Thirty Athletes Set to Compete for Team USA at 2024 World Para Athletics Championships

WALNUT, CALIFORNIA – After three days of competition at the 2024 U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships, presented by Toyota, the organization announced the 30 athletes named to Team USA for the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships.

More than 130 athletes competed at national championships – which took place at Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. Sac) – vying for a chance to contend on the international stage this May in Kobe, Japan.  The athletes selected to the world championships team were chosen based on their performances at Mt. Sac compared to the National Team ‘A’ standard in their event.

The team is building toward an unprecedented schedule in 2024, with world championships leading into the 2024 U.S. Paralympics Team Trials followed by the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. The 2024 world championships were originally supposed to take place in 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The 30 athletes representing the U.S. in Kobe will be in the unique position of competing at a world championships and potentially a Games in the same year.

“We are bringing a smaller team to Kobe than we have to world championships in years past, so competition for roster spots was extra stiff at nationals,” Sherrice Fox, Director of U.S. Paralympics Track & Field, said. “We were impressed with the performances our athletes put on at Mt. Sac, both from many of our veteran athletes and a few younger athletes who are making their first worlds team.”

High jumpers Roderick Townsend (Stockton, California) and Ezra Frech (Los Angeles, California) will seek to defend their 2023 world championship titles in the men’s T46 and T63 high jumps, respectively.

Frech will be joined by Tokyo Paralympic high jump champion Sam Grewe (Middlebury, Indiana), who will compete internationally for the first time since he won Paralympic gold. Frech edged Grewe in this weekend’s national championship competition as Grewe, who is currently in medical school, returns to form after his time away from the sport.

After coming close to the world record mark she threw last summer in Paris, Noelle Malkamaki (Decatur, Illinois) headlines an experienced team of throwers that includes defending discus world champion David Blair (Eagle Mountain, Utah) and 2019 shot put world champion Josh Cinnamo (San Diego, California). Paralympic bronze medalist Justin Phongsavanh (Des Moines, Iowa) secured his spot on the team in the men’s javelin F54.

Joining the veterans throwers will be 16-year-old high school sophomore Arelle Middleton (Rancho Cucamonga, California), who is set to make her international debut after a standout performance in the women’s shot put F64 at nationals. Middleton was recently named one of U.S. Paralympics Track & Field’s High School Athletes of the Year, and impressed with a distance at nationals that would have put her on the podium at last summer’s world championships.

Also returning to the track as defending world champions are sprinters Brittni Mason (Cleveland, Ohio), Noah Malone (Fishers, Indiana), Breanna Clark (Los Angeles, California) and Jaydin Blackwell (Oak Park, Michigan). Blackwell and Malone each won the first individual world title of their careers last summer. Blackwell, in his then-international debut, added another world title and a world record.

Clark, meanwhile, hasn’t lost a major international 400-meter T20 race since prior to the 2016 Paralympics, and will be looking for her fourth straight world title in the event. Mason is the reigning women’s 200-meter T47 champion and the silver medalist in the 100-meter T47.

Blackwell will be joined in T38 sprints by 2023 Parapan American Games champion Ryan Medrano (Savannah, Georgia) and four-time Paralympic medalist Nick Mayhugh (Manassas, Virginia).

After setting an Americas Record in the 100-meter T62 over the weekend, three-time Paralympic medalist Hunter Woodhall (Syracuse, Utah) will compete at his fourth career world championships. Fellow T62 sprinter and 2012 Paralympian Blake Leeper (Kingsport, Tennessee), who won a silver in the 400-meter at worlds last summer, also earned his spot at the 2024 edition.

On the women’s side, Paralympians Sydney Barta (Arlington, Virginia) and Beatriz Hatz (Lakewood, Colorado) will battle in the T64 sprints, while Hatz will also compete in the long jump, the event in which she placed fourth at the 2023 world championships. Frame runner Sayers Grooms (Gainesville, Florida) makes her second worlds team, and T37 double Parapan Ams silver medalist Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Washington) is set for her world championship debut.

Rounding out the sprinters are 2023 worlds bronze medalist Erin Kerkhoff (Coralville, Iowa), two-time 2023 Parapan Ams medalist Robert Hunt (Spokane, Washington) and newcomer Korban Best (Southlake, Texas). Kerkhoff won the first worlds medal of her career in her worlds debut last summer. Best, meanwhile, put together a strong performance in the 100-meter T46 en route to his first world championships.

Long jump world champion Isaac Jean-Paul (Evanstown, Illinois) won the men’s T13 competition in Paris last summer and will seek to defend his title in Kobe. He will be joined by long jump specialist Trenten Merrill (San Juan Capistrano, California), who is the reigning men’s T64 Paralympic bronze medalist. Former Division I football player Derek Loccident (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), who won the long jump T64 silver medal at the 2023 world championships in his international debut, will return to the world stage this summer with an expanded repertoire that includes high jump and javelin.

Hatz and Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, New Jersey) will represent the U.S. in women’s long jump competition. It will be Guimaraes’ worlds debut after a successful Parapan American Games and national championships.

Rounding out the roster are distance runners Michael Brannigan (Newport, New York), Leo Merle (Fontana, California) and Joel Gomez (Encinitas, California), all of whom have international experience. Brannigan is the 2016 Paralympic champion in the 1500-meter T20 and won silver in the event at worlds last summer, while Merle makes his second worlds team after debuting last summer. The dental student also won gold at Parapan Ams in November. Gomez finished sixth in the 1500m T13 at the 2023 world championships, and made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo.

Competition in Kobe runs March 18-25, 2024.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.

2024 World Championships Roster

Men

Korban Best

Jaydin Blackwell

David Blair

Michael Brannigan

Josh Cinnamo

Ezra Frech

Joel Gomez

Sam Grewe

Robert Hunt

Isaac Jean-Paul

Blake Leeper

Derek Loccident

Noah Malone

Nick Mayhugh

Ryan Medrano

Leo Merle

Trenten Merrill

Justin Phongsavanh

Roderick Townsend

Hunter Woodhall

Women

Sydney Barta

Breanna Clark

Sayers Grooms

Catarina Guimaraes

Beatriz Hatz

Erin Kerkhoff

Noelle Malkamaki

Brittni Mason

Arelle Middleton

Taylor Swanson