Severe Weather And A Schedule Change Couldn’t Stop Kaitlin Bounds From Breaking Her Own World Record

There is a pretty simple reason why Kaitlin Bounds loves to run, much less run competitively.

“It frees me from the autism,” Bounds said. “The autism just controls my entire mindset in life. When I get to run, I’m free from it and I feel like I’m in control of my life again.”

When the 34-year-old from Russellville, Arkansas, runs, she is one of the best in the world. On April 24, Bounds broke the world record for the women’s 5,000-meter T20 at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, with a time of 17 minutes, 10.37 seconds. 

The previous holder of the world record? That would be Bounds, who set it at the 2025 Drake Relays in 17:10.74.

Even in competition, the 2024 Paris Paralympian said she is at her happiest with that unbridled freedom, even if she doesn’t show it with her expression.

“I have to try to not think, I try to tune everything out when I’m running,” Bounds said. “When I’m running, I’m in like this zone, a stone-cold face. It looks like I’m not a happy person when I really am.”

While Bounds was able to top her performance at this year’s Drake Relays, she had to overcome an unpredictable schedule to do so. 

With bad weather and high winds in the area on the day of the 5,000, event organizers moved up the start time of the race by three hours. 

Typically, Bounds and her mom, Kathy, are already at the track a few hours ahead of time so Bounds can get acclimated to her surroundings and give her mind time to adjust to the people around her. On this day, they were still back at the hotel when they found out they needed to quickly get going. Already with what Bounds needed laid out on the bed, they scooped everything up and dashed for the track.

“We were all really proud of Kaitlin for the fact that scrambling, rushing like that, that absolutely unnerves her,” Kathy Bounds said. “We had that happen when we were in India and she didn’t perform well, so we were thrilled that she was able to recover from the anxiety of rushing.”

Once at the track, the weather — gusting winds of more than 30 mph and the threat of a potential tornado — didn’t bother Bounds. Living in Arkansas, she is used to high winds and dramatic weather. In a way, she was in her element.

“I was a little surprised at how quickly we had to rush everything,” Bounds said. “I was just doing some heating up in the room and then when my coach called (to say the start time was earlier), we just had to rush through and get everything over there. Then I barely had time to just warm up and everything, so it was just a little chaotic, but going into the race, I was actually feeling really good about it.”

One of the reasons that chaos didn’t have a bigger effect on Bounds was what she has been doing off the track to help herself.

As someone with autism, she often faces demeaning treatment from those around her who don’t understand her situation. After she made Team USA, she started working with a sports psychologist, who has helped Bounds deal with the verbal abuse from others and deal with the mental anxiety that results from the hurtful comments.

Having also worked with Team USA coaches, most notably Sonja Robinson, Bounds is a more confident athlete now than when she finished sixth at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in the women’s 1,500 T20 as she dealt with the effects of having COVID.

“They’ve helped me learn to calm down, learn to enjoy running and I don’t have to be at my top speed all the freaking time,” Bounds said. “I never learned when I was younger that I didn’t have to go fast all the time. ... I feel like it really, really helped me. I’m a lot calmer, I’m not worrying so much and not feeling so much pressure that I have to run fast all the time or (something bad) is going to happen.”

All of this is helping her formulate a plan for competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics as well as the Olympics. 

Since graduating high school in 2010, Bounds has had a dream to run in the Olympic marathon, getting inspiration from five-time Paralympic gold medalist Marla Runyan, who was the first legally blind U.S. athlete to compete in the Olympics when she ran the 1,500 at the 2000 Sydney Games.

She knows that path is a long shot — just making the Olympic marathon trials would be an accomplishment — but it is one worth pursuing.

“I would probably be crying my eyes out because I’ve been told for so many years I can’t do nothing because I’m autistic,” Bounds said. “It would show the rest of the world that you shouldn’t judge me just because I have a disability. My whole life I’ve been judged because of my disability. It’s never been about my ability as a person.”

This summer, she plans to compete in the Los Angeles Grand Prix in mid-June and the Portland Track Festival the next week before the USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships in late July in New York.

Just being able to go out and run, whether it is the short distances or the longer ones, proves something to Bounds every day.

“It means everything,” Bounds said. “It means that I’m just as capable as anybody else to be competitive. It doesn’t matter if I’m disabled or not, I’m just as capable as anyone to be successful and be a champion.”

Steve Drumwright is a journalist based in Murrieta, California. He is a freelance contributor to usatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.