Jaydin Blackwell And Daniel Romanchuk Blaze To Electrifying Victories at Stade de France

It was showtime under the lights for Jaydin Blackwell as he rocketed to the men's 100-meter T38 gold, breaking his own world record clocking 10.64 seconds. Daniel Romanchuk was less flashy than his younger U.S. teammate, but he also accelerated into high gear, down the homestretch of the men’s 5,000-meter T54 to also strike gold in dramatic fashion.

Nearly 70,000 fans vociferously cheered all athletes, while witnessing a night to remember for Team USA at the Stade de France, on Saturday evening. 

The flamboyant Blackwell – who likes to be referred to as the "Noah Lyles of Para track and field" – kickstarted the U.S. engine, while Romanchuk ultimately carried the speed, winning his race about an hour and a half afterward.

The 20-year-old Blackwell exploded out of the blocks and never looked back. He won the signature race with apparent ease to add Paralympic gold to his four world titles.

“It was perfect race – I focused on what I really needed to do to get out, and get to the line as fast as possible,” Blackwell said, responding to a question from Team USA. “I’m just glad that I can do the things that I can do.

“Getting into the blocks I was just telling myself, just push out, get out and run, you got this. I got out of my drive phase, stood up tall, and chugged it.

“It felt like it was a little bit slow, but I looked up at the little screen when I crossed the finish line and saw 10.64, and I was like ok, let’s go,” he said. The rising adaptive athletics star broke his own world record of 10.72, which he set in Miramar, Florida, on July 20.

Blackwell put on a pair of shades, and posed for photographers in front of the world record noting screen, Hollywood style.

“I had to bring a little something, some pzazzz, over here,” Blackwell said, with a laugh.

Blackwell’s equally extroverted U.S. teammate Ryan Medrano executed a perfect lean at the finish line to strike silver, by a slim 0.02 seconds, sparking Team USA to a 1-2 finish. The 27-year-old Medrano ran a new personal best of 10.97 seconds.

“Ryan is having a fantastic day – he PR’d and got silver by point zero two. I knew he was right there, and then I looked at the screen and was like my name is second,” Medrano exclaimed, referring to himself in the first person. “I’ve been on TV, but this was fantastic. 70,000 people looking at you all at once and the hum of the stadium when we walked out.

About the execution of his silver-medal winning 100m race, Medrano said: “I have power, but my problem is I’m not matching their speed hitting the ground. I’ve been working a lot on my rhythm with Coach Mac and Noah (Lyles), and staying calm, not tensing up at the end.

“It was fantastic to hit that lean by 0.02 at the end,” said the Texas-based sprinter. “I couldn’t have done anything better than break the world record like Jaydin did.”

“Ryan, he PR’d – we said congratulations to each other, he and I are really close,” Blackwell said. “We have a lot in common and we really push each other to the absolute limit. I’m really glad to have him in my life and as a teammate.”

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games champion Nick Mayhugh finished seventh.

Teammates Blackwell and Medrano savored their Paralympic moment together, as they were awarded their gold and silver medals about two hours after their race.

Blackwell was born with cerebral palsy, a disease that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Symptoms can vary widely, ranging from floppy to rigid limbs, while Blackwell experiences a type that leave his leg muscles rock hard.

In a kind gesture before the start of the race, Blackwell helped Chinese runner Zhuo Peng secure a loose band on his hamstring in the adjacent lane. It briefly delayed the race, before Blackwell exploded to victory.

Romanchuk sat near the back of the pack of 10 wheelchair racers in the 5,000m race, as his Swiss rival Marcel Hug cruised along in the front, for all but the final two laps. That’s when the race began to heat up as Faisal Alrajehi of Kuwait swiftly passed the Swiss leader, as Romanchuk was poised to strike, but remained patient.

The 26-year-old multi-distance wheelchair racer seemingly came out of nowhere, exploding on the outside over the closing 100m and spectacularly overtaking both Alrahjehi and Hug. 

“Being that far back, there was a lot of ground to make up – I remember getting out just in time for everything, to break loose for the final sprint to the finish,” Romanchuk said, about the victory. “There was no movement in the pack, so it certainly was an unusual race.”

The Baltimore native – who was recently married – outdistanced Hug by half-a-second to win his second Paralympic gold medal and third in total.

“Just try to sprint and watch the movement of everyone around,” Romanchuk said, about his late race strategy. “Head on a swivel, but ultimately just sprint.

“It’s a huge honor to bring home gold for the U.S. Marcel is such a great athlete and it’s just great to race with him again.”

The 5,000m was the first of five events that Romanchuk plans to race in Paris, the same number that he has taken on at Tokyo 2020 and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

U.S. athletes claimed two more medals on the evening as Noah Malone sped to silver in the men’s 100m T12, just 0.01 seconds from gold, edged by Turkey’s Serkan Yildirim and Lisa Corso’s performance in the women’s 1,500m T13 was strong enough to earn a bronze medal, 1.06 seconds behind the Ethiopian race winner.

Ezra Frech leaped to fifth place in the men’s long jump T63, 0.63 meters out of the medals. The 19-year-old rising star looks forward to leaping high, rather than far, in his bread-and-butter high jump on Tueday, Sept. 3.

Overall, it was a compelling and top-notch evening for U.S. Para track and field athletes at Stade de France, as they brought home two golds, two silvers and a bronze medal.