8 of the Team USA Athletes We Are Excited to Watch at the 2021 Paralympic Games

Scout Bassett (@scoutbassett on Instagram) is a five-time World Championship medalist and competed in the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016. Bassett was born in Nanjing, China, and as an infant, she lost her right leg in a chemical fire. After she was abandoned at the age of 1-and-a-half, she spent seven years of her life in a government-run orphanage, where she said she experienced "unimaginable hardships for a child" in a powerful essay for POPSUGAR last year, including child labor and physical abuse.

She was adopted by her parents, Joe and Susan Bassett, and moved to a town of about 1,600 people. Although she said she felt like she lost her identity, Bassett said sports became a big part of her life. She started running at age 14 and received a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) to fund her training. She majored in anthropology/sociology at UCLA and graduated in 2011.

Personal motto: "Something that always resonates with me is 'never give in.' Each and every day I strive to live by these words and encourage others to stay hopeful and stay persistent in what lies ahead."

McKenzie Coan (@mckenzie_coan on Instagram) is a Paralympian who competed in Rio in 2016 and in London in 2012. Coan was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) as a kid and found swimming after following her brothers' lead by joining the swim team at her local pool as a child.

At the Rio Games, she won three gold medals (50m free, 400m free, 100m free) and one silver (34 pt. 4x100m freestyle relay). She's also won 10 medals in the World Championships, most recently in 2019: gold (100m free, 400m free), and silver (50m free, 34 pt. 4x100m free, 34 pt. 4x100m relay). Coan graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 2018.

Personal motto: "We are all equal in the water."

Nicky Nieves (@nicolina_cruzzz on Instagram) competed in the 2016 Games in Rio, where she won a gold medal with Team USA. She also competed in the World Championships in 2014 and 2018, and she won silver in both competitions.

Nieves is from the Bronx, NY, and started playing volleyball in 2002 for the Life Academy Lions. Her senior year of high school, she earned Conference Player of the Year, and she was awarded the John Smillie Award by the East Coast Conference in 2010. She played Division II volleyball at Queens College and graduated in 2012.

Personal motto: "Call to me and I will answer you." — Jeremiah 33:3.

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay (@kaleomaclay on Instagram) competed in the 2016 Games, where she won gold with Team USA, and in the 2012 Games in London, where she won silver with Team USA. She also competed in the World Championships in 2010, 2014, and 2018, where she won the silver medal in all three competitions. In 2019, Kanahele Maclay won gold at the World ParaVolley Super 6.

Kanahele Maclay married her husband, Matt Maclay, in 2016, and they have a 3-year-old son named Duke. She and her husband own a coffee, bakery, and flower shop in Oklahoma City called Flower and Flour. According to her Team USA bio page, her hobbies include surfing and skating, and she would like to own a floral business one day.

Personal motto: "'Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.' — 1 Timothy 4:12. It's a Bible verse, but it has been very fitting to my life thus far."

Jessica Long (@jessicatatianalong on Instagram) competed in the Paralympics in 2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, and 2016 in Rio. She's a 23-time medalist with 13 gold, six silver, and four bronze medals and is the second most decorated Paralympian in US history (NBD).

Long was born with fibular hemimelia, which means she didn't have fibulas, ankles, heels, and most of the other bones in her feet. When she was 18 months old, she had to have her legs amputated below the knees so she could be fitted for prosthetic legs in order to learn how to walk. She joined her first competitive swim team at age 10 and by age 12 was already competing in the Paralympics in Athens. According to her Team USA bio, her interests include Pilates, reading, interior design, finding new coffee shops, and spending time with family.

Personal motto: "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work."

Allysa Seely (@triallysa on Instagram) won gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio and is a three-time ITU Paratriathlon World Champion (2015, 2016, 2018). Over her career, she's won 12 (!) gold medals at ITU World Paratriathlon events.

In 2016, Seely was featured the ESPN Magazine's The Body Issue. In 2019, she won an ESPY for best female athlete with a disability. In 2010, she was diagnosed with Chiari II malformation, basilar invagination, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Complications from these diagnoses and subsequent surgeries led to the amputation of her left leg below the knee.

Personal motto: "When workouts get hard and painful, I say to myself, 'This is what gold is made of.'"

Melissa Stockwell (@mstockwell01 on Instagram) competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics as a swimmer and in the 2016 Games in Rio in the paratriathlon, where she won a bronze medal. She's also a three-time ITU Paratriathlon World Champion (2012, 2011, 2010) and four-time USA Paratriathlon National Champion (2018, 2013, 2012, 2011). In 2013, she completed her first Ironman.

Stockwell graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army's transportation corps. While deployed in Iraq in 2004, her vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and she lost her leg. She was the first woman soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War and was later honored with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Although she competed as a swimmer in the 2008 Paralympic Games, Stockwell decided to switch her training to focus on the triathlon. She is a USA Triathlon Level I certified coach and is on the board of directors for the Wounded Warriors Project, USA Triathlon Foundation, and USA Triathlon Women's Committee.

Personal motto: "You haven't come this far to only get this far."

Oksana Masters (@oksanamasters on Instagram) is a five-time Paralympian who competes in both the summer and winter Games. She made her Paralympic debut at the London 2012 Games, where she won bronze in rowing with partner Rob Jones. Her most recent disciplines are road cycling in the summer and cross country skiing in the winter. She's also an eight-time Paralympic medalist with two gold, three silver, and three bronze medals, and she has 16 World Championship medals: nine gold, four silver, and three bronze.

In an interview with POPSUGAR in 2019, Masters said, "I learned to appreciate my differences because that is what's going to make me irreplaceable at the end of the day and in this world. And sports have made me realize I'm able to represent my country, I'm able to represent Team Visa, and [I learned] so much more about who I am because of my unique differences."