Since Aug. 28, paralympians from across the world have met in Paris, France to compete in various counterpart sports to represent home countries. 

This year, Indiana is home to seven paralympics and three gold medalists:

Evan Austin- Swimming

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A four-time paralympic swimmer, Austin resides from Terre Haute, Indiana where he went to South Vigo high school before attending Indiana State. During his time as a Sycamore, he competed at the 2012 London games before taking a brief break in his training.

Once resuming training in late 2013, Austin would qualify for 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo where he would earn gold in 50m butterfly and bronze in the 400m freestyle. In this year's games, Austin finished fourth in the 400m freestyle and sixth in the 200m individual medley.

When he is not winning international contests, Austin has spent time as an assistant swim coach at both Purdue University and his alma mater South Vigo high school.

Jeff Butler- Wheelchair Rugby

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A three-time paralympian in wheelchair rugby, Butler is a Fort Wayne native and Homestead high school grad. Upon graduation, he would attend University of Texas before starting his own software company and earning silver at the 2016 Rio games — in the same year. Butler and the rugby team would follow the performance up with two additional runner-up finishes at 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris.

Outside of rugby, Butler spends time working as a board member for Liberare as well as a board advisor for the United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Sam Grewe- High Jump

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Hailing from the small town of Middlebury, Grewe grew up playing lacrosse, basketball and football before being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer that resulted in an amputation of his right leg at just 13 years old.

Due to this, Grewe was brought under the wing of the 2012 BCS championship winning Notre Dame football team, four years before he would attend the university as a cancer-free student.

Five years after his diagnosis, Grewe would compete and win silver at his first of three paralympics at 2016 Rio where he competed in the high jump. In Tokyo, he would take home gold before settling for eighth place in this year's games in Paris.

Currently, Grewe is in his fourth year of study at Michigan University’s medical school, with hopes of going into biomedical engineering to develop prosthetics.

Noah Malone- 100 Meter Dash

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After breaking several records at Hamilton Southeastern and winning the 2019 200m IHSAA state championship, Malone would make paralympic debut in Paris a year later where he won gold in the 4x100 medley and silver in 100m and 400m.

In Paris, Malone took home gold in the 100m, cementing himself as the fastest Paralympian in the world.

Off the track, Malone is a keynote speaker at TedXIndianapolis and wrote a book titled, “Losing Vision Not Dreams.”

Malone will be competing in the 400m on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, and will be running in the relay races on Sept. 6. Tune into Peacock TV to catch him in action.

Tyler Merren- Goal Ball

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A Fort Wayne native, Merren is a five-time paralympian on the goal ball team where he made his debut at the 2004 Athens games when he helped the team win bronze. Competing in each Paralympics outside of 2012 London since, Merren won a silver in 2016 Rio and fourth place finishes in both 2008 and 2020.

This year, Merren and Team USA settled for their worst finish in his paralympic career with a sixth place finish in Paris.

Merren works as a personal trainer and is a founder of ReVision Training LLC.

Grace Nuhfer- Swimming

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A recent Greenwood highschool alum, Nuhfer is currently a swimmer at Akron University. Competing in her first Paralympics in Paris, she won silver in the 100m butterfly the same event where she owns a Para-American record in the 200m category.

Nuhfer is a Business Data Analytics major at Akron and clearly has a bright paralympic future ahead following graduation.

Lizzi Smith- Swimming

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The three-time paralympian from Muncie, made her debut at the 2016 Rio games where she won silver and bronze in the 4x100 freestyle and medley relays, respectively.

In 2020, the Muncie Central alum won silver in the 100m butterfly and will be competing in the 100m butterfly on Sept. 6 to try and improve on her silver medal finishes in Paris. Tune into Peacock TV to catch her in action.