Twenty-four is a special number for AJ Fitzpatrick.
The 19-year-old native of Cedar Rapids will compete at the 2024 Paralympics, wearing No. 24.
He wears it to honor his aunt, Abigail, who introduced him to wheelchair basketball. She was born on the 24th – of March 1983 – and found a men’s recreational league at a local church for her nephew.
She died in 2017, after a battle with breast cancer.
“She passed away right before the kids’ team (in that league) was made,” Fitzpatrick said. “So, she never actually got to watch me play.”
Abigail would be proud of her nephew.
Fitzpatrick – the youngest member in the men’s wheelchair basketball selection pool – is headed to his first Paralympic Games with Team USA. If everything goes according to plan, he will bring home a gold medal – which would be the United States’ third in a row.
But if that happens, it won’t be the only gold medal in wheelchair basketball coming back to Iowa.
Fitzpatrick is joined on the team by fellow Iowan – albeit across the state, from Woodbine – Jeromie Meyer, a 27-year-old who is also competing in his first Paralympics.
Different journeys to wheelchair basketball end on the Team USA roster
At 10 years old, Meyer was paralyzed from the hips down after being struck by a drunk driver while riding his bicycle.
Fitzpatrick was diagnosed with arthrogryposis – meaning joints have limited movement and can even be stuck in one fixed position – at birth.
Meyer grew up an active child, competing in basketball, baseball, football and wrestling. For Fitzpatrick, it was all about basketball.
In wheelchair basketball, players are grouped into categories based on their physical capacity to execute basketball movements: pushing the chair, dribbling, shooting, passing and more. Meyer is a 2.0 classification, and Fitzpatrick is a 3.5.
Despite growing up on different sides of the state and experiencing different reasons for their disabilities, Meyer and Fitzpatrick both found their ways to adaptive sports.
“It was pretty hard to be active while being disabled,” Fitzpatrick said. “I was trying to find a way that I could participate in a sport and be a part of a community. It gave me a sense of being normal, because I could share in the experience of winning and losing in games like my peers in school.”
Keeping up with athletics wasn’t easy, though.
Adaptive sports-specific programs weren’t as prevalent as they are now. Both Meyer and Fitzpatrick needed to travel an hour or more to practice and compete. Even now, parasport accessibility at Iowa high schools is limited almost exclusively to track and field.
Despite the obstacles, their paths led to the same place: the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The university – with an enrollment of a little over 11,000 – might not be a typical hotspot for sports. But it does boast one if not the best wheelchair basketball programs in the country, winning 14 national championships, including the most recent in 2024.
Eight current or former Wisconsin-Whitewater players are on the roster for Paris, including Meyer and Fitzpatrick.
Playing for a national championship team doesn’t guarantee a spot at the Paralympics
To earn a spot on the Paralympic roster, athletes need to compete at a selection camp.
Only 12 players make the roster for Paris, and it isn’t as simple as being the best of the best.
Remember those classifications assigned to every player?
Well, those numbers are also a point value and wheelchair basketball teams can only have 15 points on the court at a time. The higher the classification, the greater the athlete’s functional ability.
Meyer and Fitzpatrick’s combined point total is 5.5, leaving 9.5 points remaining for the three other players on the court at the same time.
So, if several players with the same classification are competing for roster spots, being the best isn’t always enough.
“You have a little bit of confidence thinking you had a great camp,” Meyer said. “But you’re also so pent up and kind of anxious, kind of nervous, because the margin for error is so small. Hearing your name get called for the Paralympics, though, that feeling never gets old.”
Since their selections, Meyer and Fitzpatrick have lived in a bit of limbo.
The wheelchair basketball team was chosen in March, meaning there are about five months where they are Paralympians but have not yet competed at the Games.
Meyer’s been part of a few national teams for other competitions, so his closet is stocked with Team USA gear. But he hesitates to wear it out in public unless he’s traveling to or from a competition. In his day-to-day life, Meyer is more comfortable existing as just another person on the street.
Meyer, Fitzpatrick part of Paralympic pride in Iowa
Being on the United States’ wheelchair basketball team – especially for the first time – is a big deal for the two Iowans on the roster.
Meyer joked that he’s not even the most excited member of his family.
“I always tell people I’m not on the national team for myself, I’m on the national team so my mom can make it her personality,” Meyer laughed. “She is just so proud of that, and rightfully so. It’s not every day you get to say your child is an Olympian or Paralympian.”
He is right: Not many parents, especially in Iowa, can say that.
Seven Iowa natives are competing between the Olympics and the Paralympics. Five of those athletes compete in parasports, and two are on the wheelchair basketball team.
That’s elite company.
Meyer didn’t know about the Paralympics until after he was paralyzed.
Fitzpatrick didn’t know about ways to stay active until his introduction to wheelchair basketball in middle school.
Now, both athletes are in Paris, prepped to play for a gold medal.
Neither Iowa kid thought they’d grow up to compete on the biggest international stage.
“The Midwest, Iowa is more than just a state with a bunch cows and corn,” Meyer said. “This shows kids that they have an opportunity to become whatever they want. I’m a competitive athlete from a town that has a gas station and a grocery store.”
Meyer and Fitzpatrick know that other Iowans can get there, too.
But making it to the Paralympics is no easy goal.
“I didn’t think I was gonna get here,” Fitzpatrick said. “But if you don’t find excuses to stop and you’re willing to put in the work, you can really take something you love wherever, even the Paralympics.”
Team USA begins its competition in wheelchair basketball on Thursday against Spain. That game is being broadcast on USA Network.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at [email protected] or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 00:01:00
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