Josh George is a wheelchair basketball player and racer. This past fall he competed in the Paralympics in Athens, Greece, and although he broke world records and medaled, he missed the elusive gold.

George, a news-editorial journalism major, is now focusing on playing wheelchair basketball for the Illini. The team has completed its regular season, and has the national championships coming up in two weeks.

Q: What sports do you play and how did you get involved in them?

A: Currently I’m really just involved in basketball and racing. All through high school I raced, played basketball, swam and played tennis. I’ve been doing all this since I was about 8 years old, the same age any kid would start.

Q: What wheelchair sports are there?

A: Basically you pick any able-bodied sport and there’s a wheelchair side. Except soccer; that would be kind of hard (laughs).

Q: What would you say is the highlight of your athletic career?

A: The whole experience in Athens this September was definitely the highlight of my career. The first time I got on the track for a major international competition, I won my heat and set a world record.

Q: What are your basketball practices like?

A: It sort of depends on where we are in the season. In the fall semester it’s mostly skill work – shooting, passing – and then chair skill work, which is the equivalent of sprinting. Then in the spring we buckle down, start focusing on team concepts.

Now we’re sort of in that peaking stage. Our workouts have shortened from two hours every morning to an hour and a half. Practices are almost entirely scrimmage to get us ready for competition at nationals in two weeks.

Q: What are some of your interests outside of sports?

A: I’m actually a very lazy person. My whole summer I got a taste of what it’s like to be a professional athlete while I was training for the Paralympics. Rest was so vital, I got a perfect opportunity to lay around on the couch watching movies and reading and stuff.

I don’t know, being a two-sport athlete, there really isn’t a world outside of sports.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about Champaign?

A: I love how it’s so incredibly flat. In the evenings I can actually look out on the sunset and pretend everything below me is water and I’m watching the sun set on the ocean. For that fifteen minutes a day, it’s beautiful.

Q: You weren’t on campus in the fall, What did you do for the semester?

A: (After competing in Greece) I had an internship in (Washington, D.C.) working at ESPN’s satellite studio there. I was an intern for Around the Horn. I’m from the (Washington, D.C.) area, so it gave me an excuse to stay around home.

Q: What’s your favorite class you’ve taken at the U of I?

A: Asian Mythology. I took this Asian Mythology class a year and a half ago, and it was just amazing. I loved it because we studied religion through the stories associated with it.

Q: What’s your dream job?

A: My dream job would be travel writer whose job is to write reviews of amazing resorts. To travel around the world to amazing resorts and write about it.

Q: What’s something interesting people don’t know about you?

A: I’m a contributing author on a book that’s ranked 144th on Amazon.com right now. It’s called Don’t Miss Your Boat – I’ll make my plug – it’s selling for $12 on Amazon.com.

Q: Do you have any athletic goals you still haven’t achieved?

A: Oh yeah. To win a gold medal. I’ve got to go back (to the Paralympics) and win a gold medal. My two best races were my last two, and I crashed. I’ve got my wheel hanging in my room like a mobile; it broke into six pieces.

I’d like to set a world record that lasts more than two days. And basketball – it’d be nice to win a world championship.