Steve Serio

Hometown: Westbury, NY

Personal Story: Steve grew up in Westbury, New York, and graduated from Carle Place High School in 2005. When Steve was 11 months old, he had surgery to remove a spinal tumor which resulted in the compression of his spinal cord. Consequently, he was left paralyzed and is classified as an incomplete paraplegic. Steve began his wheelchair basketball career as a sophomore in high school with the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in New York State. He was a tremendous asset to this team, eventually leading them to the team’s first National Championship in 2005 where he was named the tournament MVP. In that same year, he played on a USA U-23 Team at the Australian Junior National Games for the Disabled in Sydney. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010, where he studied Kinesiology. As a co-captain of the USA Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team, he led the American men to their first Paralympic gold medal since 1988 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games and defended the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Steve is a four-time Paralympian and three-time medalist and was just named to his fifth Paralympic team for the Paris Paralympic Games in 2024. When not training or on the court, Serio enjoys reading, exercising, and traveling.

Sport: Wheelchair Basketball

Physical Disability: Paraplegic

Social Media: Instagram

In The Media:

Challenged Athletes Live Q&A with Bob Babbitt: Episode Twenty Five | Steve Serio