Paralympic Champion Trevon Jenifer Inspires Youth at Dunbar Alexandria-Olympic Boys & Girls Club

ALEXANDRIA,VA-United States Paralympic Champion Trevon Jenifer inspired a hushed crowd on Tuesday afternoon at the Dunbar Alexandria-Olympic Boys & Girls Club with his compelling story of perseverance, determination, and resolve.

“Just because you grow up in a certain neighborhood or with certain challenges, you are not consigned to that future,” Jenfier told a full gymnasium at the 401 N Payne Street location on October 8. “So many times, people believe that, since we’re born this way, or into this circumstance, that defines who you are, and that’s just how it is. I do not allow preconceived notions [to] define who I am, and do not allow my disability to be my identity.”

Jenifer, who grew up in Calvert County, was born with a condition called congenital phocomelia, which caused him to be born without legs. He began playing wheelchair basketball at the age of four with teams in the Washington metropolitan area. After a brief detour to wheelchair track (he still holds multiple records in the U11 and U14 age groups) and high-school wrestling (he finished third in his weight class at the Maryland state tournament during his senior year), Jenifer attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology.

During his storied collegiate career, Jenifer was a two-time All American (2010, 2011), captained the wheelchair basketball team, and twice led the team in scoring, rebounds, and assists. In 2022, he was inducted into the Edinboro University Athletics Hall of Fame.

After graduating from Edinboro University, Jenifer qualified for the USA Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team. In 2012, he helped that team win a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in London, the first time in 12 years that team won any medal. Four years later, Jenifer and the USA Men’s National’s Wheelchair Basketball Team won gold at the Paralympic Games in Rio, their first gold medal in 28 years.

In 2020, the USA Men’s National’s Wheelchair Basketball Team went back-to-back, winning gold at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Last month, they completed the first threepeat in Paralympic history, winning gold at the Paralympic Games in Paris by besting Great Britain 73-69 in the championship game, where Jenifer contributed 14 points on perfect 7-for-7 shooting, and added seven rebounds.

Jenifer said that it was especially sweet to win the Paralympic gold medal in Paris. “I got my USA start in Paris in 2009 for the W23 team,” Jenifer said. “So it was full circle to be able to go back there, 15 years later, and play on the world stage. It was also the first gold medal game where my children were there. And then we won the gold medal on my birthday; getting serenaded by 13,000 people singing ‘Happy Birthday’ was pretty cool.”

Also pretty cool is Jenifer’s job with the Secret Service as a Personnel Security Specialist in the Security Management Division, meaning he helps with background checks for people hired by the Secret Service. And he said that he still gets goosebumps from his multiple visits to the White House with the USA Men’s National’s Wheelchair Basketball Team, especially in 2012 when he met President Obama after the team won its first medal in 12 years.

Jenifer’s visit to the Dunbar Alexandria-Olympic Boys & Girls Club was sponsored by Comcast NBCUniversal. Ray Roundtree, a Comcast Senior Vice President, said that it was donating 25 laptops to the club, which is one of 1250 WiFi-connected hubs that provide internet access and digital services to students and families in need. “We want our young people to know that the world is limitless,” Roundtree said, “and part of that is introducing them to inspiring people like Trevon.”

To that end, Jenifer was featured in a commercial that aired during the Paralympics, where a young boy asks him, “What happened?” The commercial shows Jenifer lifting himself off the floor, seeking out the best player on other teams, and pushing himself to be the best. It ends with the tagline “for the love of changing perceptions.” That mission continues today, Jenifer said. “It’s about changing the story,” Jenifer said. “I want you to stare at me for what I do on the court, and not just because of my disability. The commercial asks ‘What happened?’ The answer is that we won the gold medal. Again.”

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