The U.S. women’s sitting volleyball team for Paris includes 11 returning gold medalists and three moms.
The 12-player squad will try to become the first U.S. volleyball team to win three consecutive titles at a Paralympics or an Olympics.
The roster was announced Wednesday.
The three moms are five-time medalist Lora Webster-Bargellini, who competed in Tokyo while pregnant with her fourth child; four-time medalist Katie Holloway Bridge, the Tokyo Paralympic MVP, and three-time medalist Kaleo Kanahele Maclay, named best setter at the Tokyo Games.
Webster-Bargellini has played in every Paralympics since the women’s sitting volleyball tournament debuted in 2004.
The U.S. took bronze in 2004, silver in 2008 and 2012 and gold at the last two Games. The U.S. and China met in the last four Paralympic finals.
In Tokyo, the U.S. women’s sitting team joined the U.S. men’s Olympic teams from 1984 and 1988 as the only American volleyball teams to win consecutive titles at the Paralympics or Olympics.
At the last world championship in 2022, eventual champion Brazil defeated the U.S. in the semifinals. China did not participate.
The Paris Paralympics open Aug. 28. The women’s sitting volleyball team plays its first match on Aug. 30 against China.
2024 U.S. Paralympic Women’s Sitting Volleyball Roster
Lora Webster-Bargellini
Bethany Zummo
Lexi Shifflett-Patterson
Katie Holloway Bridge
Heather Erickson
Monique Matthews
Whitney Dosty
Tia Edwards
Sydney Satchell
Emma Schieck
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay
Nicky Nieves
Hometown Hopefuls: Monique Matthews, Oklahoma
The two-time Paralympic gold medalist on going for another gold in Paris and her love of sitting volleyball
