A Packed 2024 Season Could Have Taleah Williams Piling Up PTO Requests

Taleah Williams is all-in this year, which is set to be an unusual one.

There’s not normally a world championships during a Paralympic year. But the Tokyo Games being pushed back a year caused the 2021 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, to be delayed as well. After initially being postponed to 2022, the Kobe world championships were delayed a second time and will now kick off this May.

That means top American athletes essentially have two national championships and two world championships this season. The U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships this weekend in California will determine the U.S. team for Kobe. In July, the same athletes will convene again for the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials to determine who heads to the Paralympic Games Paris 2024.

To keep their minds and bodies used to a normal Paralympic ramp up, some athletes are forgoing nationals and worlds to focus on trials and the Paralympics.

Not Williams, though. The T47 long jumper will compete, she hopes, at all four major events this summer.

Now living in Lincoln, Nebraska, the 27-year-old began training a month ahead of schedule this spring, starting in March instead of April. Even if she qualifies for worlds, she’ll continue with her normal routine all the way until the Opening Ceremony on Aug.28 in Paris.

“I’m training through nationals,” Williams said. “If I go to worlds, I’m training through worlds. Trials, we’ll be in a better position. And then … Paris, that’s the goal. That’s what we’re training for.”

Williams said she’s not expecting the same marks this weekend at nationals that she would if she planned to peak there, and that the same is true of the world championships should she make that team.

For the time being, Williams said, her training is more fitness-based and less concerned with her technique.

“Because we know I know how to jump,” she said, laughing.

Williams learned how to jump years ago while growing up in Norfolk, Nebraska, which is about two hours north of Omaha. Born without her lower left arm, she then stayed close to home to compete against able-bodied athletes at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She first heard about the Paralympics once she was on campus, but she didn’t see the need to change what she was doing.

“I wasn’t necessarily offended,” she said, “but I didn’t know why I needed to go (compete in Para sports) when I was successful where I was already.”

Her mom and some of her friends encouraged her to see Para competition as a positive experience. Williams embraced the new challenge and after her freshman year she made her Paralympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games, where she placed fifth in the women’s long jump T47.

That experience proved to be a turning point for Williams.

“I was still struggling with insecurities at that point, and just seeing everybody else be so comfortable and able to seize the moment was a big thing for me,” she said.

Since Rio, Williams has competed in a second Paralympics and won a gold and bronze in the long jump in three trips to the world championships. The most recent trip to worlds was last summer in Paris, where she embraced the passion from European fans. She hopes to experience that again this summer.

“They know a lot more about Para track internationally than they do here,” she said. “There’s a lot more interaction.”

As one of what she jokingly calls “the elders” on Team USA, Williams notes that there are several younger athletes whom she has not gotten a chance to know well. She said that her advice to them heading into worlds in Japan and the Paris Games is to “live it up.”

Having competed in two Games and now attempting to make a third, Williams said deciding to pursue the Paralympics is one of the best things she’s ever done. On top of traveling the world, she said it allowed her to meet new people and make her feel more comfortable in her own skin.

Her positive experience has made her eager to spread the word about the Paralympics.

“I don’t think many people know about the Paralympics,” she said. “And maybe it’s downplayed because these are people with disabilities, but at the end of the day, we are working just as hard as the able-bodied (athletes) who are making the Olympics. We’re still professional athletes, world-class athletes.”

Williams is a world-class athlete who also has a full-time job working in an eye doctor’s office, so she schedules PTO for her competitions. Her coworkers recently found out competing for Team USA was why Williams would take time off when she does.

Now in the know, her boss texted her to wish Williams good luck at nationals.

“Everybody is really supportive,” Williams said. “They’re excited.”

If each competition goes well for Williams, she’ll need a plethora of PTO requests ready for later this year.

Lela Moore is a freelance contributor to usparatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.