The Paralympics Are Also Happening This Year: Here Are 10 Athletes To Watch For

Nicky is a veteran of the Paralympics, having competed for Team USA's sitting volleyball team at Rio in 2016. She believes that part of being on a team is supporting the mental well-being of her fellow players. Nicky explained to Olympics.com, "At the end of the day we all have one common goal — how can I best support you and vice versa. What is it that you need from me so you feel best supported? What do I put out to my team to best feel supported in general and kind of working on yourself so it's really looking in the mirror and seeing what hinders you from being your best self and working on that mentally."

Kaleo is also a veteran of the same 2016 sitting volleyball team that Nicky Nieves was on. Kaleo previously competed for Team USA in the 2012 London Games and helped the team earn a silver medal.

Kaleo is a mom to son Duke, and she owns a few different businesses. She recently said that holding it all together is manageable, but it's a lot: "I have always wanted to bring Duke and my family along because I do think I can do all three. I can be a mum, I can be a family person, a business owner and an athlete. I don’t think I have to choose one over the other. But it is a lot of work to try and make them all work together."

McKenzie has also competed in two previous Olympics: London and Rio. She's a member of Team USA's swim team. McKenzie has brittle bone disease, which makes it super easy for her bones to break — in fact, she's broken over 60 of them.

McKenzie is super passionate about the Paralympics, and she especially works to make sure people understand what the games are about. In February 2021, she told Swimming World Magazine, "One thing that I always really love to make sure people know is that para means parallel to the Olympic Games. Paralympics is the same elite level, high competition sporting event as the Olympics and the Olympic Games, but it’s for people who happen to have a physical impairment or a physical disability."

Breanna is part of Team USA's track and field team. She was actually the first woman from the States with an intellectual disability to win a medal in the Paralympics when she won gold in Rio in 2016; in 2019, she told International Paralympic Committee that a secret family "recipe" helps her win.

"I have a secret champion recipe," she explained. "You can’t eat or drink it. It’s made only for your eyes, ears and your brain. It’s an old recipe but fortunately there’s a secret ingredient for my family and my eyes only, one that we will never reveal to the public."

Allysa won gold in the triathlon in Rio in 2016, and she told Elle that she'll never forget the experience: "It was Sept. 11, 2016, and I was competing in the very first Paralympic triathlon. I was running the finishing chute, and my younger brother was sprinting alongside the barricades. He was tripping and pushing people out of the way, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was yelling and cheering, telling me I did it: I won gold."

Allysa will return to join Team USA and defend her triathlon medal in Tokyo.

Scout Bassett, a member of Team USA's track and field team, has an incredibly compelling story. After losing her right leg in a chemical fire as a young child, she was abandoned and lived in a Chinese orphanage for years. She was adopted by Joe and Susan Bassett and began running at the age of 14.

Scout wrote a moving essay for PopSugar in which she detailed what it was like to play sports as a disabled young child: "Sports have always been a huge part of my life, and starting in second grade, I played a sport every season of the year: soccer, softball, volleyball. I was always welcomed for practice, but when it came to games or tournaments, I was often told to sit on the bench or stand on the sidelines. I watched as everybody else got to compete, except for me."

Lia is a member of Team USA's Tokyo-bound archery team. She made headlines when she qualified for the Paralympics in 2016 in the W1 class (made up of people who have disabilities that impact their upper and lower bodies), as she was the first woman to do so. She told Paralyzed Veterans of America, "No female from the U.S. has ever qualified for the Paralympics in the W1 category, but I knew it could be done. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, and I wouldn’t have done it without the support of others."

Matt is also a member of Team USA's archery team. Matt tries to use humor to educate the able-bodied about disabilities, but told the Des Moines Register that he's sometimes politely baffled by the misconceptions people come up with.

"The other day I was walking up a flight of stairs and I passed a guy and he says: 'Whoa, how are you doing that?'" Matt explained. "I mean, I have legs. Because I don't have arms people sometimes assume I can't do anything — ever. Including walking, apparently, or thinking."

Brian is a member of Team USA's wheelchair basketball team. He helped lead the team to a gold medal in Rio and is hopeful that more people will tune in to watch this year's match. As he explained to TeamUSA.org, "The biggest obstacle we have with Paralympic sport is getting more people to see it."

Brian also explained that the win was a huge moment, and hopefully Tokyo will be just as successful: "Of course the best memory from Rio is winning. Besides that, it’s how we won as a team. We had a long road before getting to the gold-medal game. It was a 28-year gap since the USA men’s team won a gold medal in the sport at the Paralympics."

Nate was also part of that gold-medal winning team in Rio and will be back in action this year. While speaking at the Fox Cities Triathlon Club, he explained his mission statement:

"I think my biggest message is that everyone, no matter who you are, or what situation you are in, has the ability to be an athlete, whether it’s in a triathlon or in wheelchair basketball, and chase down those dreams you have. And if you have any obstacles, you are more than able to overcome them. Maybe you cannot be an athlete in the way you originally visualized, but you can be an athlete in a different sort of way."