Name Marianna Davis | ||
Helping Our Heroes | Marianna Davis | TEDxWallerMiddleSchool
Marianna "Muffy" Davis (born December 1, 1972) is an American Paralympic cyclist, sit-skier and mountain climber.
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Biography
Marianna was born in Sun Valley, Idaho. She was a top ranking junior skier and was poised to be named in the US ski team when an accident at the age of 16 left her paralyzed from the chest down. She continued to compete and also graduated from Stanford University in 1995.
Davis has traveled widely and competed in a number of disciplines. She won one bronze medal for handcycling in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. In 2000, she was the World Champion at Giant Slalom in Anzere, Switzerland. In 2002, she was in a team of four disabled climbers who reached the summit of the 14,179 feet (4,322 m) Mount Shasta in California. Davis was the first female paraplegic to climb a peak over 14,000 feet. The journey was possible by using a Snowpod which is a hand cranked tracked snowmobile devised by Pete Rieke.
Davis won three silver medals competing in the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, Utah for the same sport. In 2010, she added three more silver medals to her collection for participation at Paracycling World. Besides medals she was also awarded Endurance Sports Disabled Athlete of the Year in 2002 and IOC Presidents Disable Athlete Award in 2004. On September 7, 2012 she was awarded three gold medals at 2012 Summer Paralympics for individual H1-3 road race, H1-4 team relay, and H1-2 individual time trial.
In August 2013, Davis won two more Gold medals for hand-cycling at the Para-Cycling World Championships in Baie-Comeau.