International Newcomer Violet Hall Possesses Poise Beyond Her Years

Back in August, 17-year-old Violet Hall settled into the starting blocks for the biggest race of her life. 

She was preparing to take off in the women’s 200-meter T44/46/64 race at the 2025 USATF Para National Championships at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene.

“I was just thinking, get out hard,” she said, noting that one of the top U.S. sprinters, Brittni Mason, was a lane outside of her. “When she goes, go as hard as you can and try to stay with her.”

She did more than that. She won the race in 25.47 seconds — .02 ahead of Mason, a five-time Paralympic medalist.

“I wasn’t expecting to win,” said Hall, who was born without the lower part of her right arm. “About 10 meters before the end, you wouldn’t think I’d won at all. I was looking up, ‘What’s the time? What’s the time?’ It was very close.”

Sure was. But that was just the start. At the end of nationals, the U.S. Track & Field announced its team for the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships Sept. 27-Oct. 5 in New Delhi. 

One by one, the roster was announced. Hall’s was the last one to be called out.

Not bad for a girl that a few months earlier was running and jumping in the Indiana state track and field meet for Bloomington South High School. She ran a leg on the 4x400 relay team there and took fourth. 

Once she got to India, Hall took in the beautiful country and noted the traffic was especially hectic. 

As far as the track competition, she felt a level of nerves about the same as nationals. But she managed to keep perspective.

“The international competition, there is a difference, the weight everyone felt,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I had a lot of pressure on me. My first worlds, nobody knows me yet.

“At the end of the day, it’s just the 100 and 200. It’s really just another race. I tried not to get in my head.” 

Her dad, Brandon Hall, watched from the bleachers at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and witnessed his daughter take fifth in the 200 in 25.51 seconds and eighth in the 100 in 12.62, both in the T47 class.

‘It was extremely gratifying, because that is the payoff and to measure yourself competing against other elite athletes,” he said, “she trusted the amount of work, and she got the returns on it.”

Things tend to happen so fast these days, and Hall’s ascent, like her 200 in Eugene, is no exception.

About a year ago, she gave Para track some thought but never acted on it. Then, in the spring, a week before high school track regionals, she learned about an Arizona meet called the Desert Challenge Games, where she ran and did well in the under-17 class. After another meet in Michigan in July, she felt ready for nationals.

Jay Rensink is a Bloomington South assistant track-and-field coach who oversees the sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers. He had no doubt Hall was poised for great things.

“The first thing people need to understand about Violet is, she is an absolutely gifted athlete, full stop,” Rensink said. “She’s pretty much good at anything she tries athletically. She’s fast (and) she gets off the ground on the jumps.”

The best evidence of that may be beating Mason in the 200.

“Brittni Mason is a professional, she’s been doing this for a long time,” Rensink said. “(Hall) has been a part-time track-and-field athlete. For Violet to go on these big stages and do what she does and not getting too overwhelmed by it all, it’s phenomenal.”

She’s also a good student. Rensink noted that between nationals and worlds, they worked together on her starts, which “really, really improved.”

“Violet was eager to get after it and make a difference and see what she could do on the world stage,” he said.

At the end of the day, Hall is still a high school kid trying to balance two sports (she plays varsity basketball as well) with academics and a social life. 

“I have been a student-athlete for the majority of my life, so I have learned to balance all of those things,” she said. “I am pretty good staying on top of things, staying on task. I like to be in the mindset of any season I’m in.”

What does the future look like for Hall? Perhaps not surprisingly, she’s planning to run in college, though her school of choice is still to be determined. She’ll likely major in exercise science.

She said her advice for any Para athlete who wants to compete at the highest levels is “really basic,” but it hits home.

“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do and never get in your head about whether you’re good enough,” she said.

Gregg Voss is a journalist based in the Chicago suburbs who has been writing sports for newspapers and magazines for more than 20 years. He is a freelance contributor to usatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.