Former Hamilton Southeastern sprinter Noah Malone is a two-time Paralympic medalist. Now, he’s all set to compete again in the competition in Paris. The 22-year-old operates in the T12 category of the disabled class and mainly runs the 100m.

At the age of 13, doctors diagnosed him with Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. The disease leads to central vision loss, making him legally blind. Yet, that didn’t stop him from continuing his already budding track career, as he went on to achieve great heights in it. His perseverance and dedication to the sport is commendable. He talked about his career and when it began in a podcast released recently.

Noah Malone talks about the time when he lost his vision and how he learned to overcome it

Recently, in a podcast, Noah Malone opened up about his beginnings and when he lost his vision. The track star also talked about how he was already a great runner by then and how the whole incident left him confused about his future. He said, “I lost my vision when I was 13, so it wasn’t like I was born in, born with the, the vision loss and then I ended up getting into Paris for early on. So I was a pretty good track. I, I ran track up until, well, I mean I ran, I started running track at 10 years old and then three years went by, lost my vision.”

He added, “So at this point I’m kind of like at a crossroads, like do I keep going? Do I like stop? Like am I able to still do this? So, you know, the first year was a little rough and even I, at this point I’m still not in para, I’m still running at like my public school and then on my AAU team.”

He then continued on how he had no clue about the Paralympics until high school. However, when he got to know about it, there was no stopping him. He said, “So I don’t know about para. I’m not familiar with it up until like sophomore year of high school. So sophomore year I’m running like ten seven and stuff like that. And that, those are pretty good times to compete in, in the peril world. So I finally get introduced into like the para world about 2018. So about six years ago I was really young, I was like 16 maybe, and I went out to like Timothy, Arizona for our national meet, qualified for the national team and that’s really how it went. And then pretty much the next year we had our, my first international meet, which was Lima, Peru, PanAms at the time, the pair of PanAms. And then in Dubai we had world championships.”

Since then, Malone has never looked back, reaching new heights every time he competes. He is one of the best paralympic sprinters in the world. His career is a testament to this.

Noah Malone’s impressive career as a Paralympian track and field star

Noah Malone is unequivocally an exceptional athlete. When he was at Indiana State, he was a state champion and an NCAA Division I sports scholarship winner. No other disabled person in history has done such a thing. In 2019, he won four gold medals at the World Para Athletics Championships, competing in both 100 and 200. He then anchored the Indiana State team in the 400-meter relay, setting the school record with a time of 39.76 seconds. At the first-ever Paralympics in his career, he won 100m silver and also gold in a mixed 4×100 relay.

He would later clinch gold in the 2023 Paris World Championships and a silver in the 2024 Kobe World Championships. Now he is all pumped to go do it again in Paris and make his nation proud. Off the court, he has written an autobiography titled ‘Losing Vision, Not Dreams’, to tell people his story. He has also been a keynote speaker at the TedXIndianapolis. He is an inspiration both on and off the track, and if he adds another medal in Paris, his legacy may well be intact forever.