so where you guys from sorry we're based out of uh based out of colorado springs colorado okay sorry kyle you are good to go all right awesome cool all right welcome welcome welcome welcome everybody to yet another episode of the blind spot where we talk with blind athletes reaching excellence i am your host kyle kuhn your united states association of blind athletes program and safe sport coordinator just a few little housekeeping items before we uh introduce our incredible guest today guys just make sure to uh be tuned in to you know those social media feeds facebook instagram twitter youtube everything we've got some amazing content and stuff coming out over the next few weeks that we're really excited to share with you um you know as always uh reminding you guys that usaba we are celebrating our 45th year of existence about 45 years of uh you know trying to make sure that every american that's blind or visually impaired is uh is out there living a healthy active lifestyle through sport and recreational and physical activity um you know just again we're gonna be uh putting out a lot more content um to celebrate that 45th anniversary um especially in the build-up to the paralympics later this year and that is a great segue into introducing uh our next guest on the blind spot uh you guys i am pretty pumped to introduce you to isaac john paul he is a paralympic hopeful and multi-time world championship medalist in track and field so isaac welcome to the blind spot man how's it going today man it's going great man i i absolutely thank you for having me on your uh show man super excited absolutely so i isaac just uh you know just some some basic stuff why why don't you tell us just a little bit about uh your eye condition and and um you know how you how you found your way to track and field oh man that's man you got time because this is a long story man [Laughter] uh but i'll try i'll try to uh be as short and precise as i can be at the age of two i was diagnosed with juvenile retinoschisis which is a eye condition where the retinas have cracks in some type of detachment from the eye to the brain so what that happens is it limits my peripheral vision my central vision near-sighted vision far side of it everything um is pretty much i like to say jacked up for lack of better word yup um but it didn't stop me you know from pursuing athletics i mean in fact my eye doctors as soon as they diagnosed me with juvenile retinasis they told my parents to allow me to experience life to its fullest don't try to hold his hand through this process allow isaac to navigate the world through his own lens and that's what my parents did you know i'm saying they allow me to understand uh my my eye condition and how to adapt to it and um in school it was pretty tough you know um i had the large in text large enlarged textbooks you know the the textbooks that take over like half the table and all of that i had the cctvs and all that good stuff just to help me see and in the middle yeah you you can relate right oh yeah man i i i know the feeling yes sir so you know and and i bet you even know the feeling that you know being young kids want to know what that was so you know i began to feel more of a more of a spectacle then appear you know what i'm saying because people will always want to you know use my devices and i'm like man i i don't even feel comfortable using these devices and um with that being said i kind of like gravitated away from school a lot you know i'm saying i i just didn't like school because i was getting too much unwanted attention um but in sports that's where i found myself to be just like everyone else you know it's um people didn't see me um having a disability because when you look at me you'd be like oh he's just another guy that wears glasses especially how i navigate the world you know i you would never know that i have a disability until i tell you so in sports i was able to hide it even more because i was so good and i would play every sport imaginable from football basketball and i mean those are the only two sports i really did play those only two sports i really enjoyed playing but i was really good at baseball but my mom would never let me play baseball because she was too fearful of me getting hit in the head with the ball or you know just you know she was protective on a certain sport she was okay with me playing basketball because it was just like all right you can move around and do things um she almost didn't let me play football so i had to like show her that i was good enough to play football okay and eventually i was good enough and then they let me put the pads on and they were like all right and i was really good at that so like that was that was a point that was a place where i found refuge you know i found to be the most comfortable i found myself being just like everyone else my vision didn't matter even though it did matter but it didn't matter because i just was so good um growing up basketball was my love like i i wanted to be in the nba i wanted to be dunking on lebron james crossing over kobe and doing all that good stuff you know because my mom oh yeah yeah yeah you know oh yeah she was a basketball player in fact my whole mom's side of our family my family our basketball players that's one sport that we just grew up playing was basketball so i i took that tradition and i ran with it i made my freshman year uh in high school basketball team and right then i was just like you know what i'm going to the nba i made my freshman year high school team nba here i come you know what i'm saying absolutely man way to take the bull by the horns there exactly exactly so i made it my freshman team probably one of the most proudest moments of my life and at this point i'm still like gravitating more and more away from school because now sports is becoming my forefront you know and i was so fixated on my sport and um sophomore year i ended up getting cut and i'm like how did i get cut from the basketball team this is what i do like and i asked the coach like hey coach what do i have to work on to be better for next year so i can make the team you know it was the toughest you know feeling of my life to ask him what i had to work on because i'm like sad i didn't make the team and i felt like i deserved to have a spot on the team but i took it as if like okay maybe i need to work a little bit harder so he said he wouldn't look me in my eyes but he would say he would say oh you got to work on your handles so all summer that's all i did i worked on my handles i would wake up at like five it would be nice that i wouldn't even sleep you know i would wake up or i would stay up until the sun comes out and be outside playing basketball worked on my handles and i was like you know what there's no way i'm not gonna make this team my junior year i go to tryouts i get cut again and i'm like okay at this point i'm kind of confused because i know i'm better than that guy i'm better than that guy better than that guy and then at the same time there's people from the team that made the team asking me if i made the team and how come i'm not on the team and i couldn't i didn't know why i wasn't on the team i had no no answer for him and then i would ask the coach like hey is there anything i need to work on to be better my senior year so i can make the team i have to make the team my senior year right it's like you're just too small like you need to grow some add a little bit more muscle and that's what i did you know i i was reading this article about uh not kobe bryant michael jordan and he was he would say uh the time that he got cut from the basketball team they were telling him that he was too short his mom would tell him put salt in your shoes and you would grow some and so that's what he did and from one summer he grew from like being five eight to six foot three over one summer so i was like hey if it worked for him it could work for me so i'm putting the saw in the shoes my mom's looking at me like what are you doing what are you doing my table saw and i'm like i'm trying to grow you know i'm trying to do anything and everything yeah make sure that i make this team my senior year yep i go to tryouts and in the midst of tryouts they cut they didn't cut people but they split the teams up so you can make you can kind of come up with like who's going to be on the team or who's not doing up the middle of tryouts and whatever and we were doing this one drill and i was just like you know what if i don't make this team i'm at least going to go out there and try my hardest and it was just one-on-one drift where the defender has to roll the ball out to you at the three-point line and i'm i'm the offensive player so the defender rolls the ball out to you and you guys and the off the offensive player only has two dribbles within those two dribbles you gotta you gotta score you can't take no more than two dribbles so i was just like you know what i know i can jump and i know i'm fast if i can get my first step in front of this guy i know i can almost dunk on it so that's what i did so i literally went and nobody was expecting this they nobody knew at this point that i was like i can jump i didn't even know i was like a jumper at this point i was just super athletic so i took the ball right down the middle of the lane and i rose up and like almost dunked on them i missed it my hands were too small at the time so i couldn't palm the ball but i almost dunked on them and the coaches and like everybody just looked at me and i was just like damn i missed you know i'm thinking i'm pissed you know but everybody hit all because i almost dunked on this guy you know what i'm saying so uh in the tryouts happen i get my letter and i open that letter and i'm thinking like i made the team i had to have made the team after that play and then the letter reads i'm sorry but we decide to go a different direction and i get cut again and i'm just like at this point the nba is looking this small you know freshman year it looked this big but now it's like small you know what i'm saying oh yeah oh yeah so i'm like all right man what am i going to do like no colleges are gonna pick up me and i can't even make my high school basketball team like what's going on so one day in the middle of skipping class because again you know i didn't like going to school i was just one of those people that just showed up to school for pe class and skipped every other class you know don't condone it but you know i eventually found the importance behind having a great education so absolutely that comes in later down the road in the story so i'm skipping class one day and i'm sitting at my friend's house and we're watching devin hester and at the point i'm from chicago so at this time devin hester was the fastest man in the world like usain bolt didn't matter because you're saying all right devin hester was running how he was running for chicago bears you know and in this particular video they had devin hester on one side and a cheetah on the other side and they were it was sports science and they were literally calculating how fast devin hester was and you know me being a competitor i'm like devin hester ain't you know i'm faster yeah you know my friends are looking at me like bro you're crazy you're not faster than devon hester like you don't even run i'm like i don't have to run i'm faster than devin heston i just know i just had that feeling in my heart that i was fascinated for sure and they were like get out of here bro so i was like you know what if you get in your car and you drive 20 miles an hour i bet you i can beat that car my friend looked at me he was like you're out of your mind it's the it's in the middle of winter you know it's the middle of winter in chicago and you want to go run a 20 mile hour fast car you know what i'm saying like that's no you're gonna pull a hamstring and it's not gonna look good so my friend was like i'm not about to go out there let my car warm up just to see you not run as fast as you think you can run i have a better i have a better bet for you how about this you try out for the track team if you beat the fastest guy on the track team then i would consider you fast i was like all right bet taken i don't really run track because you know if you got to wear those small booty shorts and a little tank top so i'm thinking like it's far from what i'm used to you know what i'm saying i'm a what am i going to look like you know wearing these little small shorts and these little small shirts but you know so i was like you know what i got to prove to my friends that i'm fast so then the following week track practice or track trials happen and i'm determined you know i'm like who's the fastest guy here i'm eyeing everybody down trying to figure out like who's fast now mind you you know people already know who i am because i play basketball and you know i'm kind of popular uh so people like knew of me but they were like okay oh you're trying out for track cool today that the first day of track tryouts was um testing day so we tested the broad jump the vertical jump and the 40-yard dash now i was ready for the 40-yard dash i was like yeah this this is my time to see who's fast but the first the first uh event was the broad jump now i wasn't familiar with the broad jump but when they started to explain what the broad jump was i was like oh that reminds me of me being a kid in the grocery store jumping from different colored tiles and not and pretending like the white house was liable so i'm like okay it's the same concept right yep so i see people jump i'm like all right cool one guy jumps pretty far so i was now it's my turn and i was just like you know what i'm just gonna try to jump as far as i can i whoof my uh my arms back and i just thrust forward and i take the biggest leap of my life and like everybody just stopped and looked at me as a as i landed and i'm looking i look where i started and i'm just like okay cool the coach looks at me he pulls out the measuring tape he was like you just jumped 10 feet and like three inches you know the furthest jump that anybody's jumped i had track trials you know what i'm saying so i'm like oh okay cool like all right now it's time for the vertical jump now everybody knows that you know i play i have a basketball background so like oh he's going to do good on the vertical jump whatever i jumped like 32 inches and everybody looked at me like damn okay but let's see how fast he is you know he can show his house let's see how fast he is so now this is my turn i'm looking at everybody i'm trying to figure out who's the fastest guy and i'm watching everybody's response as each person goes so the fastest guy on the track team at the time goes and everybody's like cheering for him like let's go let's go and it's crazy because his name is kyle shout out to kyle shout out to warren blue devils you know warm devil it wasn't for you guys i probably wouldn't be here shout out to rocco odo my track coach walter oliver ranga hey i gotta shout out all the track coaches man i'm sorry you're good um so kyle ward he steps up and he runs and everybody's like wow he just ran super fast and you know i'm like okay you know everybody's expecting him to run fast because he's the quote unquote fastest guy on the track team and now it's my turn and at this time i'm wearing like basketball attire i'm wearing the basketball shoes baggy shorts baggy shirt all i know is you just gotta run you gotta run as if a pit bull is chasing you so the coach says ready set and i take off go and i'm just running i don't even know how i look at this point i'm just running as fast as i can i'm probably running crazy and then you know the coach stops his uh stopwatch and he looks at the stop watch he looks at me he looks at the stopwatch he looks at me and i'm looking like all right what's the time you know what i'm saying it was like you just ran a four five eight the fastest time that anybody's right today and i'm like okay cool so i am fast huh he looked at me he was like look if you don't continue to do track i'ma choke you now my track coach at the time was this big big football coach you know so and i'm only like 125 pounds soaking wet so of course i'm like hey whatever you want boss i got you that's how my track career started at this time i still don't know anything about the paralympics that comes much later down the road like my my after college is when i discovered the paralympics so this entire time i'm competing against able-bodied athletes not thinking anything of it because again i had dreams and aspirations of being in the nba um and at that point i still didn't know anything about the paralympics so um eventually my high school career was pretty good i ended up making and this is my senior year i started track my senior year yep i ended up making down the state um didn't do well but i was only like one of three other athletes that made it down to state from my uh from my high school i made it for i jump in long jump i ended the year with a uh six foot six inches high jump breaking the score record um long jump i think i jumped 23 feet um didn't break this i don't think i had the school record for the long jump but i was i was always loving the hygiene because i didn't have to run so much like i stopped sprinting just a high jump because i saw the high jumpers like laying on this big bed at this time at this after this workout that i was doing it was like a ladder workout i was passed out on the ground and i just see this big fluffy bed and i see people jumping on it and i look at one of my teammates as he's helping me up i'm like yo what is that over there and he was like oh that's the high jump and i was like so those people over there they don't gotta do what we just did he was like no they just jumped i was like i want to do that coach i was like hey coach i want to do this and at the time like i was i don't know if i was the best athlete but the coaches allow me to be like okay well shoot we're gonna try him in a high jump you know we seen him sprint but let's see if he's good at jumps and that's where you know i found success in and unfortunately um after one practice my coach pulls me into the office and at the time i'm thinking i'm in trouble you know because every time someone tells me uh i need to talk to you or meet me in my office i'm thinking i'm going to get a detention or a pink slip or a saturday school because i was i wasn't a bad kid i was just a kid that didn't show up to class you know and i was a class clown but everybody loved me if that made sense yeah for sure yeah so when he brings me into the office i'm thinking i'm in trouble you know i'm like oh shoot what did i do now um and he gives me a paper and on this paper had a list of schools like universities and i'm looking at these schools and i'm like ohio state iowa state uh illinois university illinois state like a whole bunch of like d1 schools a whole bunch of division two schools and i'm like looking at this i'm like i know this isn't for basketball what's what's this for you know he's like these are the schools that you're not going to be able to get go into because your grade point average is too too low and you got you scored low on the acts um and the purpose of that conversation was like all right we need to like you have all the potential in the world to go to college maybe it's not for the sport that you want but these are opportunities are that are afforded to you through track and field and since you haven't been doing what you needed to do you're going to have to take an alternative route and i was just like dang man why'd you have to tell me that and he told me you know the reason you do you want to know the reason why you didn't make your high school team you're a basketball team and i was like yo yeah i wasn't good enough i guess he was like no it's because you are a liability to the school because of your visual your uh visual impairment and i was just like damn i was good you know what i'm saying this whole time but i was a liability because one i i didn't like wearing sports goggles when i really needed to and then you know that that was an issue but i you know at that age i'm just trying to fit in you know this is the most pivotal point in your life it's high school at that point you know what i'm saying trying to oh yeah fit in and be cool and not be looked at as anything other than your eq your peers you know so that ended up happening and i had to go to a junior college which probably was the best like thing that ever happened to me because with going to harper college shout out to harper college um renee zellner changed my entire perspective on life you know i'm saying she actually helped me and she was my college track coach for my junior college and she helped me understand one my disability a little bit more because she was a parent or she is a parent that has a child with a disability so like she can identify with me she can understand you know what i was going through without me explaining what i was going through because she had a child you know with a with a learning disability with autism and whatnot so she helped me understand my disability she helped me understand my five senses and how they work because she helped me learn more about the high jump and learn that it's more so of a feel than a visual sense and since i have a great sense of feel i use that to my advantage when i like clear the bar because i don't see the bar until like i'm two feet in front of it right so when i have this longer approach i don't see the obstacle until like literally right before i jump so i have to literally feel my way through the entire approach and that's how she helped me understand the high jump and that's how i excelled without using any of my vision she helped me understand the kinetic sense of the high jump and i was just like man from there i just excelled so um my second year i ended up being a national champion in uh division two or not division two uh junior college in the high jump i set the school record jumping six ten and three quarters oh my second year ever doing the high jump um ultimately i ended up getting a scholarship to a division two school which happens to be my mother's university where she graduated from and where she is a hall of fame member for basketball oh wow so i had it was it was kind of funny because i have made this list in high school of what i wanted to do and what i wanted to become and everything was basketball oriented i wanted to be in the olympics for basketball wanted to go to the same university as my mom to play basketball be in the hall of fame at the school for basketball and all of this ends up happening but for track and field i'm not in the hall of fame for track and field just yet but hopefully i get that so shout out to louis university lewis university hall motor flower flyers make sure that you put me in the hall of fame someday soon you know but i ended up going to lewis university um becoming a five-time all-american in the high jump uh national champion in the high jump uh setting another score record uh seven feet three inches um and now uh my and now you know this whole time i'm thinking that yeah i'm about to go to the olympics like this is what i want to do i know that i have the capability of doing i'm right there you know what i'm saying three inches off from being on the olympic team you know wow uh 2016 unfortunately i end up hurting myself and wasn't able to bounce back in time to make the olympic trials so i had to sit that one out and then i ended up getting a job to work in rhode island but before that i was introduced to roderick townsend who introduced me to the paralympics now don't get me wrong my coach renee zellner she had mentioned the paralympics vaguely but i wasn't really paying attention to it because i had my eyes set on being an olympian and i was just like the paralympics isn't that like the special olympics i didn't pay any attention to it you know yeah i was just ignorant and naive to understand you know what the paralympics were and i didn't take the time out to learn so um somehow someway the paralympics was introduced to me my senior year of college again okay and so i was just like you know what let me actually you know figure what this is all about because i took a chance in track and field you know by getting cut from the basketball team and trying something new let me since this is the second time it came up let me actually see what's all about so i was introduced to roger townsend who is a paralympian uh world record holder in the t47 arm uh arm uh disability classification um he was also a phenomenal high jumper uh phenomenal long jumper he's just an overall phenomenal person roderick townsend yeah and he's pretty much educating me on the on the entire paralympics and what they're all about and what they can offer and the in the different athletes and the different types of classification so i'm like oh man this is cool and he was like you know what i don't know much about your specific condition but i know someone who does markeith price who is like my big brother like he pretty much put me under i don't know if you know do you know markeith price i don't i don't know him well we actually uh but uh um i i know i know of marquis that's for sure he's actually yeah he's my roommate he's in the next room ah what do you know man yeah so that's awesome yeah so he took me under his ring wing and pretty much showed me the ropes showing me how to get classified what i need to do what i need to know in order to be uh part of the paralympics and from there like me and him just grew a relationship where it's just like he's forever teaching me things you know what i'm saying and i'm always learning and um yeah that's like my big brother so you know man yeah he took me under the ropes and 2017 2017 i made my debut in the paralympics uh went to london broke four world records or i don't know how many world records in the high jump but i broke how many world records in the high joe uh in london and ended up uh meddling in the long jump and i'm going to win gold i'm going to win gold in 21. i guarantee like i feel it in my fingers man i won i won bronze in the in the long jump 2017 2019 one silver and it's only right i get gold in the long jump uh it's just it's just one more podium spot man that's all you got right come on the slow gradual build up you know for sure for sure dude that is dude that is awesome that's one heck of a i gotta say that's one heck of a story you you are talk about energy and passion and yeah man you uh man how do you how do you like do you just channel all that that passion and energy into your you know into your sporting career and like or i mean you know i mean you know you say marquis is your roommate man man do uh do people ever tell you like yeah you're going too uh a little too wound up man like we gotta you know get you out and you know maybe get you get your running some sprints again or something to yeah to get that energy out or you know yeah so so what what a what is what does your your day-to-day you know training and lifestyle look like as a uh you know as someone you know as a high jumper a long jumper um you know track and field athlete what what is that uh what does that day-to-day grind look like for you man honestly um to be honest it kind of transformed because now i live i live at the chula vista elite training center out in california yep um and i moved out here in 2017 and just the transition from where i was in 2017 where i am now is just remarkable but to just say what my day-to-day is currently you know i wake up um around like 6 30 because i also train athletes at san diego state university for the adaptive sports program oh sweet um with a kill whitehead who is also a phenomenal person um uh former paralympian and now director of san diego state university adaptive sports um and so we're and i'm working with uh two athletes so we were doing morning workouts around like 6 30 and then i would get back here and um you know get breakfast drink some tea i also i also write books yeah i actually came out with a book in november um it's called the guardians over you can find it all over my facebook and instagram uh but you know usually i wake up in the morning train my athletes you know come up with different concepts with my book uh i do like a rehab prehab like workout thing before i actually start my workouts um to heal my achilles and and the palms of my feet okay and uh you know listen to a lot of music man i'm a passionate guy man man like i get it from my mom man like i just have a passion for life man every day is a blessing especially when you just don't know if you're gonna wake up and be able to see what you saw the day before because my absolutely my eye condition is progressive so right i'm starting to see the changes as i get older from when i was a kid like i was able to catch footballs and do all these amazing things that you know i didn't pay attention to my vision but now you know i struggle with catching like footballs and hand-eye coordination slowly slipping away but yeah i just you know just wake up you know talk to god and you know thank him for another opportunity to see and being able to do what i love to do uh with no problem and you know and just go on with my day i'm really really chill you know it's really too complex or anything but you know i just i just be out here man dude that's that's so awesome yeah so some some some stuff that uh you know you you you give a you know i love that you give so many shout outs to uh you know you know the team that has been around you and the people that have that have really helped you you know to elevate you know to to where you are now um you know if you could have i mean like i get i get the feeling i i you know that if you could you would have every single one of those people um you know at you know cheering you on every step of the way in person but you know if you could just have like one of those you know one of those people you know that have kind of helped you along the way or like who who is that biggest motivator for you that if you could have them you know right next to you before you uh you took off on your on your high jump at the paralympics or you know getting ready to go grab that snag that gold medal in the in in the long jump if you could have that one person who like who was that person that would make sure that you had your your best day in in whatever event you were doing yeah wow that's that's a difficult question because my entire team is filled with like undisputed champions you know so absolutely like uh to just pick one is pretty hard but if i had one ticket and i had to give it to someone it'd be no question it'd be my mom just because i know if i didn't give it to her she'll probably beat me up so i would have to say i would have to say my mom for show like um even though like i guess like i mentioned earlier like my entire my entire like support system is phenomenal man like absolutely like man like it's incredible because nobody in my support system told me that i couldn't do anything you know what i'm saying i always said i always heard yes you can you know what i'm saying absolutely if i had any doubt you know it came from myself you know i'm saying inner doubt like everybody around me sees that they believe i can fly you know what i'm saying like but if there was any doubt in my mind it would come from myself you know we all have self-doubt and whatnot but you know it's great to always have someone to you know call when i can or when i need to to help me get that reinsurance and to to know that you know i'm doing the right thing and then obviously you know i always talk to god me and god are like best friends so if i could have one ticket i have god come down here and be like hey you know if i couldn't pick my mom i'd pick him you know that's awesome just going through what i've been through like uh the last three years this transformation i would like to call it um he's been with me every step of the way and he has constantly reassured me on my journey as far as you're doing the right thing and he's always giving me you know uh answers to the questions that i have you know these these looming that's unanswered he gives me those answers so if i can give that one ticket if i couldn't give it to my mom i'll give it to god i love i love that man i love that so i mean you've all i mean you've been uh you've been chasing the paralympic dream you've been uh you know you know world you know world championship multi-time world championship medalist and and you know all this all these great successes like what like what um what does success look like to you and like do you have a do you have a a favorite you know event or sporting memory that kind of sticks out in your mind where you know everything just kind of clicked on that one day yeah yeah um success man that's that's it's funny because you know um like i said i keep talking about this transformation within this transformation uh success began to look different to me you know i'm saying um in the sense of like i have a newfound confidence where now the success i'm looking at is like it's big you know i want i want to do something i always wanted to be someone to be the one in something you know i'm saying absolutely like in my entire life i always wanted to be the best athlete wherever i went so you know of course like i want to be the first ever paralympic athlete to win a gold medal at the olympic games because i know i can do it you know what i'm saying i know for sure everything is man i know i can do it yep yeah yeah so you know um and i remember you know maybe like a year back yeah maybe a year and a half back i would say that and i would just say it like oh yeah i'm gonna be an olympic gold medalist one day but i wouldn't necessarily believe it you know it was easy to say it but it was twice maybe 10 times harder to actually believe it you know but now like i believe it when you ask me like yeah it's cool to be a paralympian and everything like that and i hold that like proudly um yeah but i want to be able to show the world that you know even though i'm a paralympian you cannot and you will not put any limitation on what my ability can be you know what i'm saying and what i'm able to do because i'm able to jump higher than just a paralympian and an olympian you know i can i can fly you know and i'd say so you know and that's and that's what and that's that's what success means to me like it's not necessarily you know winning that gold medal at the olympic games because i ultimately define what that gold medal is to me you know what i'm saying and um who knows what that looks like like i don't have like it'd be great don't get me wrong it'd be great to be a gold medalist at the olympic games of course but even if i become a gold medalist at the olympic games that necessarily may not be what i consider the gold medal you know what i'm saying in my mind in my heart you know i'm saying like i feel like now you know getting out of the situation that i was in and what the sport put me through you know i'm saying i'm already that gold medal winner you know what i'm saying because absolutely literally transformed my mind from what i was accustomed to to fit where i was and to get out of where i was to become where i am today so you know success i think that's what success is really all about is that self growth and acknowledging that self growth dude that's that's awesome i i love that i did i love that attitude and man you just you embody it it's it's a man it's it's impressive to see um you know so i mean you you talk about you've talked so much about you know that that transformational growth and all that i mean and you've obviously had some some pretty big you know times when you've you you've struggled as well um so tell tell us a little bit about like you know how like when you do struggle or when you have a rough day or a rough uh you know a rough jump or or anything how do you best bounce back from those setbacks and um that's that's a great question man because i tell you 2018 and 19 was the the dog years oh yeah long years of my track career man nothing was going well um i don't know what was getting me out of bed i don't know i think i think part of it was fear of disappointing myself and disappointing my coaches and that's why i just kept on getting up and going to practice even though i knew my heart and mind wasn't in it those couple years but it was just that fear of just disappointment and resentment that i knew i probably would face if i if i was to quit yeah so i really i wanted because i knew you know at those point of times where i didn't want to like do the sport anymore i knew i still had more in me and i knew i had more to give and if i can just change a few things i know i can make it i know i can make it you know what i'm saying uh what what just kept me going was just the possibility and just faith you know and obviously you know my relationship with god you know even when i was feeling down and he he let me feel those moments you know i was saying like he let him feel those moments yeah but he was he was teaching me something he allowed me to learn something about myself because now going through those things i feel invincible like i feel like i can't be touched with as far as my mental like i know how to get out of those mental hiccups where i do feel sad or if a competition doesn't go as well like i still i still have those moments of just like dang i wish i could like just last weekend i competed and i had these high expectations i wanted to jump a certain distance this distance didn't have a number at all it was just something something far you know what i'm saying i wanted to jump so far i wanted to run something fast and i i performed well in fact i almost broke the world record in the long jump my first meet doing the doing the long jump last week and i i ran my pr in the hundred from college and i don't run this is like my first year running and i lost sight of the circumstances leading up to that for that meet you know i was so caught up with this this this expectation of jumping far and running really fast my first meet but this was my first meeting two years right totally forgot that um the week of the track meet was my first time on the runway for like a month and a half because i messed up my achilles i hadn't been sprinting for like two to three weeks because of my achilles and you were you came out there and you were able to one do your event you were able to run fast it wasn't as fast as you wanted to but you got to understand circumstances the things leading up to the meat you know what i'm saying and how far i jumped you know was was was good and i hadn't jumped long jump in like two years so you know it's now you got you got the bases now you can move forward look at the think of the bigger picture and you know now you know with the knowledge that i've gained through those experiences in my in my life i'm a bigger picture type person now i'm more patient you know i'm saying like i don't need to jump eight meters the first meet you're all saying i need to jump eight meters at trials yeah i need to you know do these big accomplishments at the big meets you know what i'm saying absolutely the first meet of the year so absolutely right now well that dude that's a that's a process that we that we all go through and i and i you know and you know it takes uh you know it takes people like yourself you know letting everyone you know letting everyone else know out there that hey look you know number one i mean you know i i think you would agree with me on this you know we talk a lot about you know belief and you know i i always tell people that the number one you know barrier to you know the reason why people don't succeed is because they don't believe it's possible and you know in order to to get to that level of belief you gotta go through this process that you're talking about and just you know it's just you know it's just so awesome you know you know seeing you know listening to how you know you yourself as you know grew from you know this uh you know uh uh you know a basketball kid into this you know this this you know this incredible you know track athlete set in world records and and all that and you yeah and it's and it's not and it's not about the you know for you you know it doesn't seem to be about the records itself that it's more about that that journey and that belief and i just think that's that's really amazing dude uh god i'm i'm i'm loving listening to your story i appreciate it man i really do oh dude i'm i'm loving it oh man so what uh what we're gonna do now is though i like to uh i like just uh some quick little like lightning round uh fun questions um that uh yeah yeah it just kind of it just kind of lets it you know lightens the mood a little bit it lets the uh lets everyone out there get to get to know get to know your other your fun side a little bit so uh you know just you know so we'll go ahead and uh get started so uh do you have a favorite like post event you know or training treat man okay so as of late i've been going to the farmer's market every tuesday um there's this market like right up the street from the center and i got this popcorn i'll show you this popcorn oh i swear it's popcorn we're good is it like that fresh is it like that freshly popped like kettle corn like is it kind of sweet or is the original butter and salt popcorn you know that's that's the only i don't know i don't i'm not a fan of kettle corn but i am a fan of caramel corn i got caramel corn like right next to me too i'm a popcorn fan all right all right all right and i love chocolate too you know chocolate hershey's hershey almond chocolate bars fine oh man making me hungry again love nerds nerds nerds bro not not not an everyday uh candy that you know people think but man nerds love it yeah i love it like if i could eat candy for like lunch breakfast and dinner i would i think sometimes i do i love that i love that uh you mentioned earlier that you're you're a big music fan what's what's your favorite type of music or you got a favorite artist i'm i'm an old school i have an old soul man like my music ranges from uh jimmy hendrix to the isley brothers to odyssey to you know j cole a little bit of drake i'm not like a new type guy i don't really like the new rap and hip hop yeah don't get me wrong i have a few songs but a lot of my playlist is like old school music like old school soul and hip hop and r b all right man i love that i love that all right you a uh you're a dog or a cat person oh man i was it was funny i'm allergic to cats like oh completely allergic like all right man my eyes get all red yeah yeah so i love dogs i love dogs i was i was actually in the process of getting a guide dog but um that that fell through a lot of stuff was going with that so i couldn't i couldn't pursue that journey but i'm looking to get a guide dog um probably after after uh my track career awesome man love it love it you uh coffee or tea tea tea i love i drink tea every morning awesome awesome all right you uh you stay up you stay up late kind of guy or you know you like uh you like you or do you like getting up early man i used to stay up all times at night but you know since i'm 28 getting older i missed it at like i love waking up early now though i don't know why it's like waking up and watching the sunrise is is beautiful it's refreshing that's awesome dude do you have a favorite um you know what what's your favorite non-sporting activity man so like like i've mentioned i've i've grown a new uh hobby and that's writing books writing stories and uh so like like i mentioned i i wrote the stories which is a i wrote a book which is a multi-series book um and found like like crazy enjoyment from writing this book like i was having so much fun and riding the first one and uh that's that's the new thing that i do other than you know competing or whatnot i just be riding nice man i love it all right one one um one more one more kind of quick lightning round question um just because you said you were from chicago i i gotta ask okay okay thicker thin crust you gotta go deep dish man okay you gotta go deep dish you gotta go ahead there's this place in san diego it's called lefties and okay they have the most like closest pizza to chicago made pizza deep dish and i'm like i always go to lefties now like if i'm getting pizza it's from lefties i love it man love it hopefully watch this they can hear hear that i'm shooting them shouting them out and they can give me like a free slice lefty's in north park and anything for anything for a free slice of zom man anything i foreign love me some i love me some deep dish but i also love me some thin crust my uh my my family is uh is from the chicago area so we're uh we're big-time pizza snobs so okay what's what's your favorite piece of place i actually uh you know in the in the chicago area my uh my favorite pizza place is actually a uh a little uh family-owned joint um in the suburbs in the south suburbs called ed and joe's yeah so ed and joe's it's in uh it's in tinley park um so the south suburbs of chicago yeah but yeah man if you ever get if you ever get back there uh you know pop on down and well that's a uh that that's a thin that's a thin crust uh they're more known for their thin crust but uh but man it's uh you gotta gotta you gotta stray over to the other the other side every once in a while man you know no if they're thin crushed like my i love gia donaldo's and rosadie's think crooks definitely could eat some dick yeah man all right isaac um i just got i got one i got one more question for you and it's something that i like to ask yes sir you know every every athlete that um that we bring on here and and that is how do you you know isaac john paul how how do you want to be remembered man i love that question man i love that question i want to be remembered as someone who accepted everyone for who they are um didn't cast any judgment from you know how you wear your clothes whatever you look like no judgment and a person that you know always tried his best to inspire people to be who they want to be opposed to always trying to fit this norm of you know what's being told to us whether it be your parents telling you have to go to school like gotta get a college education that's the only way for you to you know create a living or you have to do this you have to do that you know i want people to understand that the most important thing in life is to embrace who you are and never sway from that so you know hopefully hopefully people understand that when when i'm wondering like i always want people to beat themselves awesome man i love it i love it well isaac thank you so very much for being uh for being a guest on the on the blind spot we really appreciate it man i i you know i can't i can't wait to see you know the rest of this year play out for you um you know and just the rest of your your life and career um so you guys as always thank you all for tuning in to the blind spot where we talk with blind athletes reaching excellence i think you'd all agree with me that you know isaac is a uh is a is a clear is a clear-cut example of you know what you can what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it and uh and as always everybody keep an eye on the uh keep an eye on the social media keep an eye on facebook twitter instagram um isaac what is your uh what's your uh you know what's your instagram handle your facebook all that give us uh let us know how we can how we can keep track of you how we can follow you for sure um my instagram is ijp underscore 2016. um that's my personal instagram my author page for instagram is the like t h e isaac gene paul or shoot no it's the author the author isaac gene paul is my other instagram page and then on facebook is just my name isaac charmond gene paul john paul awesome awesome excellent all right guys go give uh go give isaac a follow give him some likes give him some uh give him some kudos and and also keep an eye on the usaba facebook instagram and twitter pages as we are going to be dropping uh more and more content uh throughout this 45th year of our existence including our 45 for 45 series that you guys have been enjoying so much uh next episode of that drops drops tomorrow so keep an eye out on facebook for that uh we will be back in uh about two weeks with uh with our next guest so stay tuned as well to uh to hear who we're gonna be bringing on at that time but until then everybody keep it you know keep it real stay safe out there and let's go thank you for having me uh kyle appreciate you absolutely everyone have a great day