{"id":7963,"date":"2022-05-24T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=7963"},"modified":"2022-05-24T15:05:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:05:40","slug":"uw-whitewater-paralympian-john-boie-honored-by-president-biden-at-white-house","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-whitewater-paralympian-john-boie-honored-by-president-biden-at-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Whitewater Paralympian John Boie honored by President Biden at White House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
President Joe Biden, standing, shakes John Boie\u2019s hand at a special ceremony at the Whitewater. (Photo courtesy of the White House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flanked by his fellow athletes from the U.S. Paralympic and Olympic teams, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u00a0wheelchair basketball<\/a>\u00a0player and\u00a0gold medalist<\/a>\u00a0John Boie was recognized by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a special ceremony at the White House on May 4.<\/p>\n

Boie, a UW-Whitewater alum from the Class of 2014 who also earned an\u00a0MBA<\/a>\u00a0in 2019, is a member of the Team USA wheelchair basketball team and currently works as an\u00a0academic adviser<\/a> at the university.<\/p>\n

About 600 American competitors from the summer games in Tokyo and the winter games in Beijing attended the special ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe toured the White House first, going through the main walkway into the east wing, visiting all the famous parlors and rooms, and then we were led out into the Rose Garden. You could see into the Oval Office and watch the president at work,\u201d Boie said. \u201cWhen he came outside and spoke to us, he told us how proud he was of us and of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in America, anything is possible. And you are the explanation of what we mean. You are \u2014 it\u2019s all about possibility, breaking limits. You represent the very soul of America, and that\u2019s not hyperbole. You genuinely do,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n

Boie had no idea that he was going to meet and shake hands with the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set myself up between the Oval Office and the podium. All of a sudden, he turns to come down our way. The next thing I know, he\u2019s in front of me and I\u2019m introducing myself. I led with a John-Boy Walton joke, and he noticed right away that we share the same initials. He said \u2018JB? They call me JB!\u2019 and we took a selfie, and he congratulated me and we shook hands again. Meeting the president was surreal. It\u2019s the kind of person you don\u2019t think you\u2019re ever going to meet \u2014 or be within miles of \u2014 so it was cool to make that personal connection with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"John
President Biden, left, and Boie take a selfie with a gold medal Boie earned at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. (Photo courtesy of John Boie)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five of the 12 players on the U.S. men\u2019s national team are former Warhawks: Jake Williams, Matt Scott, Matt Lesperance, Nate Hinze and John Boie. Christina Schwab, head coach of the UW-Whitewater women\u2019s wheelchair basketball team, was an assistant on the coaching staff of the gold medalist men\u2019s Team USA. Alumna Lindsey Zurbrugg and women\u2019s wheelchair basketball Team USA won bronze medals.<\/p>\n

Boie said Team USA created quite a buzz around Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took in all the tourist sites \u2014 museums and the Lincoln, Washington and Martin Luther King memorials \u2014 and local spots like restaurants. All the residents and business owners knew who we were and asked, \u2018Can I see your medal?\u2019 and wanted to take pictures. We were wearing our medals proudly and explaining to folks what the games feel like and about the experience \u2014 the work, the sacrifice. It was really cool to have other athletes there who understand what went into all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boie will compete for Team USA next in July during a competition in Brazil. Qualifiers from that tournament will play in the world championships in November in Dubai.<\/p>\n

With a smile of determination, Boie said, \u201cEveryone\u2019s geared up for Paris 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Jeff Angileri<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of John Boie and the White House<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2022-05-johnboie-honored<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flanked by his fellow athletes from the U.S. Paralympic and Olympic teams, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater\u00a0wheelchair basketball\u00a0player and\u00a0gold medalist\u00a0John Boie was recognized by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a special ceremony at the White House on May 4. Boie, a UW-Whitewater alum from the Class of 2014 who also earned an\u00a0MBA\u00a0in 2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-7963","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/7963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=7963"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=7963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}