For first time, athletes with and without disabilities compete at same championship event

The Greek prefix “para” means beside or alongside, but the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships have never been held beside or alongside anything.

Until now.

That’s why this week’s track meet at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field is being called the USA Track and Field Outdoor and Para National Championships.

For the first time, athletes with disabilities and able-bodied athletes will compete in the same meet, in front of fans who can watch both, one event after another, for three straight days.

“This is definitely the start of the next phase of what the Paralympics means to the U.S.,” said Ezra Frech, who won two gold medals as a 19-year-old at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris — in the T63 100 meters and high jump.

Frech was on stage Wednesday, July 30, at the Graduate hotel in Eugene, sitting next to two other gold medalists, Olympic hurdlers Grant Holloway and Masai Russell.

Holloway and Russell are not para athletes — they both won gold medals at the Games last summer in Paris — and that was the point of this press conference ahead of the 2025 USATF meet that begins today, July 31, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 3.

They were there to sit alongside one another and talk about what it means that they are, once and for all, doing this together.

“It’s really great that it’s all together now,” said Rudy Winkler, the American record-holder in the hammer throw who sat with Noelle Malkamaki, who won gold last year in Paris in the F46 women’s shot put at the Summer Paralympics.

“I don’t even see the need for there to be para nationals and track nationals,” Winkler said. “It’s like, if you’re a track fan, we should all be together anyway, so it’s great that it’s happening.”

But it’s also confusing for the average track fan, even in TrackTown USA, because there are far more classifications — such as T63 and F46 — in para track and field than there are lanes on a track.

For example, “T” stands for track and includes jumping events. And “F” stands for field and includes all throwing events, while the numbers represent a para athlete’s disability.

Frech competes in T63, a classification for para athletes with lower limb disabilities who compete with prostheses — specifically, athletes with a single, above-knee amputation.

Frech, 20, of Los Angeles, was born without most of his left leg and missing fingers on his left hand. He received his first prosthetic leg at 11 months and had surgery at age 2 to remove his lower left leg.

But none of that has stopped him from running 100 meters in 12.06 seconds and leaping 6 feet, 4 ¼ inches in the high jump last year in Paris. The latter was a Paralympic Games record.

Frech talked about the “fire” that’s necessary for any athlete who competes, whether they have two lower legs, or one, or none.

“I think that’s really important as athletes,” said Frech, also a motivational speaker. “I think oftentimes people get complacent, and I think complacency kills success. In my head, I never want to get complacent. I always want to be hunting, even if I’ve already won.”

Here are some of the other para athletes — and the schedule and ticket information — to keep an eye on during their three days of competition.

Tatyana McFadden: The most decorated Paralympian ever, 36-year-old McFadden is a wheelchair athlete who competes in T54 classification. She was born in Russia with spina bifida, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. McFadden grew up in Maryland playing all sorts of sports. She competed in her first Summer Paralympics in Athens in 2004 at age 15. Initially a sprinter, McFadden progressed to marathons. She’s competing in 100- and 400-meter races this week.

Hunter Woodhall: The 2024 Paralympic gold medalist in the T62 400 meters, Woodhall, 26, was the first double amputee to earn an NCAA Division 1 scholarship when he enrolled at the University of Arkansas. Both of his lower legs were amputated at 11 months because of fibular hemimelia, the congenital absence of the fibula bones. His personal best in the 400 is 46.09, a time that doesn’t put him far behind the best able-bodied runners. Woodhall is married to Tara Davis-Woodhall, who won gold in the women’s long jump at the 2024 Summer Olympics. In addition to the 400, he’s running in both the 100 meters and 100 open ambulatory races this week.

Jaleen Roberts: A T37 (coordination impairment) para athlete, Roberts, 26, of Tacoma, Washington, attended Eastern Washington University and competes in the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump. She was born with cerebral palsy and has won several medals in international competition, including bronze in the 100 and 200 at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships with a U.S. record time of 28.28 in the 200.

Ryan Medrano: A T38 athlete, the 27-year-old won silver medals in the 100- and 400-meter races at the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris. He began competing in international para competitions after appearing on the 43^rd season of “Survivor” and meeting fellow Paralympic athlete Noelle Lambert, who informed him that cerebral palsy was a recognized disability sport classification. Medrano will be running the 100 and 400 meters this week.

Noah Malone: The 23-year-old T12 athlete (blind or visually impaired), who attended Indiana State University, won gold in the 100 meters at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, a year after winning the para 100 at the 2023 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. Malone developed Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, leading to central vision loss and legal blindness. He has personal best times of 10.33 in the 100 and 20.34 in the 200 and is entered in the 100 this week.

Hannah Dederick: The 22-year-old from Mead, Washington, was born with spina bifida and abandoned on the steps of an orphanage in Suzhou, China, as an infant. She is a two-time Paralympian and finished fourth in the women’s T54 400 in Paris, sixth in the 100 and seventh in the 800. She’ll race in all three events this week.