CSB - Will Steadman - Paris Paralympics

Fresh of claiming silver in the 400 metres T36 final, New Zealand's fourth medal of the Paris Paralympics.

He was competing after finishing fourth in the long jump where he missed the podium by two centimetres.

The silver marks the fifth Games medal of Stedman's career and a third in the discipline after taking bronze in 2016 and 2021.

Defending champion James Turner of Australia won in a world record 51.54 seconds.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, time to talk the Paris Para Olympics and overnight,
Will Steadman claimed a stunning silver medal in the men's
four hundred meter T thirty six final to secure fourth
medal for the New Zealand Para Olympic team and going
one better actually a couple of bronzes and previous games.
He joins us on the show this morning. Well, good
morning and congratulations mate, thank you very much. Well done.

(00:23):
And that was a world record time for the winning athlete,
wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah it was. It was a very impressive run by Jimmy. Yeah, yeah,
very fast.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Indeed, so for you were talking about, you only did
it on what something like three and a half hours sleep.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, I slept terribly last night, just you know, pretty
wired from the long jump the night before. So I
got to sleeve at about four am, I think, which
wasn't much fun. But yeah, I managed to put it
together and run a big PP So I was pretty
stoked about that. Given the circumstances.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Maybe that's the secret. Don't get a lot of se
So let's talk about the means long jump before we
talk about the four hundred meter. Finally, you missed by
just a couple of centimeters are so near y' so far.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, it's definitely frustrating. I think they'll be annoying me
for a while. You knows, such more margins and you
can go through the waters and everything. But so yeah,
definitely disappointed with that considering how close I was. But
I gave it a good crack and that's what you
can do. But yeah, it was definitely not the result.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
I came forward and would you been very very happy
with the silver medal in the in the four hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh yes, very stoked for that four hundred meter run,
you know, as I said to run, I was a
big PB at point four four off my PB you know,
after the long jump and off not much sleep, and
I ran it really well.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I was.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm super stoked with that. It's probably the career highlight.
I think I'm super proud of how I conduct myself there.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, absolutely fantastic. And it's not over for you either,
is it. No.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I've got one hundred coming up later this week. The
one hundred meters is definitely not my main event. It's
a bit of a secondary event. But look, I'm in
really good shape. My speeds there as can be seen
in my four hundremeter of times, so you know, I
hopefully I can make the final and then you know,
you never know what could happen, so I'm really looking
forward to it.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Actually, this is your third Para Olympic Games in the
competing and the men's four hundred. You competed in both
Rio and Tokyo. How do these games compare to the
previous ones for you?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, I mean the whole field's a lot faster. So
I got bronze in Tokyo, but that time would have
got me second to last in this race. So the
whole field is, you know, improving very fast. It was
also very fast track, so yeah, I had to keep improving.
But these games also are just really awesome. You know,
that atmosphere is so called in that stadium and it's

(02:51):
been really awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
And the facilities over there for our athletes, are you
happy with those?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, definitely. The village is real cool. It's always a
cool vibe and buzz here. We've got to call team
room for the New Zealand, which creates a great kind
of team culture which has been really cool as well.
So no, it's been it's been great.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Well, fantastic, so you're adding a silver to the bronze collection.
That's absolutely brilliant. Will so again, congratulations and thanks for
joining us. Mate. Good luck in the one hundred.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Thank you very much