Pittsburgh Native Wins Gold Medal In 2024 Paralympics

PARIS, FRANCE — Pittsburgh native Rebecca Hart has won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Hart won the dressage gold aboard Floratina, besting six-time gold medalist Natasha Baker of Britain. Hart was competing in the Grade III category for riders with severe impairments in both legs but minimal or no trunk impairment.

“It’s been 25 years of trying to get to this point and being close many, many times,” Hart, 39 and now a Florida resident, told the Associated Press. “To actually get it, I feel like I’m going to wake up at any moment. It’s just surreal. It feels like a dream.”

Hart suffers from hereditary spastic paraplegia, a group of inherited disorders that involves weakness and spasticity, which is stiffness of the legs. The disease usually gets worse over time, according to the National Institute of Health.

The dressage event that Hart won involves riders and horses competing in a variety of skills and movements that judges score on a 1-to-10 scale.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.