Blake Leeper

Being a member of the United States team. (runtastic.com, 15 Mar 2013)

His father for pushing him so hard. (runtastic.com, 15 Mar 2013)

"Life is 10% what you deal with and 90% how you deal with it." (timesnews.net, 13 Oct 2012)

He was part of the US 4x100m relay team that was named as the 2013 Paralympic Team of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee. The award was in recognition of the squad's performance at the 2013 World Championships in Lyon, France. The team also included Richard Browne, Jerome Singleton and Jarryd Wallace. (insidethegames.biz, 24 Oct 2013)

In 2013 he was inducted into the Boys & Girls Club of America Alumni Hall of Fame. (timesnews.net, 06 May 2013)

Help Our Potential Evolve [HOPE], a community organisation in his home town Kingsport, TN, United States, declared 13 October 2012 as 'Blake Leeper Day'. (downtownkingsport.org, 12 Oct 2012)

He played varsity basketball at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, TN, United States. (competitor.com, 30 Aug 2012; timesnews.net, 07 Dec 2006)

To compete as an able-bodied athlete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (teamusa.org, 08 May 2014)

He was born with both legs missing below the knee and has worn prosthetics since age nine months. "The doctor told me he'd never walk," said his mother Enid. "We decided that we were going to treat him as if he did have limbs. No exceptions." (teamusa.org, 25 Jun 2012)

MOTIVATION
His parents inspired his athletic career by applying some reverse psychology when getting him fitted for his prosthetics as a child. "I remember my parents telling me that the doctors told them that I would never be involved in any athletic activity. They said I wouldn't be able to run and jump like the rest of the kids, that I would have to play the piano or something like that." (timesnews.net, 07 Dec 2006)