Visually Impaired Paralympic Track and Field Athlete | Isaac Jean-Paul | Beacon Story

I live with the phrase of be your own superhero rewrite your own narrative when you look at me you wouldn't say oh this guy is blind when I try to explain people my vision disability [Music] they don't believe it because of the stuff that I'm able to do you know I'm saying it's it's crazy it's so crazy [Music] Beacon story foundation fighting blindness at the age of two my my parents decided to take me to the eye doctor because I kept on running into things and uh that's when they discovered that I had juvenile retina skisas juvenile retinasthesis has caused Isaac to lose large amounts of vision in each eye I was always athletic I come from an athletic background my mom actually is a Hall of Fame basketball player at her alma mater in Lewis University shout out to the Flyers I wanted to play professional basketball go against Kobe LeBron all of them that's what I wanted to do and in high school I was getting cut from the high school team it kind of like put me in a bad place where what am I going to do if I can't make my high school team like how am I going to make a college team I'll make the NBA Isaac visits his old High School Warren Township in Chicago I was determined to show my friends that I was fast so I went to track practice in the first day placed first in the broad and vertical joke and then last the last test was the 40-yard dash so I'm peeping out who the fastest right and I ran like a four or five in like tennis shoes and my coach looked at me was like you gotta you gotta come back that experience with his coach jump started his professional track and field career I ended up making the paralympic world championship team in 2017 and that's where I debuted in the high jump for the Paralympics and end up breaking the world record three times in that meet and winning goal it was it was it was a lit moment it was a lit moment I'm not gonna lie and so now I'm still in the process of making another paralympic team for the next paralympic games and also um making an Olympic team for the next Olympic Games as well Isaac shares his story with track students at his former high school I have to thank my eye doctors my optometrist and my retina specialist that probably opened so many doors for me as far as just putting things in perspective one thing that they told my parents was allow Isaac to experience life as it is let him navigate his disability don't hold him back from anything because this is not going to change you know and so a lot of people in my life gave me that belief that I can be something that I can't do something and it and it just corresponded into the career that I'm in coach Odell he was the first person that told my parents like we need your son to continue to do track because he can be something special [Music] when he said that I believed him so I kept on going whatever you put your focus to that's what you're going to be great at you're going to try to be the best at it check out Isaac's story at fightingblindness.org forward slash Beacon stories