Marlon Shirley is familiar figure on stage by now.
So the full-time resident of the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista should feel at home on a San Diego stage as he receives the 2005 Challenged Athlete of the Year Award from the San Diego Hall of Champions.
Shirley’s stages include more than the athletic arenas of the International Paralympics Committee, where he has competed in the Olympic stadiums of Sydney, Australia, and Athens, Greece, shortly after the Olympic Games were contested.
Shirley also is recognizable for his time on the stage of the ESPY Awards.
He was the Best Male Athlete with a Disability at the 2005 ESPY Awards, claiming the honor for the second time in three years. He also won the award in 2003. The ESPYs were created by ESPN, the cable television network, and have become sports version of the Oscars or the Emmys.
Shirley won the 2005 ESPY Award that based on his 2004 accomplishments, when he won three medals at the Paralympics in Athens. He won a gold medal in the 100 meters, silver medal in the 200 meters and bronze medal in the long jump.
He followed up on Athens by winning four goal medals at the 2005 International Paralympic Committee Open European Championships in Espoo, Finland.
Shirley is classified as a T44 disabled athlete, meaning he is an amputee below the knee. He cuts a striking figure while competing. The only difference between his that is image captured by cameras as he races down the track and those of Olympic athletes is Shirley runs with a prosthesis.
At the 2005 IPC Open European Championships, Shirley took first place in the 100 meters, 200, long jump and 4×100 relay. He won the 100 in T44 world record time of 11.03 seconds and the 200 in 23.40. Shirley broke his own world record of 11.08 in the T44 100.
Shirley’s awards as a disabled athlete include being named the Track and field athlete of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2000 and the IOC President’s Disabled Athlete Award winner in 2003.
The three words that are the slogan to the International Paralympics Committee are Empower, Achieve and Inspire. All three describe Marlon Shirley since he first won Paralympic medals.
Posted on May 3, 2006 by San Diego Hall of Champions
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