Cheri Blauwet was born and raised on a farm near the small town of Larchwood, Iowa. She sustained a spinal cord injury in a farming accident as a young child, however, was immediately encouraged to be active, involved, and to see disability as simply another way of living rather than as an impairment. Upon entering high school, her track coach encouraged her to join the track team when he learned that Iowa held sanctioned wheelchair events at the state finals. By her sophomore year she had set records at the state level and began competing nationally. In the fall of 1998 Cheri began her academic and racing career at The University of Arizona. She became the captain of the wheelchair track and road racing team and continued to realize her athletic potential. In 2000, she became a name on the international scene, bringing home 1 silver and 3 bronze medals from the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Since then, she has achieved resounding success on the international elite racing circuit. Some of her outstanding finishes include:
- Winner, 2003 and 2004 New York City Marathon
- Winner, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2008 Los Angeles Marathon.
- Winner, 2004 and 2005 Boston Marathon
- Gold Medal, 2004 Athens Paralympic Games: 800 meters
- Bronze Medals, 2004 Athens Paralympic Games: 5000 meters and Marathon
As a result of these wins, she was nominated for the 2003 Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year, in addition to two consecutive nominations, in 2004 and 2005, for the ESPY award in the category Best Athlete with a Disability. Cheri was also a nominee for the 2005 Laureus World Sport Award within the category “World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.”
Ultimately, Cheri sees sports as one platform through which she can promote disability rights and empowerment at an international level. In 2004, she was named a winner of the 2004 Paul Hearne Leadership Award, given to 3 emerging leaders annually by the American Association of People with Disabilities. She has also done work at the International Paralympic Committee, promoting international sporting opportunities and a mechanism for international development, and with Rehabilitation International, a large multilateral disability rights member organization with both governmental and non-governmental representatives. She is a published author on the topic of “The Paralympic Movement: Promoting Health and Human Rights through Sport.” Currently, Cheri is a fifth year medical student at Stanford University. Her ultimate goal is to pursue physical medicine and rehabilitation and to promote physical activity and social empowerment as a means of achieving better physical and mental health for all individuals.
In her spare time, Cheri enjoys nothing more than exploring San Francisco, breathing the fresh California air, and booking plane tickets to far off and exotic places. She loves adaptive sport because it instantaneously reverses stereotypes surrouding disability. Also, as she says, it gives her an excuse to travel, meet fascinating people, encounter eclectic experiences, and make passers-by in the street do a double-take.
