SPOKANE, Wash. — After an outstanding performance at the Paralympic Trials over the weekend, former Shriners Children's Spokane patient Hannah Dederick officially qualified for the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Dederick set a personal best in the women's 400-meter, finishing at 53.71 seconds.
According to Shriners, Dederick said she is following in the footsteps of her mentor and wheelchair racing legend Susannah Scaroni.
The 21-year-old qualified for her second Paralympics this summer. Dederick was born with spina bifida in China. Shriners said she moved to Spokane in 2012 after living in Alabama for several years, becoming a patient at the hospital a year later. Shriners also said Dederick had her first surgery, which was a femur rotation, at the hospital in 2018.
Dederick competed in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, placing 4th in the 100 and 11th in the 400.
Dederick also won this year's Bloomsday race.