Presented here is a Silver Medal for Wheelchair Racing an Olympic demonstration sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. The 2nd place finisher was Randy Snow who in 2004 became the first Paralympian to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Demonstration sports were officially introduced at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Most organizing committees then decided to include at least one demonstration sport at Olympics; it was usually a popular sport in the host country. From 1912 to 1992 only three Summer Olympics and five Winter Olympics did not have demonstration sports on their program. Some demonstration sports eventually gained enough popularity to become an official sport at future Olympics. Traditionally the medals awarded for demonstration sports followed the same design as the Olympic medals but of a slightly smaller size. These medals are not included in the official medal count. From the 1984 Summer Olympics until the 2004 Summer Olympics two Paralympic events (a men's and a women's wheelchair racing event) were included in the athletics program of each Games. They were considered demonstration sports and used to promote the Paralympic Games.

Randy Snow was a state-ranked tennis player as a teenager but at the age of 16 his spine was crushed by a 1000-pound bale of hay leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He eventually found his way to wheelchair racing. In 1984 the Summer Olympics added a men's 1500 meter wheelchair race as an demonstration sport / exhibition event. Snow went into heavy training relocating to Houston to train on the same track as Carl Lewis. This was the first Paralympic event to appear before a large audience. Snow received a silver medal and the crowd gave all the athletes a standing ovation at the end of the race. Snow went on to win gold medals in the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona for singles and doubles tennis and at the 1996 Atlanta Games was a member of the bronze medal-winning wheelchair basketball team.

The beautiful silver-plated medal is 5 mm thick and 60 mm in diameter and weighs 152 grams. It comes with its lovely teal orange and pink colored ribbon fully intact. The obverse has the Olympic motto "Citius Altius Fortius" over two wheelchair racers with "XXIII OLYMPIAD" at the bottom. The reverse has the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games emblem over Olympic rings and laurel branches. It comes in Mint condition in its original blue velvet presentation case enclosed in a blue box. This item epitomizes what the Olympics is all about evoking the extraordinary will of the human spirit.

Includes a Letter of Provenance from the Helms Athletic Foundation/LA84 Collection.