Melissa Stockwell Wins Wilma Rudolph Courage Award

USA Paratriathlon National Team member Melissa Stockwell was honored as the Women’s Sports Foundation’s 2013 Wilma Rudolph Courage Award winner on Wednesday at the organization’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Gala in New York, N.Y.

Read the announcement from USA Triathlon below:

Stockwell is a three-time paratriathlon national and world champion in the TRI-2 division and was named USA Triathlon Paratriathlete of the Year in 2010 and 2011. A U.S. Army veteran, Stockwell became the first female American soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq war when her Humvee hit a roadside bomb in April 2004. She competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games as a swimmer before she discovered triathlon in 2009.

Stockwell is instrumental in the growth of the sport of paratriathlon as a USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach and co-founder of the Dare2Tri Paratriathlon Club in Chicago. She will also compete in her first Ironman on November 17 in Tempe, Ariz. In addition to her contributions to paratriathlon, Stockwell is a certified prosthetist for Scheck and Siress Prosthetics.

The Wilma Rudolph Courage Award is presented annually to a female athlete who exhibits extraordinary courage in her athletic performance, demonstrates the ability to overcome adversity, makes significant contributions to sports and serves as an inspiration and role model to those who face challenges, overcomes them and strives for success at all levels. Visit Womenssportsfoundation.org for more information on this honor.