Name: Erik Hightower
Sport: Track and Field
Event(s): 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter
Classification: T54
Height: 5-10
DOB: 4/6/1986
Birthplace: Phoenix, Ariz.
Hometown: Pheonix, Ariz.
High School: Cactus High School (Glendale, Ariz.) ‘05
Paralympic Experience
- Three-time Paralympian (2008, 2016, 2020)
- Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
- Paralympic Games Rio 2016, 7th (100-meter), 14th (400-meter)
- Paralympic Games Beijing 2008, 11th (400-meter), 12th (100-meter), 13th (200-meter)
World Championship Experience
- Most recent: 2019 – gold (4x100-meter universal relay), 6th (100-meter)
- Years of participation: 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
- Medals: 2 (1 gold, 1 silver)
- Gold: 2019 (4x100-meter universal relay)
- Silver – 2006 (4x100-meter relay)
Personal:
Born with spina bifida, Hightower has been wheelchair racing for more than a decade...He started at age eight after his parents learned about the sport at a conference for the Spina Bifida Association...He didn’t take to it right away but eventually found success, competing at the 2008 and 2016 Paralympic Games...He has lived at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Center since 2014 and married U.S. teammate Kym Crosby in September 2018...Son of Debra and Richard Hightower...Has a brother, Richard Hightower IV...Hobbies include model building, playing sports and video gaming, watching movies, fishing, sport card collecting.
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