Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

10/11/04

NEWS RELEASE
Janna Crawford Wins Gold Medal in
Paralympics Competition in Athens

Janna ( Ellsworth) Crawford, an Auburn High School graduate, class of 1993, won a Gold Medal in wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics held in Athens, Greece during September 17-28.  This was the second Paralympics for Ms. Crawford; she had participated in the 2000 event in Sydney, Australia.  Ms. Crawford played basketball, volleyball, and softball during her high school career.  After graduation, she contracted a staff infection that caused major deterioration in her right knee.  While she was volunteering as an AmeriCorps member at the 1996 Paralympics event, she was recruited by the American wheelchair basketball team.

Ms. Crawford recently graduated from the University of Illinois with a double major in urban planning and leisure studies.  She also played on the university’s wheelchair basketball team which won the national championship three times.  Last summer, she studied and performed research for her thesis on constraints for elite athletics (with disabilities) in Angola, South Africa, and Kenya.  She will be married this spring and will move to Australia.

For more information, contact Tim Cummings, Auburn School District athletic director, at (253) 931-4932.