Steve Cash, Susan Hagel, Marla Runyan and U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team inducted into 2025 Hall of Fame Class
By Darci Miller
Red Line Editorial
On Saturday night, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame Class of 2025 took its place in the annals of history at The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Paralympic legends Steve Cash, Susan Hagel, Marla Runyan and the entire 2004 U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team were among the group honored at the induction ceremony.
Cash is a four-time Paralympic medalist (three gold, one bronze) in sled hockey and is the first sled hockey player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as an individual. Hagel, meanwhile, is an adaptive sports pioneer, winning three Paralympic gold medals in Para archery and one gold and two bronze medals as a wheelchair basketball player.
“It’s really exciting, and it really is such an honor,” Hagel says. “And very unexpected, because I retired from sports over 25 years ago, so I didn’t expect this to come around.”
Runyan enters the Hall of Fame as the only athlete in U.S. history to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics. A visually impaired athlete, Runyan earned six Paralympic medals (five gold, one silver) in Para track and field.
The Paralympians joined Olympians Gabby Douglas (gymnastics), Anita DeFrantz (legend; rowing), Allyson Felix (track and field), Flo Hyman (legend; volleyball), Phil Knight (special contributor; Nike founder), Mike Krzyzewski (coach; basketball), Bode Miller (alpine skiing), Kerri Walsh Jennings (beach volleyball), Serena Williams (tennis) and the 2020 men’s bobsled team, representing some of the most celebrated names in U.S. athletic history.
“It’s a long time coming,” says Patty Cisneros Prevo, who helped the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team win Paralympic gold in 2004 and 2008. “We deserve it just as much as Olympians, and we haven’t had that recognition, the awareness, the education, the funding, the pay equity, as the Olympians. So, I’m incredibly grateful for the pioneers that kept pushing. Nobody knew about the Paralympics, and we were so often confused with the Special Olympics. So I feel like, yes, I’m super grateful and happy, and also, we deserve it. So we should be here.”
Darci Miller is a freelance contributor to Sports N Spokes on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.