MARSHALL, Minn. – Former Southwest Minnesota State University wheelchair basketball standout, Josh Turek, earned his second career gold medal early Sunday morning helping the USA men's wheelchair basketball team capture the gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics with a 64-60 victory over Japan.
 
Turek, who was playing in his fourth Paralympics, was also a member of the 2016 team that captured the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro. He was a member of the 2004 team that placed seventh in Athens and was a member of the 2012 team that took home bronze at the London games.
 
Turek played eight minutes and had one rebounds in the gold medal game. He appeared in all eight games during the tournament, including scoring a team-high 21 points in a victory over Algeria on Aug. 30.
 
Turek attended SMSU from 1997 to 2002 and left the wheelchair basketball program as the most prolific scorer in team history. The 2002 SMSU Male Student-Athlete of the Year, Turek finished his career scoring 4,024 points and grabbing 1,213 rebounds. He was a four-time team MVP, four-time All-American and three-year team captain. He holds school single-season records in field goals made and points, along with holding single-game records for points scored, 3-point field goals made and free throws made.
 
Turek played professionally in Europe for more than 15 years.

Another member of the gold medal team was Jake Williams, who played at SMSU from 2009-12, before transferring to UW-Whitewater