A Native American from tiny Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Billy Mills surged down the stretch to win the 10,000-meter run at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.
Candace Cable and Erin Popovich were inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
“We are fellow classmates, but we haven’t had a lot of time to interact with each other because we’re all over in the world,” said Popovich, a swimmer who won 14 gold medals and five silver over three Paralympic Games.
While Popovich was a competitive swimmer from an early age, Cable’s path to athletic success was different. She did not become an athlete until after she was in a car accident and had a spinal cord injury at age 21. During her recovery, Cable became friendly with a group of wheelchair racers, who she said were inventing competitions.
Cable competed in wheelchair racing, cross-country skiing and downhill skiing over the course of nine Paralympics. She won 14 medals, including two in Olympic exhibition races.
Listen to Cable and Popovich’s StoryCorps conversation, including how Cable took up downhill skiing and a discussion about the evolution of equipment used in wheelchair racing.
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