“Independence is a right that everyone deserves to have in their lives.”
Marilyn Hamilton
“I’ve always had a zest for adventure and been an active sports person,” Marilyn Hamilton asserts. After a hang-gliding accident in 1978, she was determined to continue her athletic lifestyle. But existing wheelchairs—“stainless steel dinosaurs,” as she called them—were too heavy and slow.
Drawing inspiration from the materials used in hang gliders, she worked with two friends to invent a wheelchair that was lightweight and responsive. She co-founded Motion Designs in 1979 to manufacture the wheelchairs, which are still sold under the brand name Quickie. “Using my first Quickie,” Hamilton recalls, “I was able to recapture my beloved sporting life—playing tennis in the summer and snow skiing in the winter.” Hamilton’s many accomplishments as an athlete include two women’s wheelchair singles titles in the US Open tennis competition.
She also became an advocate for people with disabilities. “I am proud to count myself among the early pioneers of wheelchair athletes,” she notes, “figuring out what sports we could do, how to do them and the wheelchair technology that would best assist us.”
Today, through her company StimDesigns, Hamilton is the North American distributor for Galileo whole-body mechano-stimulation devices, which maximize the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments and enhance fitness training for all ages regardless of physical ability. Working through the nervous system with high repetition training, and using the principle of neuroplasticity, Galileo efficiently improves muscle-bone health and performance with short training sessions.
Hamilton is committed helping a range of people—from children to seniors—enhance their muscle strength and fitness. “People can do anything they set their minds to when given the right tools.”
Learn more about Marilyn Hamilton:
Source for quote above: The Women’s Conference 2006: Minerva Awards—Marilyn Hamilton, 2008, https://youtu.be/h7RDnbYQx2I.