Newcomer Abuchi Osuala Is Proving He Belongs On The Big Stage

Abuchi Osuala wanted to show that he could hold his own while competing against some of the nation’s top Para athletes at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on June 14.

The star-studded field included Paralympic gold medalists Noah Malone, Jaydin Blackwell and Hunter Woodhall. Osuala couldn’t wait to race against them, and as soon as he heard the pop of the starter gun, he said he started “running off adrenaline.”

That rush of adrenaline boosted Osuala to a second-place finish in the open 100-meter — which featured multiple classifications — at 10.69 seconds, behind only Malone at 10.40 seconds. It was a breakout performance for the Milwaukee native who celebrated his 22nd birthday only 10 days after the meet.

“For me, it was just showing that I belong. I’m new to the field. I wanted to do well,” Osuala said. “It was definitely a big environment for me, but at the end of the day, I know what I can run. … I am very confident in what I can do. I’m very confident in my skills. I put in a lot of work, especially the summer prior to my senior year (of college), to get to the times I’ve gotten to. But going to this meet was just an opportunity for me to kind of show ‘Hey, I’m here, hey, I belong here and I’m here to stay.’”

The race only confirmed his belief that he has the speed and strong work ethic to someday compete at the Paralympics, perhaps as soon as the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

The LA Grand Prix came after an eventful month for Osuala. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Wisconsin Lutheran College on May 9, nine days before he started his new job as a software engineer in the MRI department at GE Healthcare.

Osuala then got engaged on May 31. 

Once the calendar turned to June, Osuala shifted his focus more to the track. After the LA Grand Prix, he took part in a weeklong training session in Chula Vista, California, before competing in the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon in early July. There, he placed third in the 100 behind Malone and Blackwell. 

In late July, he then traveled to the other side of the country for the 2026 Toyota USA Track & Field Outdoor & Para National Championships at Ichan Stadium in New York. He finished fourth in the 100 and sixth in the long jump. Both events featured athletes from multiple classifications. 

“I’ve never traveled this much in my whole life, but it’s exciting,” Osuala said. “It’s fun, it’s new and I love to compete, so being able to compete at this high level is a dream.”

Osuala was born with a broken clavicle and an injury to his brachial plexus, which is a group of nerves that controls the movement in his right shoulder and arm. The injury often occurs when the nerves are stretched. He competes in the T46 classification for athletes with movement affected in one or both arms or the absence of limbs. 

Osuala said he discovered at an early age that he was naturally fast. He began running track in the sixth grade. 

His speed also helped him excel on the basketball court, but his physical impairment affected his chances of becoming an NCAA Division I athlete.

Since he couldn’t use his right hand as much, Osuala relied heavily on his left hand while playing basketball in high school. He didn’t shoot or attempt layups with his right hand, but he joked that his condition didn’t keep him from scoring 20 points in a game.

“That didn’t stop me (from) being the best athlete in my room, being the best athlete in my middle school and high school,” he said. “So, I would say, for me, it’s always been there. It’s kind of always been part of me, and I’ve always been able to still be consistent and work hard within sports and see success.”

Even so, sports didn’t totally drive his decision on what college to attend. He received a full academic scholarship from Wisconsin Lutheran, a Division III school located only eight minutes from his childhood home.

Though he still wanted to play basketball in college, track turned out to be the better fit. 

In early May, only a few days before his college graduation, Osuala won the 100 in 10.66 seconds at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He also set a school record when he posted a time of 21.74 seconds to finish third in the 200.

He won a conference title despite his brachial plexus injury making it harder for him to get off the blocks at the start of a race. He said it’s also practically impossible for him to have the proper technique when he’s running because his right arm swings from “side to side instead of going straight forward, the normal form that we are all used to seeing.”

“For me, fatigue starts to set in a lot more because of the way I run, the way I have to compensate on my left side because of my right side and kind of how my right side in a way fails to bring my left side,” Osuala said. “So, that compensation can lead to just you getting tired in longer races like the 400 or the 200 or also maybe constant injuries because you are overcompensating on one side.”

Along with getting engaged and starting his professional career, Osuala has some lofty goals for himself in track and field. He said he hopes to compete for Team USA at next year’s world championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, followed by the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

Even more, he believes he can medal while competing on the world’s largest stage.

“I think God gives everybody a gift,” Osuala said, “and I think the gift that he gave me definitely was to sprint and to run.”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to usatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.