PARIS, FRANCE – Team USA’s Daniel Romanchuk (Mount Airy, Maryland) and Jaydin Blackwell (Oak Park, Michigan) shone on the second day of Para track and field competition at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, leading seven Team USA medals by topping the podium in the men’s 5000-meter T54 and the men’s 100-meter T38, respectively.

Blackwell’s first Paralympic title came in world record fashion, while Romanchuk utilized a dramatic surge at the end of his race to overtake Switzerland’s Marcel Hug for his first gold medal in the event and second Paralympic title overall.

Also medaling for Team USA were Susannah Scaroni (Tekoa, Washington), Ryan Medrano (El Paso, Texas) and Noah Malone (Fishers, Indiana), who earned a trio of silvers, and Beatriz Hatz (Lakewood, Colorado) and Liza Corso (Newmarket, New Hampshire), who each took home bronze.

Highlighting the day was the 1-2 combination of Blackwell and Medrano, who each earned their first Paralympic medals in dramatic fashion in the men’s 100-meter T38. Blackwell, who broke his own world record, continued his winning streak that encompasses every 100-meter and 400-meter T38 competition dating back to the 2023 world championships.

“I can’t think about it all at once,” Blackwell said of his success in the past quad. “I’m just taking things once step at a time. I’m trying to take it in slowly and then move onto the next when I’m done.”

Blackwell’s time of 10.64 broke the world record he set in July at the U.S. Paralympic Trials – Track & Field. He said his coach has been pushing him in training and that it paid off in today’s race.

“It was a perfect race. I was focused on what I needed to do, to get out and get to the line as fast as possible,” he said. “I was just telling myself to push out … not to worry about anything else except what was in front of me.”

Medrano, meanwhile, ran a personal-best time of 10.99 seconds en route to silver in his first-ever Paralympic race. The former ‘Survivor’ contestant won his first world championships medal in Kobe this past spring and said the work he has done to improve in his two years in Para track and field has paid off.

“I’ve been on TV, but – sorry Survivor – 70,000 people looking at you all at once, the hum of the stadium, it was fantastic. There’s nothing like it,” Medrano said. “My coach and I have been working on my explosion. I have power, but my problem is I’m not matching their speed, so I’ve been doing a lot of work on staying calm and not tensing up.”

Both Medrano and Blackwell spoke to the fact that three U.S. athletes – including four-time Paralympic medalist Nick Mayhugh (Manassas, Virginia), who placed seventh – lined up for the 100-meter final. Both athletes emphasized the strength of the T38 class in the U.S. Mayhugh also competes in long jump.

“It gives all of us that really good boost of energy knowing that we have a teammate that we train with, hang out and laugh and joke with, on the same track,” Blackwell said. “Having Nick and Ryan in the same field has been really good for all of us because it allows us to push ourselves.”

Romanchuk ran what he called an unconventional race and won his first Paralympic gold medal in the 5000-meter T54. After finishing just off the podium in the event in Tokyo, Romanchuk hung in the back of the pack for nearly the entire race tonight, surging ahead in the final sprint to claim gold in 10:55.28.

“Those last few laps were certainly just head-on-a-swivel for any movement within the pack, especially being that far back,” Romanchuk said. “You’ve got a lot of ground to make up, and I really kind of just remember getting out just in time for everything to break loose and the final sprint to start. It was an unusual race, usually there’s a lot of transitions, but there was very little to no cycling.”

Teammate Brian Siemann (Champaign, Illinois), who also qualified for the event final, was solidly in the lead pack before recording a ninth-place finish after crashing into a runner who lost control ahead of him. Both Romanchuk and Siemann will compete in a slew of other events in the Games and both return to the track tomorrow for their 400-meter competitions.

Scaroni, the 2020 Paralympic champion in the 5000-meter T54, broke away from the pack early alongside Switzerland’s Catherine DeBrunner. The duo battled it out for the remaining laps, with DeBrunner pulling ahead in the final 100-meters of the race for the gold medal and Paralympic Record time of 10:43.62. Scaroni finished in 10:45.18 for her first medal of the Paris Paralympics.

The now four-time Paralympic medalist said she executed her race plan perfectly and was excited to bring home another medal for Team USA.

“I’ve been pushed by such strong people like [Catherine] and I think it’s been mutual,” Scaroni said. “It was in everyone’s best interest to go hard, keep the gap in the field, and I’m grateful that [Catherine] able to go with me and do that. I’m not a great sprint finish in a group, so I was hoping for an opportunity to make a big gap, and Catherine was willing to do that with me. Today was an honor, a blessing and I’m so grateful.”

After qualifying for the event final, teammate Jenna Fesemyer (Ravenna, Ohio) placed ninth in the first race of her second Paralympic Games. She will regroup and return to the track for the 1500-meter and marathon T54 events.

In one of the closest races of the competition thus far, the three-time Paralympic medalist Malone was edged by .01 seconds in a photo finish in the men’s 100-meter T12.

“To be able to wear the flag over my heart once again and compete in front of 70,000 people, that’s something I will never forget, it feels like a movie,” Malone said. “It feels good to have a medal around my neck, but it’s not the outcome I had planned in my head. My family is here which makes it better, so I’m not down, and it’s back to the drawing board.

Malone is also slated to compete in the 400-meter T12 and is in the pool for the universal relay.

Corso scored the second medal of her Paralympic career in as many races, taking bronze in the women’s 1500-meter T13. The Lipscomb University runner said she has run only eight total miles in the weeks leading up to the Games due to an injury and was happy with her performance given her limited training regimen as of late.

“I’ve gone through a lot of challenges the past months, but coming off of injury, I wanted to go out and give it my all, so I’m happy with a medal,” Corso said. “It was really a test of mindset today just to keep pushing and give my all on the line. I know that right now I’m not at my best. It’s given me fuel to the fire just to go out there and train and give it my all.”

Hatz, meanwhile, earned the first Paralympic medal of her career, getting herself onto the women’s long jump T64 podium by just .03 meters. Hatz won her first world championships medal in 2024 and continues her podium streak with a long jump bronze.

The two-time Paralympian was visibly emotional after her competition.

“It definitely meant a lot to me,” she said. “It’s the first time my family has been able to see me compete like this, so it has been a good trip. It was a very, very tight competition today. It means the world to me, especially being able to represent my country, this is a huge deal. It’s an event that all year I had been struggling with. You have to have the rhythm.”

A last-minute equipment change helped Hatz in today’s competition, she said.

“I made the decision yesterday to switch to a different blade. This blade is cracked right now, but I decided to switch it because it’s what I’m more comfortable on, and obviously it was the right choice.”

The 2023 world champion and world record holder in high jump T63 Ezra Frech (Los Angeles, California) made his Paris debut in the long jump T63, finishing fifth with a best jump of

In her Paralympic debut, USA’s Annie Carey (Boise, Idaho) placed sixth in the long jump T64 but will return to the track for the 200-meter T64 on Sept. 3.

Also making her Paralympic debut, Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, New Jersey) set a personal-best time in the women’s 100-meter T38 en route to a seventh-place finish in her preliminary heat, missing the final. Guimaraes has a full competition slate ahead of her, with long jump and the 400-meter competitions still to come.

Track and field competition in Paris resumes Sept.1 at 10 a.m. local time. All sessions will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. Follow U.S. Paralympics Track & Field on Facebook, Instagram and X for team results and updates from Paris 2024.

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

Team USA Medals – August 31, 2024

GOLD
Jaydin Blackwell – men’s 100-meter T38

Daniel Romanchuk – men’s 5000-meter T54

SILVER
Susannah Scaroni – women’s 5000-meter T54

Ryan Medrano – men’s 100-meter T38

Noah Malone – men’s 100-meter T12

BRONZE
Liza Corso – women’s 1500-meter T13

Beatriz Hatz – women’s long jump T64

Other Team USA Results

Ezra Frech – 5th, men’s long jump T63

Annie Carey – 6th, women’s long jump T64

Nick Mayhugh – 7th, men’s 100-meter T38

Jenna Fesemyer – 9th, women’s 5000-meter T54

Catarina Guimaraes – Prelims, women’s 100-meter T38

Brian Siemann – DNF, men’s 5000-meter T54

Blackwell, Romanchuk Golden on Seven-Medal Second Day of Para Track and Field Competition in Paris

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