Team USA secures 5 medals as Kobe 2024 comes to a close
KOBE, JAPAN – Team USA capped nine days of competition at the 2024 Para Athletics World Championships in Kobe, Japan, with five additional medals.
Americans brought home 24 medals and set three championship records at the meet, which is unconventionally being held in a Paralympic year due to postponements from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the final day of competition, world championships rookie Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Wash.) and three-time Paralympic medalist Hunter Woodhall (Syracuse, Utah) earned their second medals of the competition. Three-time Paralympic medalist Brittni Mason (Cleveland, Ohio) and 2020 Paralympians Sydney Barta (Arlington, Va.) and Beatriz Hatz (Lakewood, Colo.) medaled for the first time in Kobe. Barta, Swanson, Woodhall and Mason each earned the silver medal, while Hatz took home bronze, in their respective events.
In Team USA’s only double podium of the day Barta and Hatz each won the first world championships medals of their careers. The teammates took silver and bronze in the women’s 200-meter T64, both posting their best results on the final day of competition.
Barta, who is balancing training with earning her bioengineering degree from Stanford University, said she used her fourth-place finish at her last world championships in 2019 to motivate her in today’s race.
“I think, coming in, I felt like I had something to prove,” Barta said. When I was 15 at my first worlds, I got fourth by a fraction of a second, so I really wanted to come out here and establish myself on the world stage leading into Paris.”
Hatz also earns the first world championships medal of her career, taking bronze after fifth and sixth-place finishes in the 100-meter and long jump, respectively, this week.
Swanson earned her second silver of the competition, this time in the women’s 200-meter T37, where she powered to a personal best time of 26.89 seconds to finish behind only the world record pace set by Xioayan Wen of China.
After the race, Swanson said she had come into it without expectations. She credited the massive personal best to her move to Spokane late last year to train consistently with ParaSport Spokane.
“The 100 is my better event, and I was hoping for a silver in that, so this is icing on the cake,” she said. “I’ve changed a lot since November. I have updated equipment, I have more consistent training with a Para coach and everything that’s involved in that. I have a more supportive training environment.”
A three-time Paralympic medalist, Mason will be seeking her second career Paralympic berth this summer after a strong showing in the 200-meter at her third world championships. Mason put together a season-best time of 25.10 to bring home her fourth career world championships medal.
“Obviously I wanted to go out there and win the gold,” she said. “But I’m just super excited that I haven’t raced in six weeks and was still able to go out there and get a season’s best, by a lot.”
Like Swanson, Mason has also recently made a move to change up her training, relocating to Florida. She said she has seen it pay off in her racing.
“I feel like I’m mentally prepared and better adapted to fitness levels,” she said. “Being able to train outdoors year-round has really helped with my season. I’m excited to see where the rest of this takes me.”
Woodhall, meanwhile, capped a successful meet in Kobe with a second silver medal of his own, surging to the podium in the men’s 400-meter T62. The two silvers were a complete turnaround from Woodhall’s showing at the 2023 worlds, where he experienced equipment issues and had to pull out of his signature 400-meter race.
This year, the three-time Paralympic medalist found the podium in both the 100-meter T64 and today’s 400-meter. For Team USA, finishing just off the podium in fourth was Paralympian Blake Leeper (Kingsport, Tenn.), who made up time in the second half of the race to move up in the rankings. Leeper is looking to qualify for his second Games – and first since 2012 – this summer as he competes for a spot on the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 team.
After winning Parapan American Games gold in November, Leo Merle (Fontana, Calif.) raced in his second world championships, finishing the men’s 1500-meter T38 competition in 4:07.47 for fourth place. Merle, who recently graduated from dental school with his doctoral degree, will be attempting to make his Paralympic debut for Team USA this summer.
In one of the tightest finishes of the meet for Team USA, Erin Kerkhoff (Coralville, Iowa) barely missed her second medal in Kobe, finishing .01 seconds off the podium in the women’s 400-meter T13 for fourth place. The 2020 Paralympian took silver earlier in the week in her 200-meter race.
Finishing up the busiest individual competition schedule for Team USA was Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, N.J.), who posted a seventh-place finish in the women’s 400-meter T38. Guimaraes, who also competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter and long jump this week, took full advantage of her first career world championships, where she made the final in every event in which she competed and hit a three-second personal best in her 400-meter prelim.
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 23
SILVER
Sydney Barta – women’s 200-meter T64
Brittni Mason – women’s 200-meter T47
Taylor Swanson – women’s 200-meter T37
Hunter Woodhall – men’s 400-meter T62
BRONZE
Beatriz Hatz – women’s 200-meter T64
Other Team USA Results
Erin Kerkhoff – 4th, women’s 400-meter T13
Leo Merle – 4th, men’s 1500-meter T38
Catarina Guimaraes – 7th, women’s 400-meter T38.
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