Quick Facts
Biography
Ella Chafee née Cox (1945–June 16, 2019) was an American wheelchair basketball player and wheelchair fencer who competed at three Paralympic Games. She also took part in track and field and swimming.
Sporting career
Chafee contracted polio when she was six years old during the 1950s. She took part in wheelchair racing in the early 1960s as well as wheelchair basketball, she and her sister-in-law Hope Chafee, who also has polio, both took part in the 1964 Summer Paralympics where Ella won two medals in swimming and Hope won three medals. Ella participated in the 1968 Summer Paralympics and won the gold medal in the women's 4x40m relay. Ella returned to the Games in 1996 as a wheelchair fencer.
In 1979, Chafee took part in the Boston Marathon in the wheelchair division where she raced in her everyday use wheelchair.
Death
Chafee died of a liver aneurysm aged 74 at a hospital in Oak Lawn on June 16, 2019.