I clearly remember the first day I ran. Not the running that children do on the playground, but the running you do when you feel so free that your feet barely touch the ground. Or in my case, foot.

That day was in 2011, when I was fitted for my first running blade prosthetic. The idea of a prosthetic was nothing new to me, as I had been wearing them to walk and play since my leg was amputated as an infant. But this prosthetic would let me enjoy sports in a way I had never been able to before. 

My love of sports as a child was sometimes hindered by the challenges my disability presented. Although I wanted to run around like everyone else, my disability often made it hard to keep up with my classmates. There were no other children in my school with amputations so I stuck out like a sore thumb. Along the way I had to accept that I would not always do as well as my friends, and that my prosthetic would sometimes limit my mobility. Once I was fitted for a sports prosthetic, however, I noticed things starting to change. With the help of advanced technology, I finally was able to run and play at almost the same speed as my friends without my heavy prosthetic weighing me down. On that first day, I thought I was running so fast that I would never be able to stop.

From that day forward, I fell so deeply in love with the sport of track and field that there was no backing out. I wanted to be the best that I could be at every event, and get as far as possible in the sport. Of course, as an amputee my career seemed pretty limited at the time. Amputees didn’t make varsity in high school, and they certainly didn’t make it on a college team. I tried to stay realistic as I went through my high school years, but something in me knew that I couldn’t limit myself simply because my goals hadn’t been achieved by anyone else yet.

I found a group of adaptive athletes from around the country who shared my passion for track and field, and they introduced me to the Paralympic Games. These Games, which are the sister Games to the Olympics, were full of elite-level disabled athletes who were the best in the world at their sport. My mentors in the Paralympic community encouraged me to advocate for myself and to pursue my goals of being both a Paralympian and a collegiate athlete. This dream was scary, but as I entered my senior year of high school I made my first Paralympic Games as a part of Team USA. After these Games, I knew I had it in me to find a D1 school to compete at.

The search for a college team that would accept me was not easy, despite the fact that I had recently made finals twice in the Paralympic Games (400m and discus). Adding a disabled teammate to an otherwise able-bodied roster can be daunting for a school. I understood that it would be a challenge, but set out for it anyway. Along my route I came across the University of Northern Iowa. This team had never coached an athlete with my disability, nor had they trained someone whose career was geared towards the Paralympics. The coaches were open with me about their lack of experience with disabled athletes, but they promised that they would proudly make me their first.

It took me very little time at all to realize that UNI would be my home. I would once again be the only disabled athlete on the team, just like I had been most of my life, but this time it felt different. My role wasn’t to merely ‘keep up’ with the others, my role was to excel within my own rights. By taking a place on the UNI team I had become someone for others to look up to, someone for another amputee to look at and realize that their dreams aren’t so far out of reach.

My four years at Northern Iowa helped both myself and the track team grow. By the time my graduation rolled around, our program had two disabled athletes entered for Team USA’s  Tokyo 2020/2021 Paralympic Trials. Spoil alert: we both made it.

Every so often I let myself think back to that first day I truly ran. All I cared about that day was being able to keep up with my friends. And now, with all the years of support from my teammates and coaches, I am able to say I did a lot more than that. We helped trailblaze a path for kids who grew up just like me. We helped rewrite the stigma around disabled sports. And we helped two athletes from little Iowa reach their goals of a Paralympic Games.

This D1 school has seen a lot of success stories come through its programs, but something tells me that the narrative has only just begun.