[2] Eight-time Boston Marathon winner and Paralympic athlete, Jean Driscoll, cites Hedrick as one of her sporting inspirations.

[3] Sharon Hedrick did not get involved in wheelchair sports until she was 19,[1] when she was seen training her dog at a local fair and encouraged to join Temple University's athletic team.

[2] She went on to play for the wheelchair basketball team at the University of Illinois, winning six MVP awards.

Hedricks did not compete in the 1984 team which failed to bring a medal home, but returned to win gold and then silver in the two subsequent games in Seoul 1988, and Barcelona 1992.

[8] In 1985 she was presented with the Southland Olympia Award, which recognizes excellence in sport and the embodiment of the 'amateur ideal'.

[8][11] 2012 saw Hedrick becoming a member of Barack Obama's Presidential Delegation to the London Paralympic Games alongside fellow wheelchair athlete Jean Driscoll.