Grace Norman | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile

Team USA para track athlete Grace Norman explains how she started competing in the Paralymic triathlon, and the challenges she faces with her prosthetics while competing in the triathlon.

Video Transcript

GRACE NORMAN: My name is Grace Norman. And I am from Jamestown, Ohio. I am a Paralympic triathlete competing in the PTS five category as below the knee amputee. And I am the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games Gold Medalist.

For me one of the hardest things is dealing with transitions for me. To have one with disabilities can be difficult with different prosthetics. So as far as dealing with changing my prosthetic leg between the swim bike and run can be really difficult as I use around two different prosthetics for each race.

I always wanted to be a Paralympic athlete. I was looking for a track and field, which I did compete in-- in Rio 2016. But there was only certain races for the different disability categories.

And so I come from a distance running background. And they didn't really have a lot of distance running events in the Paralympics. And so I saw that triathlon was debuting in 2016. And I thought that, that would be a really cool thing.

I was like I can do this. You know, I grew up a runner. I swim. And so I'm sure I can figure out the bike.

That was the beginning of. It and since then, it has become a passion for me. It's been my lifestyle. And I'm so excited that I get to represent my country on the highest level.