Arkansas Tech University alumna Kaitlin Bounds will represent her country in July as a member of Team USA at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships track and field competition in Paris, France.
Bounds, who was diagnosed with autism at age 4, is among 45 athletes who earned an invitation to represent the United States based upon their performance at the 2023 U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships in Chula Vista, Calif. Bounds qualified for Team USA as a middle distance runner.
This is Bounds’ second World Para Athletics Championship selection. She also competed for Team USA in London, England, during the 2017 event.
A resident of Russellville, Bounds earned four letters as a member of the Arkansas Tech cross country program. She was named All-Gulf South Conference in 2010 and was a multiple academic all-conference honoree, earning recognition for her classroom performance in both the GSC and the Great American Conference.
Bounds graduated from ATU in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.
Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S. Paralympics, a division of the nonprofit United States Olympic Committee, states on its website that it is “dedicated to becoming the world leader in the paralympic movement and promoting excellence in the lives of people with paralympic-eligible impairments, including physical disabilities and visual impairments.”