Who is the most decorated Paralympian in history?

In short, the most decorated Paralympian in history is American swimmer Trischa Zorn-Hudson who, between 1980 and 2004, won 55 medals which, at the time of writing, leaves her 25 ahead of her nearest rivals, multi-talented Israeli athlete Zipora Rubin-Rosenbaum and Swedish sport shooter Jonas Jacobsson, in the all-time list. All told, Zorn-Hudson competed at seven consecutive Paralympic Games – Arnhem (1980), New York (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996),Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) – and amassed a haul of 41 gold, nine silver and five bronze medals.

Born in Orange, California on June 1, 1964 and blind from birth, as the result of a rare genetic eye disorder, known as aniridia, Zorn-Hudson competed in the S12, SB12, and SM12 disability categories. Aniridia results in the coloured part of the eye, or iris, being underdeveloped or missing altogether and, almost invariably, other parts of the eye being underdeveloped.

At her inaugural Paralympics, in Arnhem, Netherlands, at the age of 16, she won seven gold medals and in New York four years later she won another six. For all her success elsewhere, it was the final medal of her career, a bronze behind Zhu Hong Yan of China and Patrycja Ewelina Harajda of Poland in the S12 100-metre backstroke event in the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre on September 25, 2004, was the one she described as “most significant medal I won”. Her mother, Donna, had died from breast cancer the previous June and, aside from winning the medal she had hoped for, Zorn-Hudson also carried the American flag in the closing ceremony as, she said, “a tribute to my mom.”