No Matter Where Jaydin Blackwell Competes, He’s Always Representing Michigan

In Jaydin Blackwell’s first international meet, he won a pair of world titles in the men’s 100-meter and 400-meter T38 events, setting a world record in the latter.

That debut performance at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships last July set expectations extremely high for his follow-up performance this year, with another world championships on the calendar ahead of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Blackwell wouldn’t have it any other way, though.

“I set myself to a pretty high standard and I’m just trying to repeat what I did last year,” he said at the Team USA Media Summit, which was held a month before he competed in this May’s world meet in Kobe, Japan. “It takes a lot of preparation for that, and I’m just trying to get myself physically and mentally prepared for that just so I can keep doing what I can do for years and years.”

A repeat would’ve meant two more world titles in the 100 and 400. He added that he had his eyes set on a world record in the 100 as well to match the one he already has in the 400.

Blackwell, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 6, met most of those goals in Kobe. On the first day of racing, he won his second world title in the event in a 10-month span.

Three days later he cruised to another world title in the 400 with a time of 48.87 seconds, which was 1.63 faster than U.S. teammate and silver medalist Ryan Medrano.

Four world titles and a world record would be a decent haul for an entire track and field career. Blackwell has that on his resume before turning 21 — something he won’t do until next March.

That all set the stage for Blackwell’s highly anticipated Paralympic debut in Paris. In the lead up to the Games, Blackwell made it clear that he expected two golds on the world’s biggest stage.

He delivered on that promise and then some, winning Paralympic titles in both events while breaking the world record in the 100 and tying his own world record in the 400. 

“I'm glad, appreciative and really excited that I've been able to do this twice in a row now,” Blackwell said after his win in the 400. “I'm really happy that I've got the abilities to do what I need to do on that track and get two golds.”

For someone that’s taken the track and field world by storm, you might expect Blackwell to be training alongside his fellow world-class Para sprinters at the Chula Vista Elite Athletic Training Center in California. However, Blackwell has a much more low-key setup near Detroit.

Some days he trains at Oak Park High School, where he graduated from in 2022. Most days though, he trains at nearby Ferndale High School. While he doesn’t have any fellow Para athletes to train alongside him, he’ll usually run with some of the local high school kids.

“It gets lonely when you don’t have somebody else,” Blackwell said. “I know some of the kids there, and they know me, so I train with them cause no one wants to train alone.”

The unpredictable climate in Michigan can be another challenge, as Blackwell is forced to train inside plenty of days.

It may not be flashy, but this training routine has paid off in a big way for Blackwell. One of the biggest perks of staying local was the reception he got after returning from Paris last summer with two world titles. His friends and family greeted him at the airport with a sign that read, “Welcome home world champ.”

Then last October, Marian McClellan, the mayor of Oak Park, threw a party for Blackwell to celebrate his performance in Paris.

That kind of love helps Blackwell never lose sense of where he comes from when he’s competing across the world.

“It feels good because I was raised there all my life. I’ve got my friends, I have my teachers that I used to go to school with that I still have connections with to this day,” he said. “It means a lot to me as a person from Michigan that Michigan has somebody that they can be proud of.”

Track and field is Blackwell’s full-time job, which gave him the maximum amount of time to prepare for his stellar performances at three major meets in the past 18 months. Training full time limits his chances to make money to support his track career, though.

He’s hoping to see Para athletes get more recognition for their achievements.

“More recognition, more ads, more commercials, more support, more comments about Paralympians because we try our hardest; we have to fight to make a living,” he said. “We deserve more.”

Luke Hanlon is a sportswriter and editor based in Minneapolis. He is a freelance contributor to usparatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.