Cheryl Angelelli

{{Infobox sportsperson

| name = Cheryl Angelelli

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| nationality = American

| sport = Paralympic swimming

|disability = Spinal cord injury (quadriplegia)

|disability_class = S4, SB3, SM4

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1968|8|1|mf=y}}

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| residence = Clinton, Macomb County, Michigan, United States

| retired= 2013

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| country = {{USA}}

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{{Medal|Country|{{USA}}}}

{{Medal|Silver|2002 Mar del Plata|Women's 4x50m freestyle relay}}

}}

Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje is a retired American para swimmer, an Oakland University bachelor's degree's graduate and a motivational speaker.{{Cite web|url=https://www.paralympic.org/asp/lib/TheASP.asp?pageid=8937&sportid=514&personid=681202&WinterGames=-1|title=Athlete Bio|date=April 16, 2009|website=International Paralympic Committee}}{{dead link|date=February 2024}} She was inducted into the Michigan Athletes with Disabilities Hall of Fame in 2000, and was named Female Amateur Athlete of the Year by the State of Michigan twice, once in 2000 and once in 2003.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teamusa.org/para-swimming/athletes/Cheryl-AngelelliKornoelje|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821055030/http://www.teamusa.org/para-swimming/athletes/cheryl-angelellikornoelje|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 21, 2014|title=Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje|date=April 16, 2019|website=Team USA}}

Biography

When Angelelli was a teenager, she sustained a spinal cord injury after breaking her neck from hitting her head on the bottom of the pool after diving off a starting block in 1983. She was practicing her start off the swimming block.{{Cite web|url=https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/paralympic-spotlight-cheryl-angelelli-kornoelje/|title=Paralympic Spotlight: Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje|date=August 25, 2009|website=Swimming World Magazine}} She took up para swimming in 1998 in Detroit. She created a documentary film titled Untold Dreams to raise the awareness of the many abilities of disabled people and knowledge of the Paralympics as well as talking about her success in competitive swimming.

Angelelli retired from swimming in 2013 and switched to wheelchair ballroom dancing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mobilewomen.org/2015/01/unstoppable-cheryl-angelelli-story.html|title=Unstoppable: The Cheryl Angelelli Story|date=April 16, 2019|website=mobileWOMEN.org}}

Angelelli was a 1993 Oakland University graduate with a communications major. Oakland University had a highly competitive women's swim team at the time, winning a number of NCAA Division II national championships, though paralympic competition was not offered. As of 2025, she remains one of the only Oakland University graduate women to compete and medal in swimming in the Olympics. The women's swim teach coach while she attended the University was Tracy Huth.{{cite web|url=https://our.oakland.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/acbeea3d-57ea-44d0-a526-9fa9d445c7ad/content|title=Oakland University Olympians, Cheryl Angelelli|website=our.oakland.edu|access-date=8 January 2025}}