Fast-Rising Teen Zion Redington Is Ready To Make An Impact As U.S. Wheelchair Rugby Team Aims For Gold In Paris
The 18-year-old helped the U.S. win gold at the 2023 Parapan American Games, which secured the team’s spot in Paris.
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GOLD
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SILVER
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BRONZE
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Age
20
Hometown
Birmingham, AL
Education
Auburn University
Classification: 3.5
Quick Facts
- Son to mother, Heather Redington-Whitlock, and stepdad, Mark Whitlock
- At age 18, he became the youngest athlete to ever make the U.S. Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby Team when he competed at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024
- Nicknamed "Z" by his teammates
Biographical Information
Zion Redington was born in China with ectrodactyly and spent the first two years of life in an orphanage before his mom, Heather Redington-Whitlock, adopted him and moved him to Franklin, Tennessee.
Doctors advised him and his mother that he needed an amputation of his feet at age six. After his surgery, his mom started getting Zion involved with adaptive sports, trying out basketball, track and field, air rifle and climbing.
Within a few years, he picked up wheelchair rugby and started to play for the Cumberland QuadCrushers, a rugby club out of Nashville, Tennessee, coached by Paralympic gold medalist Eddie Crouch.
When he was a teenager, his family moved to Alabama to be closer to the Lakeshore National Adapted Sport Organization (LNASO), located in Birmingham, which also serves as the training center and National Governing Body (NGB) for USA Wheelchair Rugby.
At age 16, he made the 2023 U.S. national wheelchair rugby team training roster in advance of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. A year later, Redington would make his Paralympic debut as the youngest athlete to ever make the U.S. Paralympic wheelchair rugby team.
Redington attends Auburn University, where he studies fashion design, and he intends to play wheelchair basketball, a sport that he has played since age seven.
Paralympic Experience
- 1-time Paralympian; 1-time Paralympic medalist (1 silver)
- Paralympic Games Paris 2024, silver (Team - Mixed)
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Fast-Rising Teen Zion Redington Is Ready To Make An Impact As U.S. Wheelchair Rugby Team Aims For Gold In Paris
The 18-year-old helped the U.S. win gold at the 2023 Parapan American Games, which secured the team’s spot in Paris.
