After Her ‘Best Four Years So Far,’ Grace Norman Is Ready To ‘Tri’ For A Third Medal In Paris

Four years after graduating, it’s probably safe to say that Grace Norman’s life looks a little different than those of her nursing school classmates.

“I’m married to a jazz trumpet player, and so I’m trying to be a good wife to him and support his career,” she said.

And then, of course, there’s her full-time job: training for the Paralympics.

The actual nursing career will come. For now, Norman remains one of world’s most successful paratriathletes. After winning the sport’s first Paralympic gold medal as a teenager in 2016, then finishing second in 2021, the 26-year-old Norman is back as the top-ranked woman in the PTS5 classification and heading into the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games full of confidence.

“There was a lot going on between Tokyo and now,” said Norman, of Jamestown, Ohio. “Right before Tokyo I made a coaching switch, so now we’ve had a full four years to work, and it’s been the best four years so far.

“I’m also four years removed from college, which is insane, but I’m able to focus solely on triathlon, make it my career, my lifestyle, and I’ve had some really strong winning seasons. 

“So mentally, physically, I’m a very different person and excited for Paris.”

Born with congenital constriction band syndrome, Norman had her left leg amputated below the knee and quickly settled into life as a typical, active kid. By high school she was racing her able-bodied peers on the cross country, track and swim teams. Along the way she picked up Para track and field and paratriathlon, too.

Her breakout moment came at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, shortly after graduating from high school. As “the baby” in the inaugural Paralympic triathlon field, the 18-year-old Norman won the sport’s historic first gold medal in an upset. She also came home with a bronze medal from the 400-meter T44 event on the track.

As she embarked on an NCAA Division II track and field career at Cedarville University near her hometown, Norman also went on to win paratriathlon world titles in 2016 and 2017. Many considered her a favorite to win gold again in 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Instead, amidst life changes and a global pandemic, she finished second to Great Britain’s Lauren Steadman, whom she’d held off for gold five years earlier.

“The pressure of being the former gold medalist really got to me I think, and I wasn’t really able to feel that confidence that I needed to be able to produce a gold-medal performance in Tokyo,” Norman said. “And then all the things with COVID. There was a lot going on.”

This time around, Norman has settled into her new life as a professional, full-time triathlete and wife to Evan Taylor, whom she married in 2022.

After winning a third world title in 2022, Norman went undefeated in 2023 and already opened her 2024 season with another win at the Americas championships in March in Miami.

She credits her “deep-rooted goals,” values and passion for the sport for keeping her sharp after all these years. If she does the work each day, she’s confident the results will follow.

“Yes, the gold medal is the goal, but I have standards for myself that I want to be able to reach,” she said, “and so just constantly comparing me to me, me to yesterday’s me, me to last year’s me, and just figuring out how I can just be a better version of myself.”

Norman’s story is very much rooted in her western Ohio hometown.

Growing up, she never looked at herself as different. When her friends set out to run around, she strapped on her prosthetic to join them, and before long she was a three-sport letter winner at Xenia Christian High School.

“It wasn’t like, how good can you be with a disability? It was, this is the bar, and if you’re not there you don’t make it,” she said of her time competing in able-bodied sports. “That’s kind of where I set myself up and how I learned how to make goals.”

In fact, it wasn’t until she attended the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Track & Field in Indianapolis that she first saw another runner using a prosthetic. That experience opened Norman’s eyes and set her out on her current path.

“From that day I was like, I’m going to the Paralympics,” Norman said.

She went on to thrive in the Para sports world, and along the way became the first female amputee to finish on the podium at a high school state track meet. Aspiring to run collegiately while continuing to train in paratriathlon, she found the best opportunity practically in her backyard at Cedarville, where her dad was a professor.

“I was a little hesitant to stay home at first because you know, you’re a small kid, you want to go to a big city, and small-town Ohio wasn’t really where I was envisioning,” she said. “But I’m really, really glad that I did.”

Though she’s now living in Bloomington, Indiana, where Taylor is a PhD student, her heart remains in her hometown.

Attending Cedarville meant proximity to family, especially her older sister Bethany, who also ran at Cedarville. The close ties and hometown support proved particularly welcome in Tokyo, when only athletes and essential staff were allowed to make the trip due to the pandemic. Like they had in Rio, her family sent her overseas with a collage of photos to hang on her wall in the athletes’ village.

“It’s always a special reminder to see how many people are rooting for me from home,” Norman said.

Whether or not she has a collage in Paris is yet to be seen. Should she find herself racing in the French capital this summer, though, she’ll have something better: her actual family.

“For the first time in eight years. Yeah, I’m stoked. I couldn’t be more excited,” said Norman. “I’ve never had my entire family, people that I don’t even remember, extended family, they’re all going to be there. And then just being in downtown Paris, there’s going to be people from everywhere. … I’m really excited.”