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48 athletes are participating in the River Bank Run wheelchair and handcycle division

Two Paralympians will be competing in this year's River Bank Run, Aaron Pike and Tom Davis.

This Saturday, thousands will be attending the River Bank Run in downtown Grand Rapids. Forty-eight of those will be athletes with physical disabilities who will be competing in the run.

The River Bank Run is the only race in the world to offer a 25K wheelchair division, and it is the largest road race in the country.

Athletes will reach speeds of 18 to 20 mph, and handcycles have gears that enable them to propel 30 mph or faster.

Two Paralympians will be competing in this year's River Bank Run, Aaron Pike and Tom Davis. Davis is an Iraqi war veteran who was injured in 2006 when a roadside bomb detonated under his vehicle. He represented Team USA in the 2016 Paralympics and is consistently ranked Top 10 in the world.

Pike has represented the United States in Nordic skiing in the 2012, 2014 and 2018 Paralympics Games. He sustained a spinal cord injury when he was 13 years old while hunting. He is defending his title after winning the River Bank Run Open Para Division of the wheelchair racing division in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Many of the 48 athletes are former Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital patients who were introduced to adaptive sports through the hospital's Wheelchair & Adaptive Sports program.

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