Photo by Mike Gladu

Paralympic Sport: Alpine skiing and Cycling
Paralympic Games Attended: Innsbruck, Austria (1984); Innsbruck, Austria (1988); Atlanta, USA (1996); Sydney, Australia (2000)
Paralympic Medals: Bronze (women’s alpine combo), bronze (women’s downhill) and silver (women’s giant slalom)—1984; silver (women’s downhill) and silver (women’s giant slalom)—1988; silver (cycling, kilo) and bronze (cycling, 200-meter sprint)—1996
Additional Accomplishments: 2002 True Hero of Sports Award, Carpe Diem Award, 2001 International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame

Cara Dunne-Yates was blinded by cancer, but it didn’t stop her from obtaining an Ivy League education, raising a family, or winning multiple medals as a Paralympic athlete.

Born and raised in Chicago, Yates was less than a year old when she was diagnosed with retinal cancer. Although she lost both eyes to the disease by the time she was 5, she still learned to bike and ski on her own. In 1984 at age 13 she won a silver and two bronze medals in downhill skiing at the Paralympic Games in Innsbruck and came back four years later to win two more silvers. She enrolled in Harvard where she became president of her class and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies in 1992. Along the way she became fluent in Spanish and Japanese. After graduation, she worked as a volunteer ski instructor for the disabled in Utah, and she became co-director of the New England Retinoblastoma Family Foundation.

Yates was training for an upcoming winter event when her cancer returned. After a year in treatment, she enrolled in and eventually received a doctor of law degree from UCLA. She joined the university’s cycling team and competed as a tandem racer with her sighted partner Scott Evans at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games where she won both a silver and a bronze. She also met another sighted cyclist, Spencer Yates, and they were married in 1998. They had two children, a daughter in 2000 and a son in 2002.

Yates had just finished competing in the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, when she was diagnosed with cancer for a third time. While undergoing chemotherapy, she received the 2002 True Hero of Sports Award from Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sports in Society. “I feel like my life has been saved through sports,” she said at the awards ceremony. “I feel like God’s put me in this position where I can help people see that you can really be sick and have a disability and still have an awesome life.”

Dunne-Yates was a published author and speaker, legal counsel, and goodwill emissary for the United States. As an advocate for the disabled, Dunne-Yates received many honors for her work with cancer survivors, including the Lance Armstrong Foundation Carpe Diem Award. She and her husband, Spencer, rode alongside Lance Armstrong at the 2001 Ride for the Roses. “Cara was one of the most incredible people I’ve every known,” said Mark Lucas, executive director of the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes. “She was a phenomenal athlete, wife and mother, and she was always working to help other people. She accomplished more in 34 years than most people will in their lifetime.”

Cara Dunne-Yates died on Oct. 20, 2004 of cancer at the age of 34. As a four-time Paralympian, she is one of a select few athletes to compete at both summer and winter Paralympic Games.