Illini athletes lead Team USA to third straight wheelchair basketball gold
Division of Disability Resources & Educational Services
If this really was Steve Serio’s final Paralympic Games appearance, he went out in style.
The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign alum had 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as Team USA won its record third straight Paralympic Games gold medal, holding off Great Britain 73-69 on Saturday in Paris.
“This team has grown so much over the course of the last couple of years,” said Serio, the five-time Paralympian, team captain and graduate of the College of Applied Health Sciences. “We knew that Great Britain was going to be a great opponent, a really tough group of guys. Right now, we’re just excited that we won a basketball game and got to bring home another gold medal for our country.
Serio and Jake Williams combined for 19 points in the first quarter for the U.S., including a late 3-pointer from Serio to put Team USA in the lead. Great Britain clawed back within three points with three minutes to go in the game, but timely buckets from Serio, Williams, and Illinois alum Brian Bell as well as a few defensive stops put the game to bed. Team USA won its third consecutive gold medal—the first time that’s ever been accomplished–and its eighth all time.
Before Saturday's game, Serio said the Paris Games would be his last.
“This entire Games I’ve tried to be present,” Serio said. “Live in the moment more than I have in the past. You look at the game, you look at this experience a little bit differently when you know it’s going to be your last one. I can’t think of a better way to go out, I’m going to remember this for a really long time.”
The USA women’s wheelchair hoops team settled for a silver medal, falling short in its attempt at gold. The U.S. lost in the final to defending champ The Netherlands 63-49 on Sunday. The women’s team, which included Illini athletes Kaitlyn Eaton, Ali Ibanez and Emily Oberst, have not won gold since 2016.
In track and field, Illinois alum Susannah Scaroni took her fourth medal of the 2024 Games, winning bronze in the women’s marathon T54 came after a battle with Australian Madison de Rozario and China’s Zhaoqian Zhou.
“There was a moment in the race where Madison and I were working so hard and going back and forth and honestly, I didn’t care what color the medal was, but I was hoping she and I could get silver and bronze,” Scaroni said. “That’s what happened and I’m so happy for her.”
As for other Illini athletes competing in Paris, two-time medalist Daniel Romanchuk was Team USA’s top men’s finisher, taking fourth in the men’s T54 race with a time of 1:32.23. Romanchuk won the second Paralympic title of his career in Paris in the 5,000-meter T54 race on the track and also took bronze in the 400-meter.
Seven-time Paralympian Aaron Pike followed Romanchuk with a seventh-place finish in 1:36.23.
Matching Pike’s seventh-place finish on the women’s side was 21-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden, who won her 21st Paralympic medal in Paris and became the most decorated U.S. Paralympic track and field athlete in history.
Two-time Paralympic medalist Brian Siemann and two-time Paralympian Jenna Fesemyer rounded out Team USA’s results in 11th and 13th place in the men’s and women’s races, respectively. Siemann, who in his fourth Paralympic Games won his first two medals in Paris, finished in 1:51.56 while Fesemyer clocked a time of 2:05.42.