Three UA Students Part of Wheelchair Basketball Team Taking Gold Medal in Beijing

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – With the help of three students from The University of Alabama, the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team won the gold medal in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

The U.S. Women’s Team remained undefeated in the 2008 Paralympic Games, downing Germany 50-38 to take the gold medal for the second Paralympic Games in a row.

Three members of the UA Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team — Alana Nichols, Mary Allison Milford and Stephanie Wheeler — participated on the winning U.S. team.

Nichols, a recent UA graduate with a master’s degree in kinesiology, is from Farmington, N.M. Milford, a senior majoring in public relations and Spanish, is from Magnolia, Ark. Wheeler, who serves as both the assistant coach and player on the UA team, is a doctoral student in adapted sport pedagogy from Norlina, N.C.

Wheeler was also a member of the U.S. team that took the gold medal at the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004. Nichols and Milford are also veterans of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the Pan Am Games last summer