Today's Maverick is the incredible Blake Leeper.
Patrick "Blake" Leeper, eight-time Paralympic Track and Field international medalist, world record holder and three-time American record holder started his medal run in 2011 at the Parapan American Games where he took his first silver in the 100-meter dash. He went on to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, where he picked up two more medals, a bronze in the 200-meter dash and silver in the 400-meter dash, losing to South African Oscar Pistorius, whose world record of 45.39 seconds is Leeper is chasing. In 2013, Leeper also took four medals at the Paralympic World Championships in Lyon, France, where he ran as part of the world record-setting 4x100-meter relay gold medal team. At the same event he took the silver medal in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash.
Leeper's medal collection includes one gold, six silver and one bronze. Over his career, he hopes to win more medals than any Paralympic athlete in track and field. He is also striving to be the first American track and field Paralympian who qualifies for the able bodied Olympic trials. In addition to the medals he has already won, Leeper holds one 2013 Paralympic world record in the 4x100m relay and three American records in the 100-meter dash (10.91). On June 21st the day after a one-year suspension for the use of a non-performance drug discovered after participating in an event on June 20th 2015. Leeper broke his own American record in the 200-meter dash (21.49) and smashed the 400-meter dash record with a time of (46.54). Leeper's world record for his part in the 4x100-meter relay still stands today.
The 26-year-old Leeper, who was born without legs from a congenital birth defect, did not start racing until 2010. It was at his first ever race in Edmond, Oklahoma that he caught the attention of the Associate Director of High Performance for U.S. Paralympics Track and Field, who convinced his parents to let their son move into the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, where he started his habit of winning. That's when Leeper left the University of Tennessee to embark on a journey that no one could envision for a kid from Tennessee born without legs.
Find him at https://www.leeper.run/ and on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/leepster/
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To learn more about Shari and her Maverick work, head over to www.shariteigman.com
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