At this year’s summer Paralympics in Paris, earned a silver medal in the F64 shot put. She also competed in the F64 discus event and came in 10th place. F64 is a for Paralympians with limb deficiencies and leg length differences.

“With able-bodied kids, they can use their body differently,” Middleton, a sophomore at Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, The Daily Bulletin in an interview last year. “They have both of their legs. They can do certain things a lot stronger. But it doesn’t matter because I can still compete with them.” 

Middleton is one of three inspiring high school Paralympians on Team USA who are competing in Paris this year. Here are their stories:

ARELLE MIDDLETON, 16

Middleton was with a congenital femoral deficiency, which means her left leg is shorter than her right leg and her left hip is underdeveloped. Despite physical challenges, she competes alongside athletes without disabilities in track and field high school meets.

In 2023, when Middleton was just 15 years old, she was named U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School Female Field Athlete of the Year, and also a spot on the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School All-American list.

Her mother, former WNBA player Sandra Van Embricqs, encouraged Middleton to get involved in sports at an early age.

Middleton joined the Challenged Athletes Foundation, or CAF, at age 12 and frequently won competitions. But when she entered high school, her mother strongly encouraged her to join the Los Osos track and field team.

“I didn’t know how I would feel being with able-bodied kids,” Middleton told The Daily Bulletin. “They wouldn’t really understand as much as kids with a disability would understand, but I met some great people here. It’s good to be part of something with your school.”

The Paralympian plans to compete in both wheelchair basketball and track and field after she graduates in 2026. She believes cross-training will benefit her performance in each sport.

Several college basketball programs have already Middleton.

JORDAN WHITE, 15

At 15 years old, Jordan White is the youngest archer from the U.S. to for the Paralympics this summer. 

A sophomore at Hill Country Christian School of Austin, White’s math teacher Christopher Felleisen calls him a “phenomenal student.”

He’s also a quick learner. The Austin, Texas, native tried archery for the first time less than four years ago when he was looking for a new activity to keep him busy during COVID. He has since won six national records. And less than a year ago, he began working toward competing in Paris.

White was with a right leg that is shorter than the left, challenging his flexibility. He dedicates six to seven days a week to perfecting his form, strength, and mental agility and understands the role he plays in enhancing the representation of people with disabilities in archery. 

“I really hope that I can pave the way for other young disabled archers,” he Hill Country News in August.

“Jordan is a hard worker, asks great questions and is an extremely high achiever,” Felleisen told ����Ӱ��. “What’s exciting about having Jordan in class is that he’s dedicated to doing well and it’s seen in his athletic performance, but his level of achievement is not very different in the classroom.”

White, who is part of a close-knit group of friends known as the ‘Lunch Bunch,’ takes part in his  high school’s engineering pathway program, which focuses on engineering and robotics classes. He’s also a member of the National Junior Honor Society and the yearbook staff. 

“He’s known for being incredibly intelligent and he’s at the top of all his classes, and everyone knows it,” added his academic and college advisor Jessica Pyo.

His teachers say they’re closely following his performance at the Paralympics.

“It looks like he’s having a lot of fun and this is a great story for him to tell, especially with college applications coming soon.” Pyo said.

MAYLEE PHELPS, 17

At just 17, Maylee Phelps has taken wheelchair tennis by storm and has secured a win in the first round of women’s singles in Paris. 

Phelps, a high school junior in Portland, Oregon, was with spina bifida, a condition where the spinal cord does not develop properly. This requires her to wear a leg brace and use a wheelchair.

The Paralympian began competing nationally at age 12, the International Tennis Federation’s Wheelchair Tennis Junior of the Year in 2023 and she scored the No. 1 position on the Cruyff Foundation Girls’ Junior Ranking. 

Phelps her homeschool schedule with at least five days a week of tennis practice and strength training. 

“She just absorbs,” U.S. national wheelchair tennis coach John Devorss the University of Oregon. “You tell her something and it just takes a few times and she’s correcting it herself, which is a great characteristic of any athlete is just be really coachable.”

Phelps and Devorss train in Salem, Oregon, which is more than an hour south of Phelps’ home in Portland. 

In her free time, the tennis player enjoys puzzles and playing with her dog Otis. She also volunteers at Shriners Hospital for Children, introducing children with disabilities to tennis.

However, a provision in the law designated that no funding could be used to give anyone a “dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” Suddenly, the fate of the hundreds of thousands of students across the country who are passionate about archery and learned the sport from coaches in schools was in question. Would this law be interpreted to include bows, arrows and quivers? Would the more than 104,000 adults trained as basic archery instructors need to cease their teachings at schools?   

Understanding that the federal law overgeneralized the guidance of what can be classified as a “dangerous weapon,” the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) stood behind our 21-year unblemished safety record and worked to get legislation passed to clarify that archery could still be funded and allowed in schools. Regardless of party, the bipartisan array of legislators, parents and educators who spoke up in support of these efforts was truly extraordinary. 

Archery supporters wrote, emailed and called their representatives to tell their stories and share what those lawmakers may not have fully understood: Here’s all the good that archery does for kids. Banning bows and arrows was not what was intended in that student safety regulation and individuals, education leaders and conservation organizations came together to change that. 

Late fall, H.R. 5110 was passed to allow schools to utilize federal education funds to purchase or use archery equipment and train students in archery. When President Biden signed it into law, I breathed a sigh of relief. 

If you’ve seen the effect learning archery in schools has on kids, you know why this landmark bill was a big deal. If you’re unfamiliar with archery and are wondering why this matters for students, here’s why: 

• Archery appeals to a broad base of students. Kids from underrepresented communities are just as likely to participate as kids who are coasting along, otherwise completely unengaged in school. Archery engages kids; in fact, 58 percent of kids who participate in archery say they feel more connected to their school. As a school administrator, I was constantly looking at test scores, talking to educators and trying to figure out what we were doing to reach the kids who weren’t participating in additional activities for various reasons. Archery often provides the spark that allows those kids, who might otherwise be overlooked, to find their passion and their people.
  
• Archery has a positive effect on school culture. In the words of two of my superintendent mentors, “Culture eats everything else for breakfast.” When archery is introduced, I’ve seen kids become more positive about and engaged in school and an overall uplift to school culture.

• Archery gives kids connection and a taste of success, often for the first time in their lives. Maybe they don’t feel like an athlete or a scholar or one of the popular kids, but they still need to feel success, especially at that critical time in their lives when they are in middle and high school. 

• Archery is presented to everyone, often in PE. Students try it, they like it, they figure it out and they keep at it until they hit the target. They talk about it on the bus, with friends, with their families. The anecdote we hear over and over again is, “My kid never cared about anything until they learned archery.” It’s not the archery, it’s the opportunity to succeed. 

• Archery is truly equal opportunity. Regardless of gender, race or ability, kids can participate and excel with archery. Kids with learning differences, emotional and physical disabilities and those who are neurodiverse can truly shine through archery. Kids from wealthy home environments use the exact same bow as students from lower-income households. 

NASP is the largest youth archery organization in the world. We require a 10-hour minimum in-school component to introduce new audiences to the sport. Any school anywhere can participate. In fact, nearly 9,000 schools across the U.S. do. More that 1.3 million kids each year are part of the program.

Archery is safe, it’s beneficial and I’m so grateful that unintentional overextension in one law gave us the opportunity not only to clarify how safe the sport truly is, but to shine the spotlight on just how much good it does for the kids we all try to reach each and every day.