Centro de medios de NYRR

Josh George recorded his first podium finish at the TCS New York City Marathon in 2015, challenging South Africa’s Ernst van Dyk down to the homestretch in Central Park before finishing second in 1:30:55. Then in 2016, he took third behind Switzerland’s Marcel Hug and Australia’s Kurt Fearnley, finishing as the top American in the men’s wheelchair division. In 2018 and 2019 he was eighth and seventh, respectively.

George won the inaugural professional wheelchair athlete race at the 2014 NYC Half, and was the runner-up in the event in both 2016 and 2018.

George has won Chicago Marathon titles in 2003, 2004, and 2006, and 2014. In 2015, he took first at the London Marathon, an event that also served as the World Para Athletics Championships Marathon.

A five-time Paralympian, George competed in the 400 and 800 meters at the Tokyo Paralympics this summer and four events at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, highlighted by fifth-place finishes in the 800 meters and the 5000 meters in the latter. He competed in seven track and field events at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics and was the London 2012 Paralympic bronze medalist at 800 meters, an event that he won at the 2013 World Championships in Lyon, France.

George suffered permanent paralysis when he fell from a 12th-floor window at the age of 4. In 2007, George graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He was profiled in the New York Times on May 15, 2008, when he had set world records at 100, 400, and 800 meters before age 25. He is now a strong advocate of the Rising New York Road Runners Youth Wheelchair Training Program, having donated one of his racing chairs to the program. Off the roads, in 2019 George and his brother opened their own barbeque restaurant and catering company, Smokin’ J’s, in San Diego.