Cheri Blauwet

Cheri Blauwet competed in the 800 metre wheelchair demonstration event at the 2004 Athina Olympics. Blauwet also won the Boston Marathon that year and repeated her victory in 2005. She won seven medals at the 2000 and 2004 Paralympics, including a gold medal in T53 class 800 metres wheelchair race at the 2004 Paralympics. Blauwet won the New York Marathon in 2002-03 and the Los Angeles Marathon in 2003-05 and 2008.

Blauwet attended Stanford Medical School, graduating in 2009, and then did a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). She became a board-certified physiatrist (PM&R) and an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Blauwet received numerous honors for overcoming her disability. She received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Emerson College in 2015. In 2016 she was named one of Boston’s Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Boston Chamber of Commerce. She spoke at the United Nations in 2015 at the UN International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. In 2015, Blauwet was also the keynote speaker at the Boston celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act.