| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Canada | ||
| Women's basketball | ||
| Women's athletics | ||
| Paralympic Games | ||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Wheelchair Basketball |
| Gold | 2008 Beijing | 100 m T52 |
| Gold | 2008 Beijing | 200 m T52 |
Michelle Stilwell (born July 4, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian wheelchair racer. She is the only female Paralympic athlete to have ever won gold in two separate summer sport events.
In Sydney, during the 2000 Paralympic games, she and her team won Gold in wheelchair basketball [1] by beating Australia in the final 46-27. At the time, she was the only female quadriplegic to compete in the Paralympic Games. Recently in Beijing, she won two gold medals in the woman's T52 200m[2] and 100m[3] events.
She currently holds the world record in the 100m at 19.60 and the 200m at 35.36 in the T52 class.
Stilwell, whose father is from Stuttgart and mother from the small community of Ashern, Manitoba, in Manitoba's Interlake region, was injured while piggy back riding on a friend at the age of 17. Multiple surgeries and complications (Osteomyelitis and acquired Arnold–Chiari malformation) arose from the fall leaving her an incomplete C7 quadriplegic. She grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba and attended River East Collegiate before her first years at the University of Winnipeg. She moved to Calgary where she completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Calgary.
She represented Canada at the Sydney 2000 Summer Paralympics, where she won gold in wheelchair basketball. After her retirement from basketball competition in 2001 she became involved in coaching young wheelchair athletes, became pregnant and gave birth to her son Kai in July 2001.
In 2004 while coaching basketball she met a National Team Athletics coach who encouraged her to try a different sport. By 2005 she was at the European Championships, and in 2006 a 200m World Champion at Assen, Netherlands.
She attained greater success on the track winning gold in the 100m and 200m at the Beijing 2008 Summer Paralympics. This was followed by 3 gold (with World Championship records) and one Silver at the 2011 World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.