Brent Lakatos

Winning gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (athletics.ca, 07 Nov 2019)

Canadian wheelchair racers Andre Viger and Chantal Petitclerc. (paralympic.org, 26 Apr 2015)

In May 2015 he was hospitalised due to an illness while he was at an event in Arbon, Switzerland. Bad health continued to disrupt his training throughout 2015. (paralympic.org, 24 Feb 2016)

He was named the 2017 Athlete of the Year by Athletics Canada. He was also named the Para Athlete of the Year in Wheelchair Events by Athletics Canada in 2017, 2018 and 2019. (paralympic.ca, 06 Jun 2018; athletics.ca, 06 Jan 2021)

He played wheelchair basketball for the University of Texas in the United States of America, and helped the team win the 2002 national title. (paralympic.ca, 11 Aug 2012)

His wife Stefanie Reid represented Great Britain in athletics at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games. His sister competed in swimming for the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL, United States of America. (cbc.ca, 05 Oct 2020; paralympic.org, 25 Feb 2015; independent.co.uk, 09 Sep 2012)

To win a medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (athletics.ca, 20 Feb 2019)

At age six he was involved in a skating accident. The impact of hitting the ice caused a blood clot to form in his spine, which resulted in paralysis. He began participating in Para athletics in 1996 during the northern hemisphere summers but didn't enter any events until 2003, when he became the Canadian champion in the 100m. (paralympic.ca, 11 Nov 2010)

RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
He has considered retiring from the sport after the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "It's tough to keep training every day. It's always been the hardest part for me. The motivation to go out and do it every day. To work hard and put your body through the pain each day, it doesn't get any easier as I get older. I think I'm ready to stop that. I haven't stopped liking racing at the least, I still love it, but it might be time to think of family and what's next." (athletics.ca, 07 Nov 2019)

BALANCING SPORT WITH WORK
He has a degree in software engineering and works as a consultant. Based in Loughborough, England, he balances morning training sessions with afternoons spent working and communicating with colleagues in the United States of America. "I think I'd go crazy if I wasn't working. I would do my training, then I would come back and I guess I would have to just think about my training for the rest of the day. It might put more pressure on me, it might drive me crazy or make me bored, but with work I get to come home and completely switch gears and think about something else and take my mind off racing. I work as a software consultant because of the freedom it gives me in my racing career. Paying my bills never depends on my results, which means I can take risks and I can do things on my own terms." (paralympic.org, 13 Aug 2016; cbc.ca, 31 Jul 2019)

CHANGE IN DISCIPLINE
Formerly a sprinter, taking world records in 100m and 200m events, he has progressed into longer distances. He has held world records in 400m, 800m and 1500m, and won the 2018 Berlin Marathon. He is now aiming to compete in the marathon at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. "I know sprints to marathon is an unusual transition, but I did some research, crunched some numbers, and decided I had a chance. But there were some things I needed to work on. The obvious one being endurance. I decided to invest some time in changing my pushing technique. There were no guarantees. Not only was I unsure if I would be competitive at the longer races, I was worried my competitors would catch up to me in the sprints because I wasn't able to focus as much on them." (cbc.ca, 31 Jul 2019)