Tokyo Paralympics: Long-jumper Sarah Walsh’s painful start to athletics

It’s extraordinary Sarah Walsh is still competing in athletics, let alone vying for a medal at the Paralympics in Tokyo, given the pain she had to endure at the start of her career.

Sarah Walsh was the youngest athlete to compete with a blade.

Sarah Walsh will never forget the exhilaration - and pain - of competing in running events and the long jump for the first time.

Encouraged to give it a go by a schoolteacher, she did and loved it straight away.

It just hurt an awful lot.

“I started out through school and had no experience at all. We were just at a carnival and the teacher said why don’t you have a go,” said Walsh, who grew up in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire and is a below knee amputee.

“I was jumping and running on my day leg, which was like a wooden leg.

“It killed. There was a lot of pain. I was told I had to stop athletics and I didn’t take too kindly to that.”

Sarah Walsh at 10 after being fitted with a specialised running leg back in 2009.

Instead she was thrown a lifeline in the form of a carbon fibre blade and is now at her second Paralympics as a world bronze medallist in the T64 long jump.

“I was the youngest person to get a blade. I was 10,” Walsh said. “The pain stopped and I started to get better.

“It helped me achieve my dream.”

The J shaped blades are used by amputees to replace the calf and ankle and help athletes move forward during a sprint, vertical lift or long jump.

Long-jumper Sarah Walsh is competing at her second Paralympics.

“I have had no issues with it at all. It just becomes a part of me,” said Walsh who was born without a calf muscle and had her foot amputated when 18 months old.

“I couldn’t compete if didn’t have a blade.’’

Walsh competes in one of the toughest classifications in long jump with her goal a simple one.

“I just want to jump big, that’s all I’m thinking about,” said the 23-year-old from Engadine, who has been training in Canberra alongside double amputee Vanessa Low and some of Australia’s top sprinters including Scott Reardon.

At the 2019 world championships Walsh did just that, with a mighty 5.2m jump securing her a bronze medal.

find when I jump my best all I think about is running and jumping and nothing else. I don’t overthink it. I just clear my mind. That’s what I’m hoping do in Tokyo.’’

Walsh is due to compete in the T64 long jump on August 28.

Read more from AMANDA LULHAM HERE

Originally published as Tokyo Paralympics: Long-jumper Sarah Walsh’s painful start to athletics