Leo Merle (second from right) in the 1,500-meter run at the 2013 Para World Championships. (Photo: Marcus Hartmann/U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee)

While the Olympics Closing Ceremonies took place on August 11, it’s really just a passing of the baton to the Summer Paralympics, also held in Paris, starting August 28. UC Davis alum Hannah Chadwick will be competing in para-cycling for Team USA with the hopes of notching a medal, having won bronze in the Union Cycliste Internationale’s Para-Cycling Track World Championships this year and last. On the U.S. men’s side, UC Irvine alum Bryan Larsen, who helped run the bike club while in college, will be off to the races after recovering from a serious injury in 2019 that took him away from the sport.

In the pool, UC Berkeley class of 2025 swimmer Noah Jaffe will be looking to bag several medals of his own, having showed out in his international debut, winning a gold, a silver and two bronzes at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships.

On the track, UC Santa Cruz alum and former Banana Slug runner Leo Merle will be looking to take home gold for the United States in the 1500-meter race, just as he did in the Parapan American Games in 2023. Merle has just earned his dental degree and has his sights set on becoming the first American with cerebral palsy to run the 1,500-meter race in less than four minutes!

ICYMI, read more about UC’s Olympians and track our medals at the UC Newsroom.

About

View all post by