Team USA’s Best Moments From The Para Track And Field World Championships

Four-time Paralympic medalist Roderick Townsend won his fourth consecutive men’s high jump T47 title, leaping 2.16 meters to break his own world record. He has now won gold in the event at every Paralympics and world championships dating back to 2015.

Two days later he won silver in the long jump T47 in the morning session and then coached 18-year-old Ezra Frech to a gold medal and world-record performance in the men’s high jump T63. Frech jumped 1.95 meters, breaking the world record twice in his slate of attempts. Townsend has worked with Frech since 2018 to help him grow and develop as an athlete, and that relationship seems to be getting the best out of both athletes.

Winning the world title was a moment almost two years in the making for Frech, who started preparing for this competition right after competing at the Paralympics in Tokyo.

“I walked off the track in Tokyo in fifth place (in the high jump) in tears, looked at my dad and he told me ‘You’re the world champion.’” Frech said after the high jump T63 final. “Ever since then, all throughout the day I repeat to myself, ‘I am the world champion.’ ... Sure enough I said that so many time, I convinced myself that I was the world champion.”

Brian Siemann has been a staple of the Team USA squad for over a decade, as he’s competed in the past six world championships and three Paralympics. After 12 years on the world’s biggest stages, he finally broke through for his first career podium performance. The 33-year-old won bronze in the men’s 400-meter T53 final, passing the line half a second ahead of Thailand’s Pichet Krungget. Three days later, he picked up another bronze, this time in the men’s 800-meter T53.

Paralympic champion Breanna Clark continued her domination of the women’s 400 T20 event, surging around the track in a world-record time of 55.12 in the final to claim gold. That topped the championship best mark of 55.51 she set in the preliminary heat the day prior. The victory marked Clark’s third consecutive world title in the event.

In his international debut as a member of Team USA, 19-year-old rising star Jaydin Blackwell swept both of his events in historic fashion to claim gold in the men’s 100 and 400 T38. In the 100, Blackwell broke a 10-year championship record in the preliminary heat with a personal best of 10.87 before winning the final in 10.92. He returned to the track to set a world record of 48.49 on his way to the gold in the 400.

In her first world championships, DePaul University’s Noelle Malkamaki rewrote the record books multiple times en route to winning gold in the women’s shot put F46. After previously breaking the world record at the national championships in May, she did so three more times in Paris, with her final throw of 13.32 meters being the new mark to beat in the F46 class.

“I feel amazing,” Malkamaki said after the shot put F46 final. “It feels ever better than I imagined, and I’ve been thinking about this moment for a long time.”

After competing in three Paralympics and racking up three world championships medals in the sprint races, Jarryd Wallace changed his focus to the field, where he competed in the men’s long jump T64 for the first time at a world championships.

Wallace stunned the field, pulling off a dramatic comeback in his sixth attempt to claim the bronze medal. He was down just .01 meters heading into his final jump and hit the 7.34 mark to edge teammate Trenton Merrill for the final spot on the podium. Worlds debutant and Wallace’s U.S. teammate Derek Loccident claimed silver in the event, as only .06 meters separated the three Americans.

For a fourth straight world championships, David Blair and Jeremy Campbell finished one-two on a discus podium. In this year’s men’s discus F64, Blair, the Paralympic champion in 2016, won his first world title with a throw of 60.36 meters. Campbell, the 2020 Paralympic champion who had captured the last three world titles, finished just .03 meters behind his teammate to claim silver and his seventh career worlds medal.

A veteran on Team USA, Tatyana McFadden earned three medals in Paris after winning silver in the 400 and bronze in the 100 and 800 meters in the women’s T54 category. That’s 23 pieces of world championships hardware she now owns in addition to the 20 Paralympic medals she’s won dating back to the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

With a time of 25.36, Brittni Mason clocked a season best in the women’s 200 T47 final on the last day of competition to win gold. That came days after taking silver in the 100. The victory marked her second world title, giving her three world and three Paralympic medals.