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Co-Captain Christina Schwab Looks Forward to Fifth Paralympic Games

By Taylor Bond, NWBA, 06/23/16, 3:30PM CDT

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Multi-talented Christina Schwab has already had a full life at the age of 36. Having been to four Paralympic games, four World Championships, won two gold medals, and is also a Boston Marathoner winner, that is just the beginning of her resume. Schwab was also a two-sport collegiate athlete and two-sport U.S. Paralympic athlete having competed in track in 2012 in London. Not to mention she is married, has a three-year-old son and co-founded the Denver Lady Rolling Nuggets. Schwab’s list of accomplishments is endless as she is going into her fifth and final Games. Her impressionism will not stop when her basketball career does.

 

Schwab just recently accepted a coaching position at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She will be the new head women’s wheelchair basketball coach. She has previously coached at the junior division level but never the collegiate level, and she could not be more excited.

 

“I can’t wait to be involved with the school, the team and the organization. I want to help younger girls make the USA team and achieve their dreams,” said Schwab.

 

Accepting this position means relocating her family from Colorado to Wisconsin, but being reunited by her friends and family in her home state, as she was born and raised in the city of Dane. Schwab only moved to Lakewood, Colorado in 2006, where she then founded the Denver Lady Rolling Nuggets alongside Jennifer Chew in 2007 and has played for them ever since.

 

After high school in Wisconsin, she went on to do track and wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois. Her college track coach was originally from Boston and he was the one who encouraged her to do the Boston Marathon. She won the marathon in 2003.

 

“I always thought I was more of a mid-distance athlete like the 400 and 800 but after doing Boston I realized I was more successful at the marathon,” Schwab added.

 

Hanging up her court shoes after Rio comes with mixed emotions for Schwab, as she has truly enjoyed the team aspect, the hard work put in on a daily basis and the overall journey. However, she is excited to explore the path of coaching and being able to spend more time with her young family and exploit her gardening career.

 

That’s right the competitive and award-winning Christina Schwab loves to garden and is sad to be leaving her newly planted garden to the new owners of her home. She loves going to farmer’s markets and planting new things. Schwab and her family also have a passion for the outdoors and you can often find them exploring somewhere new, going for a hike and camping on the weekends. This well rounded U.S. Paralympian may have had a full life up to this point, but needless to say she has a full life to look forward to after the upcoming games, where she hopes to add just one more athletic accomplishment to her already endless list before residing on the sidelines as a head coach.