The Olympics Is A Site Of Black Excellence For These Athletic Women
The Paralympics are set to start Aug. 24, 2021. Remarkable Paryalympians will test their skill against each other in all sports. The next two women are stars in the Track and Field events. Both gold medalists in their respective sports Deja Young is a one time Paralymian in search of her second gold medal while April Holmes a veteran Paralympian chasing her fourth.
Deja Young
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Deja Young is a one-time Olympian. Competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Young earned gold in the 100m and 200m sprints. Young has been active in the years following her Olympic win. Team USA website lists two major 2019 wins in the World Championship – gold (200m), silver (100m). She will return to the Olympic field in hopes of regaining her title.
Off the track, Young is using her platform and voice to discuss mental health awareness. Young was injured by a birthing accident. Her shoulder was injured as it collided with her mother’s pelvic bone resulting in a type of nerve damage called a brachial plexus. Young overcame her disability and began running track in highschool, earning a scholarship to Wichita State University. It was there, Young experienced her first serious bout with depression. While in college and training for the Olympics Young experienced isolation and attempted to take her own life. Young has been an avid mental health advocate ever since:
“It’s a very loud world and sometimes your voice gets drowned out by so many different things and you need to be re-centered sometimes by hearing you’re enough and you are heard,” she said.
Young hopes to carry this message to the 2021 Olympic podium.
April Holmes
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April Holmes competed in track and field as an able-bodied athlete through her entire college career at Norfolk State University. An accident resulted in the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Holmes expressed her concerns about the ability to compete with her doctor, who gave her information about Paralympic sports.
April took the information and ran with it. She now holds Gold medals in the paralympic long jump. To date, Holmes has earned medals for Team USA in the London 2012 Paralympic Games (bronze 100m), Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games (gold 100m) and Athens 2004 Paralympic Games (bronze, long jump).
Holmes has written two books, her first co-authored with Brian Tracy, The Winning Way and the other titled, Stop Limping Thru Life, Start Running. Young has also worked with First Lady Michelle Obama on the “Let’s Move” Campaign. You can see Holmes compete as a four-time Paralympian beginning August 24.
