US Women's Goalball Wins the Gold Medal!
09/15/08
Jessie Lorenz, the LightHouse's Director of Information and Public Policy, and the US Women’s Goalball team defeated China in the finals on Sunday, September 14th, to win gold at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
China went undefeated in earlier contests. With one loss and two tied games, the US team was the underdog going into the final game.
The team played in front of a standing room only crowd of 6,000 spectators, a sharp contrast to the crowd of 500 at the 1996 Atlanta games. "The Chinese women played hard", says Lorenz, "They have really helped to raise the bar in women's goalball and I am honored to have competed against them."
After winning the silver medal at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Lorenz vowed to come back from Beijing with “a different color of medal.” Of her victory Lorenz says,
“Nothing is like standing on that medal podium and hearing our national anthem play. I was keenly aware of how many people touched part of this dream. Behind every athlete is a partner, friends, family, co-workers and coaches. I happen to have the best of all of these supporting me. I believe that athletes with visual impairments challenge society because we become what many people feel is impossible. To be the best in the world at my sport was what drove me to continue to play and now here we are at the top of the podium - the USA has the best woman's goalball team in the world."
To learn more about Jessie’s Paralympic journey visit her blog at www.jessielorenz.com. For more information about the Paralympics, visit the International Paralympic Committee web site.
Audio of the U.S. Women's Goalball gold medal match can be downloaded from Sendspace: U.S. Women's Goalball Gold!.mp3
