Led by Blackwell’s second gold, Team USA earns 5 medals, 2 double podiums, on Day 5 in Kobe
KOBE, JAPAN – Team USA had its biggest day yet as competition at the 2024 Para Athletics World Championships passed its halfway point. Americans brought home five medals, including two double podiums, and were led by Jaydin Blackwell (Oak Park, Mich.)’s second world title of the competition.
Also bringing home medals for the Stars and Stripes were Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Wash.), Ezra Frech (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Ryan Medrano (Savannah, Ga.), who each earned silver, and Sam Grewe (Middlebury, Ind.), who nabbed high jump bronze in his return to international competition.
In what was nearly an American sweep, Blackwell and Medrano finished first and second for Team USA in 48.87 and 50.53, respectively, in the men’s 400-meter T38. Teammate and four-time Paralympic medalist Nick Mayhugh (Manassas, Va.) put together a season-best performance of 51.85 and finished just off the podium in fourth.
It was the second double podium of Kobe 2024 for Team USA, and the first 1-2 finish of the meet. Blackwell picked up his second title of the competition and came within half a second of the 400-meter world record he set at last year’s world championships.
“I felt good about my race,” Blackwell said. “I did what I needed to do on the first part and pushed all the way through. If I can keep the same mindset and drive and determination I had all these years up until Paris, I can do what I need to do there for myself and for my teammates as well.”
Medrano, who made his international debut last year after discovering Para track and field while competing on CBS’s Survivor alongside Paralympian Noelle Lambert, has burst onto the scene in Kobe. The silver is his first career world championships medal, and it came in an event he said he has previously struggled in.
Medrano finished fifth in the 400-meter at the 2023 world championships.
“Within a year, I’ve actually put in work for training for the 400,” he said. “I learned I loved it, learned I could push my limits in it. I’m really doing this for my mom, for my dad, for those people who have gotten me here who may not see me get to run forever. So I’m using that outside perspective to look at myself and say ‘You’re doing this in less than two years.’ I’m really hard on myself, but that allows me to go ‘You’re doing a good job.’ I’m giving myself that mental break, but pushing myself to the limit physically.”
Mayhugh, meanwhile, is seeking his second Paralympic berth and is the most experienced of the trio of Team USA T38 runners. He said after the race that he was happy with the progression he was seeing with his times this season, and that he is excited for the future of the men’s T38 class in the U.S.
“In U.S. fashion, we made it dramatic,” he said. “I’m proud of these guys, two new guys, I’m considered the veteran now, so trying to help them make a name for themselves. We all have a good attitude, we have a good relationship, and we don’t let our egos get in the way of anything else. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, and we all respect the work we put into it. It’s an individual sport, but we all wear the same crest and we’re all repping the same flag.”
In a men’s high jump T63 competition that featured both the reigning Paralympic champion (Grewe) and the reigning world champion (Frech), the duo battled it out for bronze and silver, respectively. Frech finished with a best jump of 1.88 meters, while Grewe ended at 1.82.
Frech won the first world title of his career and set a new world record in the event at last year’s world championships, and said he was disappointed in today’s result.
“I’m grateful to be able to come out here and compete and to be able to wear the Red, White and Blue,” Frech said. “But by no means am I happy or satisfied. I’ll take this one on the chin – this has been not my best world championships, but I’m going to use this as motivation.”
Grewe, who thought he would retire after winning Paralympic gold in Tokyo three years ago, recently made the return to high jump while completing his third year of medical school at the University of Michigan.
Tonight, he said he struggled with an equipment issue that, in part, kept him from a better result.
“It took me awhile to get into a good groove, and once I finally did, the strap on my leg broke,” he said. “It felt like the scene in Forrest Gump where he runs down the street and all his braces fall off, except I got considerably worse afterwards. I’m frustrated with that, but I can’t control that. I’m just excited to be in a competitive place given where I’m at in my life.”
Swanson earned the first world championships medal of her career, sprinting to a personal-best 12.86 seconds in the 100-meter and finishing behind only Xiaoyan Wen of China, who set a new world record in the event.
Swanson is seeking her first Paralympic berth this summer after making her international debut at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile. She will also compete in the 200-meter T37 race on Saturday, and said gaining international experience is helping her build her confidence.
“The biggest thing for me was just the start [of the race], trying to keep my right hand in and focus on an explosive start,” she said. “There’s obviously lots of nerves involved, but [this is teaching me about] just focusing on being able to focus on what I can do and execute the best I can.”
In women’s 100-meter T64 action, the Team USA duo of Beatriz Hatz (Lakewood, Colo.) and Sydney Barta (Arlington, Va.) placed fifth and seventh, respectively, in a race that saw championship records set in two different classes. Both Hatz and Barta will return to the track for Saturday’s 200-meter T64 race.
In the long jump pit, Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, N.J.) recorded a sixth-place finish in the T38 competition. Guimaraes, who won silver at Parapan Ams in Santiago in November, is competing in her first world championships. She will round out her meet with Saturday’s 400-meter T38 race.
Competing in his third career world championships, Joel Gomez (Encinitas, Calif.) placed seventh in the men’s 1500-meter T13 race, finishing in 3:57.86. A 1500-meter specialist in Para competitions, Gomez wraps his competition with the goal of making his second Paralympic team in July at the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Track & Field.
After two medals in his first two events of the meet, Derek Loccident (Oklahoma City, Okla.) recorded another personal best in his javelin debut, throwing a best mark of 47.24 and finishing in eighth place in the F64 competition. He returns to the track for tomorrow’s T64 long jump, his best event.
All sessions will be streamed live on the Paralympics YouTube Channel and the World Para Athletics Facebook page. For updates and results from Team USA, follow U.S. Paralympics Track & Field on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Team USA Medals – May 20
GOLD
Jaydin Blackwell – men’s 400-meter T38
SILVER
Ezra Frech – men’s high jump T63
Ryan Medrano – men’s 400-meter T38
Taylor Swanson – women’s 100-meter T37
BRONZE
Sam Grewe – men’s high jump T63
Other Team USA Results
Nick Mayhugh – 4th, men’s 400-meter T38
Beatriz Hatz – 5th, women’s 100-meter T64
Catarina Guimaraes – 6th, women’s long jump T38
Sydney Barta – 7th, women’s 100-meter T64
Joel Gomez – 7th, men’s 1500-meter T13
Derek Loccident – 8th, men’s javelin F64
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