Disabled veteran looks forward to Huntsville competition

Photo By Eric Schultz | Homewood resident Jennifer Schuble will compete in the U.S. Paralympics Cycling Open, April 17-18 in Huntsville. (Photo by Casey Gibson/U.S. Paralympics Cycling)  

HUNTSVILLE, AL, UNITED STATES

03.10.2021

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Garrison - Redstone Arsenal

From combined reports
Jennifer Schuble of Homewood is among the para-cyclists competing in the U.S. Paralympics Cycling Open, April 17-18 at Cummings Research Park in Huntsville.
“I’m excited. This is the very first race I’ve actually been in Team USA that’s actually been in my home state,” she said.
Schuble, 44, competes in four events, including time trial, road race, pursuit and team sprint. She is a three-time Paralympian (2008, 2012, 2016) and five-time Paralympic medalist (1 gold, 3 silvers, 1 bronze) competing in the C5 classification. While attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to become a commissioned officer, Schuble was a varsity athlete in three separate sports. During hand-to-hand combat class, she sustained a traumatic brain injury. The disabled veteran left West Point as a cadet in her third year.
She sustained an additional TBI later in a car wreck, and in 2004, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This led her to the Lakeshore Foundation, a Paralympic training site in Birmingham, where she was encouraged to get into cycling and started in 2007. In 2008, she won a gold medal and set a world record in the 500-meter time trial at the Paralympic Games Beijing 2008. She was the first female in the world to compete in team sprint as Team USA was the only country to do it. At London 2012, she was the first woman to medal as a part of team sprint. She works as an industrial engineer and enjoys cycling, triathlons and playing with her pet bulldog.
“I’m like a kid in candy land. I am so happy,” Schuble said of returning to Huntsville to compete. This is her first race since spring 2020 at the Georgia Tech race weekend before the pandemic hit.
She was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and grew up in a family of four children. She moved to Houston, Texas, when she was 3. Schuble went to Marion Military Institute and then to West Point.
“I think it’s very important to have something to strive for to help make you a better person,” she said. “You have to have a goal.”

• Date Taken: 03.10.2021
• Date Posted: 03.10.2021 15:47
• Story ID: 391070
• Location: HUNTSVILLE, AL, US