Athlete Spotlight - Candace Cable

Candace Cable is a nine-time Paralympian who has been a part of Ready, Set, Gold! for the last four years. She was the first woman to medal in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games (12 medals, including 8 Gold) and serves as Vice Chair of the Board of LA 2028. Cable is also a six-time winner of the Boston Marathon (women's wheelchair division) and winner of the first four Los Angeles Marathons.

In September, Cable was one of 13 individuals named to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame, class of 2019, and will be honored and inducted at an awards dinner November 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo.  

The 13 inductees were determined by a voting process that includes Olympians and Paralympians, members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic family, and an online vote open to fans.

Cable has been ranked number one nationally in wheelchair racing competition from 1984 to 1990. Furthermore, internationally, she has won 75 marathons and has set world records in every distance throughout her 21-year career.

Cable has been at the forefront of the adaptive sport movement since she first became acquainted with the sport of wheelchair racing in the late 1970s. She is widely recognized as a pioneer of wheelchair racing, having participated in creating race director guidelines and fine-tuning elements of the sport such as rules and endorsements. After competing in the first-ever Olympic Wheelchair Racing event in 1984, in Los Angeles, Cable went on to compete at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Summer Games, as well as at five editions of the Winter Paralympic Games in the Alpine and Nordic ski racing events.

Cable retired from competitive sport in 2006 to be a force for cultural change. In addition to her role with the Open Doors Organization, where she instructs businesses to help make certain that all persons with disabilities have equitable consumer opportunities in the tourism and travel industries, Cable serves as a consultant on inclusive education for UNICEF. Cable also hosts webinars, writes, produces videos and attends United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities meetings for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a world-renowned organization working to improve the quality of life for persons living with paralysis.