Held in partnership between the U.S. Squash Foundation and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, the Drive to LA28 Campaign Launch event featured a special panel of Olympians Kassidy Cook and Jordan Burroughs and Paralympian Brad Snyder, Thursday, June 19, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
Watch footage of the panel above.
Introducing Olympic Wrestler Jordan Burroughs
Two-time Olympian Jordan Burroughs has dominated the mat since he started wrestling at the senior level in 2011. Upon entering the professional spotlight after a standout career at the University of Nebraska, which saw him earn two NCAA titles, Burroughs won 69 straight matches from 2011-14, setting a new U.S. record. In his Olympic debut in 2012, he earned a gold medal in the men’s 74-kilogram class. Burroughs earned the distinction of U.S. Olympic Committee Male Olympic Athlete of the Year in 2015. A six-time world champion, Burroughs also has over 30 international championships and 190 career victories under his belt. Burroughs claimed his sixth Pan American Wrestling Championships in 2023, securing back-to-back titles at 79kg. He holds the record for the most Olympic and World Championships in American history and is considered one of the greatest freestyle wrestlers of all time.
Introducing Olympic Diver Kassidy Cook
Two-time Olympian Kassidy Cook is a standout diver for Team USA, specializing in the 3-meter springboard. Cook made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, finishing 13th, before returning to Paris 2024, where she and partner Sarah Bacon earned a silver medal in the 3-meter synchronized springboard. Outside of her Olympic success, Cook found her best international finish at the 2015 Pan American Games where she claimed silver, and at the 2023 World Championships, where she placed fourth. A graduate of Stanford University, Cook led the Cardinal to two national championships and two Pac-12 championships, earning five All-American honors.
Introducing Paralympic Swimmer Brad Snyder
Retired Navy Lieutenant Brad Snyder lost his vision in an IED blast while supporting combat operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in September 2011. Snyder, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2006 and captained the Navy swim team during the 2005-06 season, began swimming again while in rehabilitation. On the one-year anniversary of the IED blast that took his vision, Snyder raced to a Paralympic gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the Paralympic Games London 2012, winning the event by more than 25 seconds. He also collected gold in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 50m freestyle. Four years later, at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, he added gold medals in those same three events as well as a silver in the 100m backstroke. En route to his 100m freestyle gold, he broke a 30-year-old world record in the men’s S11 class with a time of 56.15 seconds. With a successful Para swimming career under his belt, Snyder looked to a new challenge in 2018. With the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 just around the corner, Snyder began triathlon training. Competing in various events both at home and abroad, Snyder found immediate success, securing a bronze medal at the 2018 Sarasota-Bradenton CAMTRI Paratriathlon American Championships, followed by another bronze at the 2019 Yokohama ITU World Paratriathlon Series. In the same year, he added a bronze medal from the 2019 Banyoles ITU Paratriathlon World Cup and the 2019 Sarasota-Bradenton CAMTRI Paratriathlon American Championships. His success was showcased at Tokyo 2020 as he brought home gold in the individual PTVI, with a time of 1:01:16 in his first-ever appearance as a Paralympic triathlete. In 2021, Snyder once again clinched gold at the Americas Triathlon Para Championships in Pleasant Prairie. Snyder went on to write a memoir with Tom Sileo titled Fire in My Eyes: An American Warrior’s Journey from being Blinded on the Battlefield to Gold Medal Victory, and he was appointed to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Board of Directors as an Athletes’ Advisory Council representative in 2019.
