Photo credit: Vanilla Fire Productions
Flash-forward to 2 weeks ago at the IPAC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, where Leeper, now 24, won four medals on the track—one gold (4 x 100 meter relay) and three silvers (100m, 200m, 400m). Last year, he took home bronze and silver medals in the 200m and 400m at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, and up until June, he shared the 100m World Record (10.91 seconds) with Oscar Pistorius.
So how’d Leeper turn himself into a world champ? By working—and playing—just a little bit harder than everyone else.
Leeper joined his local Boys & Girls Club when he was 5 years old, and it was there that he started to develop solid athletic skills, shooting hoops and running bases with his older brother. “Everything my brother did, I wanted to do, too, and I wanted to do it better,” Leeper says. He also looked up to former baseball and football star Bo Jackson for inspiration. “[Jackson] got a prosthetic hip and still came back and competed at a high level. Seeing that there were professionals with prosthetics doing great things was really powerful.”
“I’d run before, but I was wearing prosthetic legs that were pretty heavy, more for walking,” Leeper says. “With spring legs, though, I experienced speed that I had never experienced in my life. I could tell something special was going to happen as soon as I put them on. It was crazy. Even just with the way the wind was hitting my face, I could tell I was so much faster. It felt like I was floating faster and faster and faster.”
Eight months after receiving his new legs, Blake participated and medaled in his first track race. During his second match-up, which happened to be in Brazil, he was approached by one of the country’s most famous athletes, Joaquim Cruz, who won gold in the 800m at the 1984 Olympics. “He saw me run and asked what my past experience was. I was like, ‘This is my second race ever.’ He laughed and said, ‘If you train hard, and truly dedicate yourself, I can make you a champion.’” Cruz has been coaching Leeper ever since.
The Paralympian’s practices look very similar to those performed by his peers, with lots of speed drills and strides built in. Unlike other athletes, however, Leeper also has to spend a ridiculous amount of time developing his core and hip strength, since they serve as a powerhouse, overcompensating for the work that those missing leg muscles would normally do. He hits the weights regularly and completes anywhere from 150 to 300 ab exercises every day.
Leeper’s next goal: to become the first American to participate in both the Olympics and the Paralympic games in Rio in 2016. It’s his most ambitious mark yet, but one he says he’ll make. Hell, he has to.
“When I do have tough times, which we all have, I think about all of the people who support me, all of the people who believed in me before I believed in myself. And I think about all I’ve gone through to get here. I’ve come too far to give up now. I have to finish what I started, to convince everyone that even when you’re different, you can still do great things.”
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