Paralympian Grace Norman Has A Lot More Wins Ahead of Her

The defending Paralympic silver medalist and world champion in her category (PTS5), Grace Norman is one of the most dominant paratriathletes on the circuit. She has a gold medal from Rio, a silver medal from Tokyo, a couple of running world records (and a bronze Paralympics medal from Rio in the 400 meters), and four world championship titles — and she’s only getting faster. The last two paratri seasons she’s been completely undefeated in races.

“It definitely builds confidence,” she said. But that doesn’t mean she’s taking the win in Paris for granted — especially given the competition from training partner and friend, Team Great Britain’s Lauren Steadman, who topped her at the last Games in Tokyo. “You never know what can happen on race day.”

Norman was born with congenital constriction band syndrome, which resulted in the amputation of her left leg and right big toe as a kid, but that didn’t stop her from running and swimming. And when her dad took up triathlon, she wanted to try that, too.

At first, she split her time between running and triathlon — becoming the first female amputee to finish on the podium at a high school state championship in Ohio and then running NCAA DII track and cross-country for Cedarville University.

But she knew she wanted to be in the Paralympics, and in track and field the distances only went up to 400m. “100m just wasn’t really in my wheelhouse,” she said. The triathlon races, on the other hand, were almost an hour long.

She thought, “Great, it has a 5K,” she joked, and “learning how to ride a bike shouldn’t be too hard!”

For her first few triathlons, she actually rode her mom’s bike, since she was still a struggling college student. In fact, since most insurance plans will only cover a new prosthetic every three years — and typically that doesn’t include a leg for “recreation,” like running or biking — the costs can add up quickly. Norman realized, “If you want to make this work, then you’re going to have to be good enough to get sponsors.”

In Rio, where paratriathlon made its debut, she competed in both track and triathlon—and won gold in the PTS4 category — but soon focused entirely on multisport.

Since she graduated college, she’s been a full-time triathlete. (Though she does keep her medical license active, she isn’t working in nursing these days because she’s too busy going after the gold in Paris.) That includes a lot of testing and trialing to find the right equipment and prosthesis, and of course a lot of training.

After Paris, all eyes are on the home Games in L.A. “I would not want to miss that,” she said. And at just 26, she’s got a lot of wins left ahead of her.