Christy Gardner has been training in the early mornings at Ingersoll Turf Facility in Auburn over the winter with hopes of making the U.S. Paralympic Team and competing in Tokyo this summer. She and her service dog Moxie will leave for California next Wednesday for a two-month stay at the U.S. Paralympic Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista. U.S. Paralympic team coaches have invited her to train at the venue where the country’s best track and field para-athletes prepare for their shot at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. If Gardner proves to the coaches that she’s worth keeping permanently, she will live in California through the summer to put all her energy into training for the U.S. Paralympic Trials in June in Minneapolis.
Gardner is currently ranked fifth in the world in shot put and 11th in the world in the discus for her classification. She spent a week at the Elite Athlete Training Center last year. Coaches made a change to her shot put throwing technique, and she immediately began throwing her best ever. Gardner is one of a handful of female New England para-athletes with a shot at making it to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Ingersoll has let Gardner set up her shot put throwing frame to train indoors this winter and help her reach her Paralympic Games goal.
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