team at the Paralympics in 2016 and 2020.
The Lakeshore Foundation, a Homewood-based nonprofit that provides resources for disabled individuals, is sending three of its athletes to compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Zion Redington and Clay Brackett are traveling to Paris as part of the USA Wheelchair Rugby Team, and Brian Bell will make his third Paralympic appearance as a member of the USA Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team.
Bell, a Birmingham resident, competed in the Paralympics in 2016 and 2020, bringing home a gold medal with the team in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
With an impressive resume, it's no surprise he's traveling to Paris this year. He secured his roster spot on the National Team after winning gold at the 2023 Parapan American Games, where he was the team’s leading rebounder with 11.8 boards per contest.
He also earned gold at Parapans in 2015 and 2019, and he is a three-time medalist at Worlds (2022 gold, 2018 silver, 2014 silver). Bell also won a NWBA Division I National Championship with the Golden State Road Warriors in 2023.
Photo courtesy of Lakeshore Foundation
Clay Brackett has been playing adapted sports since he was a child, but he wasn't introduced to wheelchair rugby until college.
Clay Brackett
Brackett has been playing adapted sports since childhood, but he only picked up wheelchair rugby in college.
While playing wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois, Brackett met now USA teammate, Chuck Aoki. Aoki convinced him to join a wheelchair rugby club, and he's been playing ever since.
While the sport is best known for its loud, hard-hitting nature, it was the more intellectual aspects of the sport that hooked him, according to his USAWR bio.
“It’s fun when you can predict something that will happen and cause the other team to mess up in your favor,” his bio reads.
Brackett quickly advanced through the wheelchair rugby ranks, making his initial national training squad in 2015 and going on to represent the USA at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto where the teamed earned silver. In 2017, he joined the National Team again and helped bring home two gold medals while also earning Best in Class honors at the Japan Para Wheelchair Rugby Championship.
After marrying his wife, Hannah, Brackett focused on other professional interests before eventually returning to elite competition. When asked what motivated him to return, he said losing his job in 2022 due to layoffs was the sign he needed to go for what he really wanted, to be a member of USAWR.
He is looking forward to the team uniting as one and proving himself an impact player on the roster.
Brackett is a Birmingham resident, and when not competing for USAWR, he enjoys getting outdoors and spending time with loved ones. He can also be found tinkering with his 3D printer or completing woodworking projects with his computer numerical control router.
Photo courtesy of Lakeshore Foundation
Zion Redington, known as Z to his teammates, is one of the youngest members of USA Wheelchair Rugby.
Zion Redington
Redington is one of the youngest members of USA Wheelchair Rugby, but he has been playing longer than many of his senior teammates.
Known by his team as "Z", he grew up in Nashville, Tenn. before relocating to Birmingham so he could train full-time at Lakeshore.
His family made the move after Redington spent several years playing at the USWRA club level with the Cumberland QuadCrushers under Hall of Famer and two-time Paralympian Eddie Crouch. Redington first began playing wheelchair rugby at the age of nine.
Redington loves to make big, loud hits on the court, according to his USAWR bio. As one of the younger athletes on the team, he desires to learn from his teammates and coaches to become a better athlete.
While making the USAWR roster has been his biggest accomplishment so far, his story began long before his introduction to the sport, and he has no plans to stop here.
Born in China with a disability called ectrodactyly, he spent the first two years of his life in an orphanage. He was adopted and in America within a few months after his adoptive mother saw his photo on an adoption agency’s website. At the age of six, his feet were amputated to provide him greater mobility.
Since then, he has used prosthetics or a wheelchair to get around.The high school junior currently lives with his mom, step-dad, older brother and sister, and his two dogs.
When he’s not training at Lakeshore, Redington likes to spend time with his family and friends and try out new restaurants around town.
To find out when Bell, Brackett and Redington will compete, visit the Paralympic Games schedule at https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/paralympic-games/schedule.
