As for what’s next beyond that, Serio isn’t sure.“It was great to live in Italy for eight months and to feel a little more connected to my roots,” Serio says. Serio, 37, knew going into the Paris Games that it would be his last Paralympics as a player, so he tried to soak in the […]
As for what’s next beyond that, Serio isn’t sure.“It was great to live in Italy for eight months and to feel a little more connected to my roots,” Serio says.
Serio, 37, knew going into the Paris Games that it would be his last Paralympics as a player, so he tried to soak in the entire experience.
“The sports-specific wheelchair I use costs ,000,” Serio says. “I’m hoping to help remove those hurdles for the next generation and help carry the Paralympic movement forward.”
Serio’s career has had no shortage of special moments. As co-captain, he helped lead the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team to gold medals at the 2016 Paralympics in London, the COVID-delayed 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo and finally again at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Steve Serio, co-captain of the U.S. Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball team, says he never thought he would have the honor of being named a flag bearer for Team USA. And yet there he was with fellow para athlete Nicky Nieves, leading the 225-member Team USA Paris delegation down the famed Champs-Élysées during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games.
Not only will Paris be his final Paralympic Games, Serio also has decided to retire as a basketball player altogether.
“To be voted flag bearer among my peers, it’s one of the most special moments of my career,” Serio says.
Serio was selected to represent his country at the Paralympics for the first time at the 2008 Summer Games hosted in Beijing. The team finished fourth after losing to Great Britain in the bronze medal match. In 2012, he and the men’s team captured the bronze medal at the Summer Paralympics in London before the run of three gold-medal finishes in Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris.
During his senior year of high school in 2005, Serio was named tournament MVP after scoring 74 points in four games while leading the Lightning in the Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships. Soon after, he was one of 12 American players selected to represent the country at the 2005 World Junior Basketball Championships in Australia, where they took home the gold medal. In 2007, Serio and his American teammates again took home the gold, this time at the Parapan American Games in Brazil.
“The only thing I did differently was live in the moment and be present more,” Serio says. “The thing I’m going to miss about being a Team USA athlete isn’t the medals, it’s being around the guys, being in the huddle together.”
“It’s still early days,” Serio says. “It’s the first time in my life that I don’t have a specific goal. It feels scary and refreshing all at the same time.”
“I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish on the field of play,” Serio says. “The place I can give back to the sport that has given me everything is off the court.”
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Serio embraced all of the off-the-court moments with his teammates, like team meetings and all the meals they ate together.
Serio has enjoyed success throughout his basketball career. He began playing the sport at age 14 with the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in New York state. Within months of joining, he and his teammates took home the club’s first-ever tournament win.
Serio says he will continue to work with a number of sponsors and nonprofit organizations to raise awareness of the adaptive-sports movement.
Serio grew up in Nassau County on Long Island. He says both of his parents have Italian heritage, with ancestry scattered across Italy. In late 2023, Serio signed on with a basketball team based in Milan, Italy, as a way to get in shape for the Paris Games.
