| Ella Chafee | |
| Sport: | Wheelchair fencing Wheelchair basketball Para Swimming Wheelchair slalom Wheelchair racing |
| Disability: | Polio |
| Club: | Chicago Charmers, Ryan AbilityLab (Formerly Rehab Institute of Chicago) Express/Sky |
| Birth Date: | 4 March 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Death Place: | Oak Lawn, Illinois, United States |
| Alma Mater: | University of Illinois |
| Height: | 5ft 2in |
Ella Chafee née Cox (March 4, 1945–June 16, 2019) was an American wheelchair basketball player and wheelchair fencer who competed at three Paralympic Games. She also took part in track and field and swimming.[1]
Chafee contracted polio when she was six years old during the 1950s. She took part in wheelchair racing in the early 1960s as well as wheelchair basketball, she and her sister-in-law Hope Chafee, who also has polio, both took part in the 1964 Summer Paralympics where Ella won two medals in swimming and Hope won three medals. Ella participated in the 1968 Summer Paralympics and won the gold medal in the women's 4x40m relay. Ella returned to the Games in 1996 as a wheelchair fencer.[2] [3] [4]
In 1979, Chafee took part in the Boston Marathon in the wheelchair division where she raced in her everyday use wheelchair.[5]
Chafee was inducted into the National Wheelchair Athletic Association (now Move United) Hall of Fame in 1990 and the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 2014. [6]
Chafee died of a liver aneurysm aged 74 at a hospital in Oak Lawn on June 16, 2019.[7] [8]