Georgia Tech Quadriplegic off to London Paralympics

The 2012 London Paralympic Games are set to begin in one week on Aug. 29 and Cassie Mitchell, a research faculty member in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, will be competing as a member of the USA Track and Field team.

Mitchell will compete in the Women’s T52/F52 (quadriplegic) 200-meter, the 100-meter, and the F52 discus. 

A Warner, Okla. native, Mitchell was very athletic growing up competing in track, gymnastics and riding horses in Western speed events such as barrel racing, pole bending and goat tying). By the time she was 16, Mitchell and her horse had amassed four world championship event titles, two all-around world championship titles and numerous other state and national championships.

She landed a collegiate track scholarship in the sprint events from Oklahoma State University, but was soon afflicted with a neurological condition, Devics Neuromyelitis Optica. One morning she simply awoke and could not move her legs.

“Early on, just two weeks after my initial paralysis, I decided that I would soar above my situation like an eagle, rising to my best,” Mitchell writes on her website. “It is a choice I still must face each and every day.”

Despite her neurological condition, Mitchell continued to be a competitive athlete. She graduated with a B.S. from Oklahoma State, where she was an All-American in wheelchair basketball, a Wentz Research Scholar and USA Today Academic All-American.

In 2009, Mitchell earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory. While a postdoctoral fellow, she began to pursue paracycling and track and field, and set her sights on the goal of competing at the London 2012 Paralympics in both sports.

After training six hours a day, Mitchell won the H1 Women's Road Race National Championship in Augusta, Ga. It was her unprecedented performance at this event that earned her a spot on the USA National Paracycling team and a place at the 2011 Paracycling World Championships. Cassie’s two gold medals helped Team USA bring home their ninth world championship. Despite her accomplishments, she did not make the USA Paralympic Cycling Team for the 2012 London Games. 

Fortunately Mitchell had a back up plan - track and field. She set personal records in three of her four events at the National Track Trials this summer and earned a spot on the USA Track and Field team.

As she told Fox 5 Atlanta recently, “I think everyone is given a natural God-given ability to overcome and you have to be able to find it and really hold on to it and apply it.”

Mitchell will compete in the Women’s T52/F52 (quadriplegic) 200-meter on Sept. 1, the 100-meter on Sept. 5 and the F52 discus on Sept. 7.

- Georgia Tech contributed to this story