Survivor alums Noelle Lambert and Ryan Medrano are headed to Paris for the 2024 Paralympics.
“From @SuvivorCBS to the @Paralympics!!!!!!” Lambert, 27, wrote via her Instagram Story on Sunday, July 21 alongside a video of Medrano, 26, celebrating that the duo made the team.
“We did it!!!! @noellelambert,” Medrano, captioned the clip he reshared on his own social media page.
The pair’s coach, Kris Mack, shared a picture of Lambert and Medrano together rocking matching Team USA shirts via his Instagram Story.
“They keep telling me they were on a TV show,” Mack teased.
The 2024 Paralympics begin on Wednesday, August 28, and will end on Sunday, September 8.
The former reality stars, who comPeted on season 43 in 2022, will represent the United States as members of the track and field team. This will be Lambert’s second time comPeting in the Paralympics. During the 2020 Games, she came in sixth place during the women’s 100-meter T63 race. (The T-63 classification is for athletes with a single leg above-the-knee amputation.)
This is Medrano’s first time comPeting in the Paralympics. He began professionally comPeting in 2023 after connecting with Lambert on Survivor. Medrano won a silver medal at the 2024 World Championship for the 400-meter T38 race. (The T-38 classification is for athletes who face coordination impairments.)
On Survivor, fans got to know more about Lambert and Medrano’s emotional backstories. Lambert tragically lost her left leg after a moped accident in 2016. Before the incident, she was on the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Lacrosse team. After getting her leg amputated, she returned to play Lacrosse.
Two years later, she made the Paralympic track and field team and set a new American record in the 100-meter dash. She is also the founder of the nonprofit, The Born to Run Foundation, which helps provide athletic prostheses to young amputees in need.
Medrano, for his part, was born three months early with mild cerebral palsy. The warehouse associate shared that doctors previously told his parents that he would never walk. However, after four years of physical therapy, Medrano was finally able to walk.
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Still Going! Amal Clooney’s Favorite Anti-Frizz Spray is Still 20% off on Amazon! View DealWhile Lambert and Medrano didn’t work together on Survivor, they formed a strong bond off the island. In a joint June 2023 interview for Para Track & Field, Lambert shared she talked to Medrano about looking into becoming a para-athlete.
“A lightbulb went off in my head,” she recalled to the outlet about approaching Medrano.
The twosome discussed their plans about how Medrano could get involved. Before leaving Fiji, Lambert shared that she told host Jeff Probst, “You’re going to see Ryan in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.” And she was ultimately right.
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