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AMANDA MCGRORY: Hi, I'm Amanda McGrory, archivist and collections curator for the Crawford Family US Olympic and Paralympic Archives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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I'm also a four-time Paralympian and 7-time Paralympic medalist and have dedicated much of the past 18 years to adaptive sports, either by competing as an athlete myself, advocating for the disability sports community or studying

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the history of the Paralympic movement. I got involved in adaptive sports at 11, when the City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation department established

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the first under-18 wheelchair basketball and wheelchair racing teams in the area. It began very much as a social outlet for me, an opportunity to meet other kids

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my age who also had disabilities, but began to grow into something much more competitive as I entered high school. I continued to race and play basketball,

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and, my senior year of high school, I received an athletic scholarship to the University of Illinois, where I joined the top women's collegiate programme in adaptive sports in the country.

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It wasn't long after that that I was convinced, somewhat reluctantly, to enter my first marathon. I completed the event with a top-three finish and, although I thought that would be my one-and-only pursuit

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at the 26.2 mile distance, I found myself back on the starting line at a different event only a month later. I qualified for my first national team that summer

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and began my 16-year-long career as a member of Team USA, completing over 100 marathons, including wins at some of the world's biggest events, including New York, Chicago, London, and Tokyo.

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I hold both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I studied psychology and information science, focusing much of my graduate studies on research

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on the development of wheelchair sports at the University of Illinois in the 1940s and '50s. My interest and expertise led to my current position in Colorado, where I serve as an historical steward

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for the organisation's archival collections detailing the history of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States and the incredible stories of our Olympians and Paralympians.

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The Crawford Family Archives are a donor-established, state-of-the-art archival repository located inside of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee's headquarters in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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Within the 5,000 square foot facility, I manage a multifaceted collection of roughly 15,000 three-dimensional artefacts, over 100,000 photographs and nearly half a million documents.

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Our collections are unique in the number of museum artefacts we hold, much due to our ever-evolving role within the organisation. The archives were originally established

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as a sports performance lending library located on the Colorado Springs Olympic and Paralympic Training Centre campus. With no formal repository for historically significant documents and objects, the library took on the role

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of preserving the history of the organisation. In 2012, the transition from library to archives began with the hiring of the committee's first archivist. I accepted my role in 2020, as the second-ever archivist

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for Team USA. My favourite collections within the repository are the pieces most unique to the history of Team USA and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

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These include personal papers from past presidents and executive directors. They give researchers an inside look at the workings of the organisation, as it's continued to grow and evolve

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over time. Another highlight is the correspondence from the public regarding controversial decisions, such as the Moscow 1980 boycott and numerous letters of support

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for John Carlos' and Tommie Smith's famous podium protests at the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games, providing a look back in time at public perception of divisive topics.

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The collections also feature an assortment of handmade scrapbooks, from both athletes and fans, spanning over 100 years. Included in that collection of scrapbooks

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are the Jack Whitman papers, an athlete who became the first-ever Paralympic gold medalist when he won the archery competition at the Rome 1960 Paralympic Games.

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Jack Whitman was a graduate of the University of Illinois and one of the athletes I spent a significant amount of time researching, as a graduate student on the same campus. The University of Illinois has an illustrative past,

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when it comes to adaptive athletics and, in particular, wheelchair sports. The University of Illinois made history in 1948, when it became the first university in the United States

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to accept disabled students, thanks to the work of a doctoral student named Timothy Nugent. The soon-to-be Dr. Nugent was selected to run a first-of-its-kind rehabilitation education

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programme serving paralysed veterans. In its first year, 13 students with disabilities were enrolled. To be enrolled in the programme, students were not only required to take standard classes in their areas of study,

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but also an additional set of courses focused on activities of daily living and how to navigate the world from a wheelchair. Finally, students were enrolled in a mandatory physical therapy

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programme run by Dr. Nugent. Unlike standard physical therapy programmes that occur in a clinical setting, this programme rejected the norm in favour of a new system of rehabilitation through

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recreation. Students participated in an organised sports programme, as an opportunity to socialise with both their disabled and non-disabled peers, as well as build strength and skills

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in a more informal setting. It's worth mentioning that this timeline overlaps with the similar programme at the Stoke Mandeville hospital in England.

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Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, known as the father of the Paralympic movement, also established a sports and recreation programme for disabled veterans at the rehabilitation hospital in 1948 and hosted the first Stoke Mandeville Games for patients

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that same year. These games started as a local event and quickly grew to include national and international competitors, before eventually developing into what we now

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know as the Paralympic Games. The Illinois model quickly grew from recreational physical therapy to more organised and competitive sports, including wheelchair basketball, swimming, bowling, archery,

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fencing and track and field. Women joined the programme in the mid-1950s, and, by that time, the teams were travelling all over the country and the world competing against other disabled

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athletes. Jack Whitman was born on a farm in the small town of Galesburg, Illinois, about 45 minutes northwest of Peoria. Whitman attended the University of Illinois

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as a member of the gymnastics team and, in 1949, sustained a serious competition injury, resulting in a broken neck. Whitman returned to the University

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in 1952 to complete his degree as a wheelchair user. He was gifted a bow and arrow by a neighbour in 1960 and quickly became proficient in the sport, attending the Rome 1960 Paralympic Games, where he won his first of 11 gold medals

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and earned himself the nickname "the father of wheelchair archery." Photos and selected ephemera from Jack Whitman's papers have been scanned and are available for viewing

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within the resource. His first gold medal and competition bow are now on permanent display at the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado, and additional medals

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from his collection are currently housed at the University of Illinois, his alma mater. The preservation of our history, especially within the realms of sport and disability advocacy,

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is not just about safeguarding artefacts. It's about honouring the journeys and triumphs of those who came before us. The stories captured here, and in the legacy of pioneers

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like Jack Whitman, remind us of the resilience, determination and innovation that have shaped the Olympic and Paralympic movements, in the United States and worldwide. By preserving these narratives, we not only

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provide a way to celebrate and learn from the past, but also to inspire future generations to strive for greatness.