Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The two compete in para athletics, Wallace in the T64 category for athletes with below-the-knee amputations and Lambert in T63, for athletes with above-the-knee amputations.
For Wallace, switching events has saved him from burnout after competing in three Paralympic cycles of sprint events. For Lambert, adding a new event in her second Paralympic Games feeds an incessant desire to put herself in new and uncomfortable positions. It can be hard to trust something that is not part of you. Wallace turned to Paralympic competition after his leg was amputated his senior year of high school.
Since then, he has won championships and set world records in the meter and meter dashes as well as the 4xmeter relay. He won his first Paralympic medal in Tokyo in Afterwards, he decided to stop competing in sprint events and make the switch to long jump. He added that, unlike the unforgiving 10 seconds of a meter race, if you do not start strong in long jump, you can walk back and try again. Noelle Lambert was a lacrosse player at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell when her leg was amputated after a moped accident.
She stepped back onto the lacrosse field two years later but after graduating, she was ready for something new. She beat the reigning national champion at meters at her first competition. After he transitioned to long jump in , Lambert was inspired to pursue something her coach had suggested for years, but that intimidated her.
She first began to train for long jump in January. Wallace said that watching a younger athlete approach the same transition assisted him in finding new joy and energy in his veteran sport. Wallace offers Lambert training advice and technical knowledge. Now at Paris , the athletes will take their first jumps on the Paralympic stage, Wallace on Wednesday and Lambert on Thursday.
