Alumna Jillian Elwart brought her Toro Pride to the 2024 Paralympic Games, competing among the world’s top performers in the Va’a—an outrigger-style canoe fitted with a float on one side.

Elwart got into the sport in 2014, after a whitewater expedition in Mexico introduced her to para canoe sprinting. She made her international competitive debut in 2018 and began training with Kaitlyn McElroy, a member of the U.S. National Team for sprint kayaking, a few years later. Though she didn’t medal in Paris, Elwart has her eyes set on returning when the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to Los Angeles in 2028.

Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, Elwart underwent many surgeries as a child and used prostheses before going into the field of orthotics and prosthetics herself. She earned postgraduate certificates at CSUDH in both specialties, and now works with pediatric patients at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Shreveport, La.

Elwart says her CSUDH training gave her the best possible preparation. “I couldn’t recommend it more highly for anyone interested in doing this kind of work.”

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