Emily Oberst - The Shot That Changed Everything: From Cancer Survivor to Paralympic Medalist
Emily Oberst had spent her childhood like many other athletic kids—on the move. Weekends were jam-packed with basketball, softball, golf, and track. She loved competition, and she was good at it. But everything changed in 8th grade when she felt a sudden, sharp pain in her shin while trying out for an AAU basketball team. What seemed like a simple case of shin splints turned out to be something far more serious. An x-ray led to a biopsy, which revealed a rare bone cancer called Ewing sarcoma. Emily was 12. In less than 24 hours, she was thrust into a whirlwind of chemotherapy, hospital stays, and a life-altering surgery that removed most of her tibia and left her unable to run or jump ever again. She spent nearly two years in recovery. “I felt completely lost,” Emily recalls. “All of my friends were still competing. That had been my world.” The one sport she could still play was golf. She returned to the course, made her high school team, and her comeback made headlines in the local paper. That’s when a wheelchair basketball coach saw her story and gave her mom a call. Emily had never heard of wheelchair basketball—and initially wanted nothing to do with it. She could walk, after all. Why would she need a wheelchair? Still, the coach persisted. “Just come to one practice,” he said. Emily finally gave in, intending to politely decline in person. Instead, she found herself completely hooked. What she saw wasn’t what she expected—it was competitive, high-paced, physical, and full of the same fire she loved about able-bodied basketball. “I’ve never been more wrong in my life,” she laughs. That single practice sparked a new dream. A year later, while watching Team USA win gold in the Rio Paralympics, she made herself a promise: “Someday, I want to do that.” She kept that promise. Emily went on to play wheelchair basketball at the University of Alabama and then transferred to the University of Illinois, where she trained under legendary coach Steph Wheeler. After graduating during the pandemic, she began working full-time at Abbott, thinking her days of elite sports were over. But when the Tokyo Paralympics were postponed a year, the dream reignited. She asked her employer if she could take time off to train. They said yes. In 2021, she made Team USA. And in 2024, in a sold-out arena in Paris, Emily Oberst became a Paralympic silver medalist. Now living in Chicago, Emily balances a full-time career with daily workouts, evening practices, and international competitions. She’s getting ready to try out for the next Team USA cycle and is eyeing LA 2028 with determination and fire. Reflecting on her journey, Emily says the advice she’d give her younger self is simple: “Embrace what makes you unique. I almost missed the opportunity of a lifetime because I didn’t want to be different. But it was that difference that gave me everything.”
———
Watch the video here.
