Speaker 1: What's more frustrating being born without legs or being a
Speaker 1: black man in America.
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a good win because they actually are close
Speaker 2: to being equal.
Speaker 1: Cash Show, Cash Show, to Show. Welcome to Toss Show
Speaker 1: another episode. How you doing, Eddie?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm well? Thank you? You got any cool new VIDs
Speaker 1: I need to check out?
Speaker 2: No no videos this week? Huh?
Speaker 1: Your only job is to give me one interesting video
Speaker 1: that I may have missed. It has slipped through the
Speaker 1: cracks that I didn't see in you and there's none
Speaker 1: this week. What that's the beauty of Toss Show. Apparently
Speaker 1: some weeks no videos. So anything going on in the
Speaker 1: world that I need to know about? Now?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Well I'm caught up. Let's talk sports. Got my favorite
Speaker 1: pair of Olympian on today, and I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about US athletes that compete
Speaker 1: under a different countries flag. This happens all the time
Speaker 1: because they're not good enough to compete under the American flag.
Speaker 1: They don't make the team, so they go to another country.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that you're a trader, okay,
Speaker 1: and that I pray that you get injured, and then
Speaker 1: you find out how great the US healthcare system really is.
Speaker 1: I'm only half joking. I understand why US athletes, you know,
Speaker 1: go to other countries. It's a great opportunity. But I
Speaker 1: just think it's I don't know, it's not. I'm always
Speaker 1: like these they're Americans. Here's what. Here's my stance like
Speaker 1: on California. You know how long you have to live
Speaker 1: in California before you're supposed to get a California driver's license?
Speaker 1: Ten days. Don't look it up, Eddie, I've already done it.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something. These people that come
Speaker 1: here live here ten years and refuse to get a
Speaker 1: licencause they don't want to pay the high insurance, car insurance,
Speaker 1: all of that nonsense, registration. It's a mess. So I
Speaker 1: don't really believe the number of the people that the
Speaker 1: people that actually live here is way higher. They don't
Speaker 1: even get me started on the illegals. For the record,
Speaker 1: I love illegals. Oh that's how I feel about tennis players.
Speaker 1: All these Russians, they all grew up in South Florida.
Speaker 1: They all trained in South Florida at tennis academies in Florida.
Speaker 1: I think if you play tennis in Florida for ten days,
Speaker 1: you're now a US citizen. This is where I'm just
Speaker 1: tired of all these other countries getting credit for these
Speaker 1: great athletes that only became great athletes because they trained
Speaker 1: in America. I think it's a decent I think it's
Speaker 1: a decent point. I think I can actually get some
Speaker 1: of my Red State Republican fans to get behind me
Speaker 1: on this. In twenty twenty eight, the Olympics are here
Speaker 1: in la I kind of excited to see what happens.
Speaker 1: Our freeway burnt down last week, so I can only
Speaker 1: imagine how flawless building these Olympic villages is going to go.
Speaker 1: I also want to compete in twenty twenty eight, I'll
Speaker 1: be fifty three. I want to compete in surfing. Now
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not a professional surfer, but there's got to
Speaker 1: be some you know, Jamaican Bob Sled type scenario where
Speaker 1: there's a country that would let me compete. And I
Speaker 1: don't know what the qualifying is to get into surfing
Speaker 1: in the Olympics, but this is what I need to happen.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was born in Germany. McIntosh shortened
Speaker 1: to Toash. I was originally. I think my family was
Speaker 1: in Ireland. At some point, I think they changed the
Speaker 1: name and fled the country. I don't know what they did,
Speaker 1: probably something awful. Doesn't matter. Find a country some landlock
Speaker 1: hell hole, and then I'll be your flag bearer. Well,
Speaker 1: I certainly want to do the opening ceremony. That's my
Speaker 1: favorite part of the opening ceremony is the small countries
Speaker 1: that have like two people or one person competing. Great.
Speaker 1: There's always in some event that nobody gives a shit about.
Speaker 1: By the way, the Olympics, the Summer Games should have
Speaker 1: two events. It should just have running and jumping the end.
Speaker 1: That should be the Olympics. We don't need all the
Speaker 1: every year. Oh did you hear that they're adding touch
Speaker 1: whiffle ball? No? I didn't hear about touch whiffle ball.
Speaker 1: But by the way, and running running fine, I'm running
Speaker 1: should be in the Olympics because it makes sense. But
Speaker 1: running in general is the dumbest thing on the planet.
Speaker 1: I honestly can't think of anything worse. I've never You're
Speaker 1: a runner, ready?
Speaker 2: I mean I used your another knees are killing me.
Speaker 1: You ever had you ever got had runners?
Speaker 2: High? No?
Speaker 1: I've never run that far. You can talk about runners
Speaker 1: high like it's a good thing. You know what else
Speaker 1: gets you high and all? I don't do that either.
Speaker 1: Ventanill get you high?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, running has never been my thing. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm so inspired by today's guest. A world class
Speaker 1: sprinter would never be something that interests me. But he's
Speaker 1: overcome so many obstacles. I mean, I'm a tall, handsome, successful,
Speaker 1: straight white male. The only obstacles I've ever had to
Speaker 1: deal with our my in laws. Blake was born without legs.
Speaker 1: He's a built in excuse to never run. He's going
Speaker 1: against God's will. God's plan for Blake was to be
Speaker 1: a couch potato or a fancy throw pillow. Enjoy, Pasha,
Speaker 1: My guest today is an eight time track and field medalist,
Speaker 1: world record holder and my favorite sprinter with no legs.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Blake Leaper.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Your favorite spitting without legs. I
Speaker 2: love that titles.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that I have a lot
Speaker 1: of black friends without legs.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'm sure it's like an ample amount. And
Speaker 2: I'm your your favorite one out of all level Well, yeah.
Speaker 1: Most of them don't run. I mean, what are the
Speaker 1: odds that your name is Leaper?
Speaker 2: I know, right, born without legs, last name Leaper.
Speaker 1: That's just weird. That's always how it is, cisy humor.
Speaker 1: My name is John White. By the way, I should,
Speaker 1: I should definitely start by thanking you for your service.
Speaker 2: Yeah, our country. No, I'm not military, No stolen down.
Speaker 2: I am not military. You didn't serve in Vietnam.
Speaker 1: I did not.
Speaker 2: I was not m You'd be surprised how many how
Speaker 2: many people think that I was?
Speaker 1: You were in Vietnam? Well, because I mean, black people
Speaker 1: don't age. I don't know. I don't want to guess
Speaker 1: how old you were. That's okay, so you were. Our
Speaker 1: research is horrible. Blake is my first question. I asked
Speaker 1: all my guests. Do you believe in ghosts?
Speaker 2: Yes, I would say I do believe in ghosts.
Speaker 1: Honestly, gun to your head. You believe in ghosts?
Speaker 2: Yes, I do believe in ghosts. Really, yes I do.
Speaker 2: I felt them tickle my feet at night. But I'm joking.
Speaker 1: You don't believe in ghosts?
Speaker 2: Yes I do. No, I do. You really don't know spirits.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it goes through the spirits. You know,
Speaker 2: it's nothing. It's something that's like floating around.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that we can't.
Speaker 2: See, but we feel we don't feel anything, right, don't
Speaker 2: you feel something? No? Never, all the stories and everything.
Speaker 1: Could care less about the stories, couldn't care less orry born.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was born in Kingsport, Tennessee, like sixty miles
Speaker 2: east of Knoxville, Tennessee. For people who don't know, born
Speaker 2: with the congeneral bird defect fibbler him a milia. So
Speaker 2: the day that I was born, the doctors basically told
Speaker 2: my parents, my mother and father, that I was never
Speaker 2: gonna walk or run a day in my life. My
Speaker 2: legs didn't develop. I didn't grow anything basically below my knees.
Speaker 2: I have my knee joints, but I'm missing my calf
Speaker 2: muscles and my and my ankles and my feet.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's that's that's a blow because this is
Speaker 1: how old are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm thirty three now.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I mean they didn't know this until you delivered.
Speaker 2: Right right, So I was delivered, took me into the ICU,
Speaker 2: came back and had the conversation with my mother and father,
Speaker 2: mister and missus Leaper I'm sorry, but your baby boy,
Speaker 2: Blake is born missing both of his legs. You know,
Speaker 2: he's never gonna walk, he's never gonna jump, he's gonna
Speaker 2: be bound in a wheelchair his his whole life. And
Speaker 2: so like it was, I would say, initially a blow
Speaker 2: to my family to be of course. Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 2: definitely was a blow to my family.
Speaker 1: You're a father, yes, I am, I am? And how
Speaker 1: old you just three? Three?
Speaker 2: Yeah? God, it's such a crazy ag.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you did a pandemic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a pandemic baby, I did.
Speaker 1: You were just born?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I had nothing else to do. I
Speaker 2: was at home making babies. It was ridiculous or.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, but like you, obviously I assume went to all
Speaker 1: these check ups.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yes.
Speaker 1: And if you would have, like in this day and age,
Speaker 1: if you would have found out like oh, at nine
Speaker 1: weeks or ten weeks or hey, there's no legs in
Speaker 1: your baby, yeah, some people might be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't want to have this child.
Speaker 2: Right right, And it's a common situation, you know, having
Speaker 2: a child with a disability. You know, we don't want
Speaker 2: to deal with this. The divorce rate goes up with
Speaker 2: the parents like all these things that come with the
Speaker 2: stigmatism of having a child missing not only one leg,
Speaker 2: but missing both his legs, and so for my parents
Speaker 2: to kind of stick into it, right, I asked them
Speaker 2: the day that I was born, like, well, what'd you say? Like, mom, like,
Speaker 2: who'd you You know? My mom's as a Christian woman, but
Speaker 2: she cussed out the you know, who'd you cuss out
Speaker 2: with the doctors. But they tell me they did two
Speaker 2: things in the moment when they found out that I
Speaker 2: was born missing both of my legs. The first thing,
Speaker 2: they decided to stick together as a family as a unit,
Speaker 2: and the second thing was to keep a positive attitude
Speaker 2: towards my situation, specifically being born without legs.
Speaker 1: That's pretty great. Are they still together? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they fight every day, but they're still together.
Speaker 1: Where'd you go to college?
Speaker 2: I went to the University of Tennessee, Go balls, go balls. Baby.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. I truly love Knoxville.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, is it a great knock? Do we call
Speaker 2: it knox Vegas?
Speaker 1: Were you an athlete at the University of Knoxville or
Speaker 1: University Tesnsee?
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't. So I did play basketball in baseball
Speaker 2: growing up as a kid. But once I went to
Speaker 2: University of Tennessee, I was just kind of focusing on
Speaker 2: my studies. I was pre med when applied physics, so
Speaker 2: I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. That was altered
Speaker 2: obviously once I got the running blades. So I got
Speaker 2: the running prosthetic blades in college, started competing competitively and
Speaker 2: became one of the fastest Paralympic runners in the world
Speaker 2: within a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what am I supposed to say? Abled? Yeah? So
Speaker 2: it's interesting because I am technically a disabled man. So
Speaker 2: I am a man with a disability, and to compare
Speaker 2: against people that have their legs, I say, able bodied
Speaker 2: runners or you know somebody that is able body. But
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of interesting that I am labeled disabled.
Speaker 2: But I'm faster than you.
Speaker 1: So you think you're faster, you don't know. I've never
Speaker 1: actually exerted like my full course, so I have no
Speaker 1: idea how fast I could go.
Speaker 2: I means, as a white man with those type of
Speaker 2: glasses in that outfit, I guarantee you that I that
Speaker 2: you can't. You can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not bound by a sweater and glasses. I didn't
Speaker 1: pick the sweater out the glasses help me read because
Speaker 1: I'm old, I'm pretty quick. Yeah, I mean I get
Speaker 1: your Your four hundred meters is your special right right? Yes,
Speaker 1: still farther than I want to go. I just hate running.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Does that bother you that people with legs hate running?
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't. I mean to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: I hated running growing up as a kid too. I
Speaker 2: mean I was missing both of my legs, so I
Speaker 2: always came last in all the running events. So as
Speaker 2: a kid growing up, I hated running like I couldn't.
Speaker 1: How bad were you at at the beginning of your
Speaker 1: life where you're like it?
Speaker 2: It was pretty I mean it was the technology. It
Speaker 2: was like sticks. Basically imagine me as a pirate, just
Speaker 2: like two sticks, just like walking around.
Speaker 1: Just did your family have money?
Speaker 2: I mean so they did. They had good jobs and
Speaker 2: they had My mom was a nurse, So we did
Speaker 2: have the whole fight in the battle with the entrance companies.
Speaker 2: Because people, for those who don't realize, especially in the
Speaker 2: disabled community, certain prosthetic legs like the ones you see
Speaker 2: me walk in today, are consider a luxury, of course,
Speaker 2: and not a necessity. So you can say, hey, I
Speaker 2: want to run, I want to walk. You send your
Speaker 2: letter into the insurance you know a company and say
Speaker 2: we don't care. Right, figured it.
Speaker 1: Would rame, yes, play video.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. So my mom was a big advocate for
Speaker 2: me to to get the right prosthetic legs with their insurance,
Speaker 2: just to stay active. I didn't get the running blades,
Speaker 2: but I had decent legs to play basketball and baseball
Speaker 2: as a kid. And then once I got the running legs,
Speaker 2: that was the biggest jump in my career to where
Speaker 2: I was just an average kid, maybe average disabled kid
Speaker 2: that could run up down the basketball court, to now
Speaker 2: I'm one of the fastest paralympians disabled men in the world.
Speaker 1: You were born without legs, hit, you're considered an amputee.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So because I had a technically at four or
Speaker 2: five years old, I went back, I had a revision
Speaker 2: of my legs where I had like two toes on
Speaker 2: my left leg and one like baby told my right
Speaker 2: leg and they just went in and just just like
Speaker 2: cut them off.
Speaker 1: They serve no purpose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they serve no purpose. I mean because that was going.
Speaker 1: And whether were their feelings on them.
Speaker 2: I could move them I can, like, and they they
Speaker 2: cut my toes off. If you left them on, I
Speaker 2: mean I could, but I was getting like blisters and
Speaker 2: like callouses and all my toes and so because I
Speaker 2: was like pounding on them inside my socket so much
Speaker 2: on my stump on that they just cut him off.
Speaker 2: And so because they cut them off, technically I fell
Speaker 2: into the emputee category. And it's a lot easier to
Speaker 2: say emputee than congenital birth defect fiblair million.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's tough. I'm never gonna say that. What's
Speaker 1: more frustrating being born without legs or being a black
Speaker 1: man in America?
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a good one, because they actually are close
Speaker 2: to being equal. I'm not gonna lie. I get judged
Speaker 2: double time hard because I get discriminated as a as
Speaker 2: a black man on a daily basis, especially growing up
Speaker 2: in East Tennessee. But then I also faced discrimination as
Speaker 2: a man missing both of his legs and the assumption
Speaker 2: of what I can and cannot do.
Speaker 1: So like, emotionally, you're like in a great place. You've
Speaker 1: figured life out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would say I figured it out
Speaker 2: just because all the trials and tribulations that I've been
Speaker 2: through in my life that life sucks, life isn't fair.
Speaker 2: So either going to cry about it or you're going
Speaker 2: to laugh about it?
Speaker 1: Are you one of these people? I assume you are
Speaker 1: too positive? But no, where You're like, I wouldn't have it.
Speaker 1: If I could do it all over, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: it any other way.
Speaker 2: I am. I am, I am because this is who
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: Who cares? I would change everything about yourself? Yes, would
Speaker 1: you change? I mean every decision? Well, that was the
Speaker 1: wrong one. I should have done that.
Speaker 2: But the wrong decisions is the lessons that you learned.
Speaker 1: I don't know, right, I mean, yeah, yes, and theory,
Speaker 1: but I'm still saying I would be one of these
Speaker 1: people that would want to redo and correct almost everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, but could you imagine me with legs?
Speaker 2: I would just be just a boring black dude.
Speaker 1: Maybe, or maybe you'd be the greatest, you know, most
Speaker 1: famous athlete in the history of the world.
Speaker 2: True. Or I could be a tap dancer. That's one
Speaker 2: thing I think if I I don't want to be
Speaker 2: a tap dancer.
Speaker 1: Right, No, No, I thought the genre of dance that
Speaker 1: you want to be great at tap is just fucking annoying,
Speaker 1: it's loud, it's this ruining.
Speaker 2: Floors just in there. If I have both my legs,
Speaker 2: I'll just be dancing my ass all over.
Speaker 1: Did you have a normal dating life?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I did, Actually I did. You know. I struggled
Speaker 2: as a kid right growing up, you know, being judged
Speaker 2: because of my legs, and sometimes I even dated girls
Speaker 2: and didn't tell them about my legs.
Speaker 1: You could, you could pull it off.
Speaker 2: I could pull it off until you as you know,
Speaker 2: we went home and went to bed, and I could
Speaker 2: not pull it off. I just like was like, pop pop, Oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, I'm missing both of my legs.
Speaker 1: I was with a girl one time and she's like,
Speaker 1: I got to tell you something, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, I was in my head. I was like,
Speaker 1: let's prepare for everything, because I don't. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to act like I'm not okay with it.
Speaker 1: So I was just preparing what is she going to
Speaker 1: tell me? And then she told me that she she
Speaker 1: had what's my call it, colsted me bag.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I was like, ah, that's not bad, so your buttole's
Speaker 1: clean was the good part. But I did have I did.
Speaker 1: I had to prepare myself.
Speaker 2: Did you think she was going to miss a leg
Speaker 2: or you know I did. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I had no idea, but I just remember that was
Speaker 1: like a week.
Speaker 3: I know it was what I felt like, this is
Speaker 3: weird because she has to have this conversation with everybody
Speaker 3: that she's potentially gonna Right, I wear a colostomy bag, right,
Speaker 3: so you obviously, if you're hiding your legs, that's a
Speaker 3: real conversation.
Speaker 1: But if you're not hiding, it's it's pretty much not right.
Speaker 2: It's out there. And so most times, I like especially now,
Speaker 2: I wear shorts that I'm out and about and people
Speaker 2: obviously I get the stairs, I get the looks, but
Speaker 2: I've kind of now embraced it.
Speaker 1: Were there girls that were into it?
Speaker 2: Actually? Yes?
Speaker 1: Does that make you go like all right, I don't
Speaker 1: like that either?
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I mean I'm kind of into that. Actually,
Speaker 2: there's there's a name for that. Yes, They're called devotees.
Speaker 2: So devotas are individuals that are into people with missing
Speaker 2: like their legs, so like if you take your leg off.
Speaker 2: They like the whole nub play in the nub action.
Speaker 2: Be Honestly, I've never liked the term nub, I know,
Speaker 2: but that's the that's the that's the scientific name for it.
Speaker 2: I have like so because I'm missing both of my legs,
Speaker 2: I take my legs off in my stumps. Then I
Speaker 2: have are my nubs.
Speaker 1: When you're home alone, you don't have do you no
Speaker 1: legs or legs?
Speaker 2: It depends. It's just I guess sometimes I keep my
Speaker 2: legs on. If I had a long day, I can
Speaker 2: just chill. I take my legs off. I can function
Speaker 2: completely with my legs off, Like I can climb on
Speaker 2: counters and go use the bathroom. I can climb on
Speaker 2: the bed, but I get the point A to point
Speaker 2: B quicker with my legs on.
Speaker 1: So you're saying, within a year of you getting your
Speaker 1: running blade, you became what was like where did you
Speaker 1: compete first?
Speaker 2: So I competed in Oklahoma's like back in two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine. It was like a local Paralympic event, and
Speaker 2: I ran one hundred meters. I qualified for my team.
Speaker 2: And then by my second race, they called me and
Speaker 2: they invited me to Rio Dejiannaro, Brazil, And my second
Speaker 2: race in track and field was in Brazil, competing internationally
Speaker 2: for the USA.
Speaker 1: Brazilians scary group of people.
Speaker 2: So you asked, I had fun in Brazil. Rio was
Speaker 2: amazing and you can imagine like like bling my eyes,
Speaker 2: run two races and I'm on Copa Kabana beach, just
Speaker 2: like like as a nineteen year old, and I was like,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: What, so much thick ass?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I like this sport. This is good.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be good.
Speaker 1: The categories in the pair of games, yes, are, there's
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of categories. It gets very very confusing.
Speaker 3: I mean you have because you can't compete against somebody
Speaker 3: that's just slightly missing something, right.
Speaker 2: Well, if they're missing a leg, then I compete. I
Speaker 2: can't potentially compete against them. They're missing both their legs,
Speaker 2: then I definitely would probably compete below the knees. And
Speaker 2: then if they're missing their leg above the knee, that's
Speaker 2: a different category. You have blind, blind athletes in that category,
Speaker 2: you have cerebral palsy athletes, and then you also have
Speaker 2: wheelchair athletes too as well, and different categories within those disabilities.
Speaker 2: So I mean we're talking one hundred almost metal ceremonies
Speaker 2: at a Paralympic Games because there's so many, so many anthems. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot, it's a lot. It's funny you say that
Speaker 2: because you're just constantly just hearing just like certain anthems
Speaker 2: in certain countries. It is like constantly popping up. You're
Speaker 2: like these guys again, if.
Speaker 1: You take a knee during the national anthem, is it
Speaker 1: controversial or is it like, hey, give the guy a break.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have any legs.
Speaker 2: I mean, most of the time I do get a
Speaker 2: brain because of my disability, But I feel like if
Speaker 2: I took that knee, it would cause a little controversy.
Speaker 2: Legs or no legs.
Speaker 1: The thing that was very interesting, obviously, is that you
Speaker 1: are skilled enough to compete in the Olympics. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just calling the Olympics. Your time is fast enough obviously, yes,
Speaker 1: And you wanted to yes, And then what happened.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was my goal is to compete to be
Speaker 2: the fastest man in the world. Once I competed in
Speaker 2: Paralympics and did that, took a silver and a bronze
Speaker 2: in the twenty twelve, that's when I kind of knew
Speaker 2: could I could be the fastest running the world legs
Speaker 2: or no legs? So I started training because you know,
Speaker 2: setting everything up.
Speaker 1: But they did. They say that you you cannot do this.
Speaker 2: No, not initially at first. So at first they say
Speaker 2: it's okay. I went out there, broke a few world records,
Speaker 2: I went to national championships, qualified it for nationals. And
Speaker 2: then in twenty nineteen is when I took fifth at
Speaker 2: the usa TF National Championships against the able bodied runners.
Speaker 2: And when I did that and broke my own world
Speaker 2: record ran forty four seconds in the four and a meters,
Speaker 2: that's when the sanctions started to come and they said,
Speaker 2: you have an unfair advantage in your prosthetic legs. Do
Speaker 2: you know? Are you kidding me, Daniel, I'm boring without
Speaker 2: legs like.
Speaker 1: You're preaching to the choir on this one. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: the height was the biggest.
Speaker 2: Was the issue. That was the biggest issue. And so
Speaker 2: you have to understand.
Speaker 1: People tall, are you from stump to head.
Speaker 2: On my knees, I'm like four foot four foot and
Speaker 2: a half on my knees and so my and my
Speaker 2: stumps are like a foot each. So I would say, oh, coffee.
Speaker 1: So they said that the height advantage was the issue.
Speaker 2: Yes, because I missed my legs. They was trying to
Speaker 2: dictate my height and tell me how tall I would
Speaker 2: have been if I had my legs.
Speaker 1: That seems like there can be a computer program out
Speaker 1: there that could figure that.
Speaker 2: Out, I know, right, And so they try to create
Speaker 2: a formula, but you know, we feel like the formula
Speaker 2: is off.
Speaker 1: Like what was the problem with the formula?
Speaker 2: I know the problem with the formula Asians.
Speaker 1: And white people.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was the only Asian and white men in
Speaker 2: the formula.
Speaker 1: Right, the formula only used Asian and white men. Yes,
Speaker 1: to determine your height, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: And me as a black man, I felt like I
Speaker 2: got missed out on the poppet the test population, Like
Speaker 2: it wasn't considering my body democratic what my body structure
Speaker 2: could potentially be.
Speaker 3: Right, So but no one, no one goes, oh, hey,
Speaker 3: I want to know how tall I'm going to be?
Speaker 1: Well, how tall are Asian?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, that was that was the issue. So when
Speaker 2: you implement me, you know into this formula that this
Speaker 2: only has a representation of it was like fifty white
Speaker 2: Australian men and fifteen Japanese Asian men and I come
Speaker 2: out not six two, but I come out a little
Speaker 2: bit under five nine, So five point eight feet I
Speaker 2: know I lost six inches.
Speaker 1: No one, you don't want to ever be under six feet.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's horrible. I have Little Man syndrome,
Speaker 2: like like, I'm just pissed off at the world every
Speaker 2: time I put them on.
Speaker 1: So it's done, it's over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, technically it is done. I'm back running at five
Speaker 2: point eight five eight point eight feet competing in the Paralympics.
Speaker 2: I'm still kind of confessed.
Speaker 1: So you're doing it in the Paralympics because well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm doing the Palympics two as well. So I'm
Speaker 2: back running in the Paralympics.
Speaker 1: No, no, but at five eight why wouldn't you Because
Speaker 1: they didn't have a problem with you running at six two.
Speaker 2: The Paralympics had a problem me running Ye. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It was a new rule in Paralympics two. It was
Speaker 2: both a combined rule that just started within the last
Speaker 2: two to three years.
Speaker 1: It seems like some crazy big wig Llowier a law
Speaker 1: firm here in Los Angeles, but hear this story and
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, I feel like taking his
Speaker 1: side and let's figure a way around this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean I've took it to the quarter sport.
Speaker 2: It's the highest quarter sport in Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland, huh
Speaker 2: twice and out of two times we both lost the case.
Speaker 2: And at this point, I mean Tennancy could continue to
Speaker 2: keep fighting it. But at this point in my career,
Speaker 2: I'm thirty three, I got like four or five years left.
Speaker 2: I'm still doing things, you know on the outside, you know,
Speaker 2: still talking about it. I have a documentary coming out
Speaker 2: about it. But for the most part, I want to
Speaker 2: I want to beat him at their own game. I
Speaker 2: want to just like accept the unfair rule and just
Speaker 2: like shoving in their face.
Speaker 1: Right, But I wanted you in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: I know me too. I'm watching, like so the World
Speaker 2: Championships is happening right now with the able body and
Speaker 2: I'm seeing guys that I used to run with and
Speaker 2: like beat and compete with, and they're like fighting.
Speaker 1: It'd be great just to hear all the people like
Speaker 1: shit talking.
Speaker 2: Right, controversy, like I mean, I mean, it'd be a
Speaker 2: great conversation for track and field, of course, Like it'd
Speaker 2: be a great topic to go back and forth. Is
Speaker 2: it fair? Is it not fair? Can this guy without
Speaker 2: legs become the fastest man in the world and it's
Speaker 2: like it challenges society of being a disabled man and
Speaker 2: being the best in the world.
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree. I mean track and field is interesting
Speaker 1: without this for two minutes every four years, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: and everybody thinks like, oh, the legs are getting better,
Speaker 1: so you're getting faund it. But that doesn't matter. In general,
Speaker 1: athletes over time have always evolved faster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're just learning anymore. We're just knowing more about
Speaker 2: Like the technology hasn't changed. We're just starting to understand
Speaker 2: the carbon fiber a lot better and understanding how to
Speaker 2: use it and getting it in hand of the user
Speaker 2: at an early age to perform and better users.
Speaker 1: So about the weight, is it supposed to be comparable
Speaker 1: to weight or no.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit lighter with the carbon fiber. Lighter, stronger, faster,
Speaker 2: springier is always better when it comes to sprinting, and
Speaker 2: so then it is an advantage I mean, I mean,
Speaker 2: so it's interesting because things on the able body side,
Speaker 2: for like running materials, the spike plates, the surfaces that
Speaker 2: you run on has enhanced over the past twenty thirty years. Okay,
Speaker 2: so if these things are making able body runners faster,
Speaker 2: then the things that's making a disabled runner faster should
Speaker 2: have the same increase in development.
Speaker 1: Right, right, Well, that's tough to say that it's completely
Speaker 1: even I don't how would I know.
Speaker 2: Right, right, right, right, and so, but at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, it's just like it all has the
Speaker 2: lens that you look at it like some people are
Speaker 2: going to look at it and say, you know, dude,
Speaker 2: you clearly have an unfair advantage you wear in prosthetic
Speaker 2: wearing technology against able body runners. And some people be like,
Speaker 2: there's no way you have an unfair advantage. You're missing
Speaker 2: both of your legs.
Speaker 1: What's your stance on a transgender people performing in sports?
Speaker 2: That's a tough topic.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be tough. It should be
Speaker 1: you should be you should say. Here's what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you what you should say. You should say, I'm
Speaker 1: fine with it. Yes, I have no issues.
Speaker 2: I I am fine with that. I have no issues.
Speaker 2: I know it's a huge controversy.
Speaker 1: Well here's my thing with here's my take on this
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna bring it back to you, because it's
Speaker 1: like when people say, oh, they have an unfair advantage,
Speaker 1: or what if a man then just pretends or says
Speaker 1: I'm trans and just to compete and make all this
Speaker 1: money in this sport that's dominated by women, you know,
Speaker 1: And I say that, good, Let that person do that.
Speaker 2: Fine.
Speaker 1: That person wants to be a woman to compete and
Speaker 1: make some money, great, I don't care. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's a game. I don't care entertainment bringing it to
Speaker 1: you or do you have the same fear in the
Speaker 1: para Olympics. What if somebody's like, oh, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: cut my leg off just so I can compete against people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would never happen in Paralympic games. I don't
Speaker 2: think somebody would would deliberately.
Speaker 1: Think they wouldn't. But what if somebody's like, no, like
Speaker 1: like let's say Bolt, it's like, you know, the under
Speaker 1: my career, I'm going to see if I can do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut myself off from the knees down and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna compete. And that's not fair. He did it
Speaker 1: on purpose?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it Bolt cut his legs off, it would
Speaker 2: try to compete. I would. I would dust Usain Bolt
Speaker 2: with his legs cut off, with his legs cut off.
Speaker 1: Sure, well, I mean that's that's a big claim. That's
Speaker 1: a big claim.
Speaker 2: But I just you know, as somebody that does get
Speaker 2: discriminated against, you know, I really true. I do believe
Speaker 2: in equality and just like a fair chance. So so
Speaker 2: like I'm in a face of discrimination on a daily
Speaker 2: basis as a black disabled man, So I like seeing
Speaker 2: that it is a very unfortunate.
Speaker 1: How much longer do you have at that kind of
Speaker 1: the top of the game. That's a good thirty.
Speaker 2: Three thirty three, Danuline, And you know the Olympics and
Speaker 2: Paralympics will be in La I know, eight twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna be thirty eight in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 2: so god, I can pull it off.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a that'd be exciting to run in
Speaker 1: your own.
Speaker 3: Back, right, I mean, look at Tom Brady made it
Speaker 3: to like Tom Brady wouldn't do shit.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady might as well not have legs. He stands
Speaker 1: back there and he dinks and dunk down the field like, oh.
Speaker 2: Tom can make it. Lebron's still out there ying.
Speaker 1: Look, fine, Lebron's an example that I accept.
Speaker 2: Okay, look at Lebron.
Speaker 1: But when people talk about Tom Brady is the greatest athlete.
Speaker 1: I just I'm like, what are you talking about? There's
Speaker 1: nothing athletic about what he does.
Speaker 2: He dropped back three steps. It has one of the right.
Speaker 1: He throws that he can throw a ball good and
Speaker 1: he and it can move a little bit, but barely.
Speaker 1: That's not that's not the greatest athlete. That's absurd.
Speaker 2: True. True, you've seen his forty before. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: Like sad dad body bouncing down the road. By the way,
Speaker 1: when when you race, whatever crosses the finish line first.
Speaker 2: No, when you race, it's your torso that crosses, so
Speaker 2: your head, not your hand, but it has. That's why
Speaker 2: you see runners lean.
Speaker 1: I always saw lean. I just like whatever.
Speaker 2: Whatever nos, No, is from your from your shoulders to
Speaker 2: your to your to your basically your torso, your shoulders
Speaker 2: to your hip so you can dive across the line.
Speaker 2: If that crosses your good to go.
Speaker 1: Has your leg ever flew off during a race?
Speaker 2: It has? Yes, twenty sixteen national championships. I'm running one
Speaker 2: hundred meters, sprinting all out. I go to step at
Speaker 2: meter ninety five, I look down, leg is gone, and
Speaker 2: when I fell down, just like tucked and rolled over
Speaker 2: the line.
Speaker 1: Well, what place did you come in.
Speaker 2: It's a second, So it worked. It worked out, but
Speaker 2: it does happen every so often.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make you speak for an entire
Speaker 1: race of people and the sex of people that you're not,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to ask you this question regardless, because
Speaker 1: I've always thought about this.
Speaker 2: Running.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the Olympics, obviously, I'm talking to sprints, Yeah,
Speaker 1: dominated by black athletes. Fine, okay, well now I'm talking
Speaker 1: about females. If you watch swimming, winning and losing is
Speaker 1: within a point second or whatever, the tiny fraction of
Speaker 1: a second, swimmers shave every bit of their body everything
Speaker 1: because it gives them a slight bit of advantage. Female
Speaker 1: black racers will have so much hair, jewelry and everything
Speaker 1: and all of that.
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't Why wouldn't there be ones like, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm shaving everything that I'm doing, no rings, I'm doing,
Speaker 3: no doing, because all of that is a weight. Technically, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: but no one ever says no, I'm not gonna have
Speaker 3: you know, running though, you'll have facial hair you shouldn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the facial hair, the beards, the you know,
Speaker 2: the chains, like anything that goes into it because it
Speaker 2: is scientifically proven that if you look good, you run faster.
Speaker 1: I don't Yeah, that's what this insanity. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1: I just can't believe there's not one athlete. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna streamline to nothing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think with the force and the power
Speaker 2: to technically that you're that you're producing on the track.
Speaker 2: It doesn't Yes, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: That's wait, if you're if you have all this hair
Speaker 1: and you didn't have it you are now lighter, Lighter
Speaker 1: makes faster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean technically, I guess, yes, lighter is is
Speaker 2: faster in theory.
Speaker 1: If I tell you to drag a garden hose, you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Be slow, true, true, But if you're going to win
Speaker 2: it anyway, you want to cross the line, look good
Speaker 2: with your hair.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, I just I just am I I'm
Speaker 1: amazed that I feel like there could be some time
Speaker 1: shaved off. Nobody cares about this, just my thing that
Speaker 1: I sit at home and go I could make them faster.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the old man going to put your
Speaker 1: jewelry away, put your hang away faster. Talk about the
Speaker 1: booger sugar ah.
Speaker 2: Man, Yes, that was that was a crazy time in
Speaker 2: my life, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you were just a partier?
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I was. I was partying. I was hanging
Speaker 2: around the wrong people. You know.
Speaker 1: Sounds like you're hanging on the right.
Speaker 3: According to the Living Committee, and you got you got
Speaker 3: suspended for a year for doing yes positive for cocaine.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was in you know, coming from Tennessee moving
Speaker 2: to California.
Speaker 1: I don't blame California for.
Speaker 2: Your crazy California cocaine to Tennessee. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: These have a moonshine and that's it. But you know,
Speaker 2: moving out to California, just training, you know, it was
Speaker 2: a part of my life where I just couldn't say no,
Speaker 2: I was. I was, you know, partying, you know, hanging
Speaker 2: out with the wrong people, you know, just people in general.
Speaker 2: I go to a track meet and I test positive
Speaker 2: for cocaine crap like, and then I get suspended for
Speaker 2: a year, which.
Speaker 1: Was just like because they thought it was a steroid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well well I was running so fast that it's
Speaker 2: a it's technically not not a performance and hands and drug.
Speaker 2: But it cannot be in your system at a tract meat.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, edit, tract meat, you know.
Speaker 1: You obviously knew this, so you were trying to get
Speaker 1: away with it. You know.
Speaker 2: I wasn't trying to get away with it. I just
Speaker 2: thought it would be out of my system, like before
Speaker 2: I got to the track meet. But I was like,
Speaker 2: at the track.
Speaker 1: Did it last night?
Speaker 2: No? I was like, Oh, the problem was I was
Speaker 2: like at the track meet, like looking like Bobby Brown,
Speaker 2: just like my jaw was to the left and I'm jogging.
Speaker 2: But and they was like, we got to test this guy.
Speaker 2: Do they not test everyone? And I don't test everyone,
Speaker 2: so it's like just.
Speaker 1: The black people with the chains, right D. So that
Speaker 1: was bad. So when you got tested, you were like
Speaker 1: you didn't think you were going to fail.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't think I was going to I think
Speaker 2: I was going to be out of my system. I'd
Speaker 2: be good. They actually caught the medical bollicle breakdown of cocaine,
Speaker 2: so they actually didn't find cocaine. They find like what
Speaker 2: cocaine breaks down into your system. And then with finding that,
Speaker 2: they say you've taken it.
Speaker 1: Before and you denied that.
Speaker 2: Man, I mean like, the ain't no way that. I
Speaker 2: was like, yes, it was me that had to go
Speaker 2: into a like an Olympic Paralympic like drug program and
Speaker 2: I had to take like three drug tests for a
Speaker 2: full year clean up.
Speaker 1: Was it easy to clean up?
Speaker 2: It was because I really wanted to really do this.
Speaker 2: I knew I had a special opportunity. Obviously, I was
Speaker 2: like having fund in that part of my life. Kind
Speaker 2: of goes back to the conversation we had earlier, Like
Speaker 2: I said, I don't regret, you know, a few things
Speaker 2: in my life I kind of regret. I regret that
Speaker 2: I just skip that race, I just gift that race.
Speaker 2: But I finally got to tap into my true potential,
Speaker 2: like you know, cleaned up my life, you know, putting
Speaker 2: down the party and and then I made the decision
Speaker 2: I wanted to be great and then put everything down
Speaker 2: just like focus on track. And by doing that, that's
Speaker 2: when things started happening for me.
Speaker 1: See that's good. Good. I like the idea. I've always
Speaker 1: been just kind of like I don't want to focus
Speaker 1: too hard because I don't want to find out that
Speaker 1: I'm not great.
Speaker 2: Right, right, that's the fear too right, Like I'm not
Speaker 2: good enough for it. I'm not the man that I
Speaker 2: tell people that.
Speaker 3: Well, so it's nice to be like Oh, if I
Speaker 3: tried harder, I could be right.
Speaker 2: Right, and that's what I was doing. Like, well, I
Speaker 2: didn't try that harder. Well, I stayed up late party
Speaker 2: and hanging out hang and then once I did that
Speaker 2: and gave it everything, I mean, like dedicate my life
Speaker 2: to this.
Speaker 1: Like are you faster right the second than you've ever been?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not because I'm shorter. Because yeah, I'm in
Speaker 2: the best shape I've ever been in my life right now,
Speaker 2: and like so to years ago, I was the fifth
Speaker 2: fastest for heady meter run in the world.
Speaker 1: I mean I assume everyone was doing the hight thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah as well, So it's interesting even playing field.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an even playing field. Paralympians across the
Speaker 2: board lost their height, but because I was a black
Speaker 2: man implemented into this formula that did not represent me,
Speaker 2: I became the shortest out of everybody. For example, the
Speaker 2: average emputee doubleg emput lost two to three inches. I
Speaker 2: lost six inches.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, but that seems this versus this
Speaker 1: seems yes, I mean it seems fair.
Speaker 2: You gotta get it back somehow, right.
Speaker 1: I think we all know what I was referring to.
Speaker 1: He's give him six inches. All right, fair enough. Hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, that that's a bathroom behind that door.
Speaker 1: I was gonna go, but I'm worried that if I'm
Speaker 1: in there, that you would potentially shoot through the door.
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I don't want to lump you
Speaker 1: guys all together. But talk about Oscar. Yeah you've raced
Speaker 1: against him.
Speaker 2: I again, Yes, he is a white guy. It's interesting
Speaker 2: because he's a white South African and I'm a black American.
Speaker 2: But once the whole controversy went down and I'm walking
Speaker 2: through the airport with my running blades and people just
Speaker 2: heard this, you know, African blade runner. Ah, so a
Speaker 2: lot of people like initially thought I was the you know,
Speaker 2: I was the guy you know.
Speaker 1: So you shot Oscars white?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they thought they they thought that legit, Like wait,
Speaker 2: I heard an African guy missing both of his legs
Speaker 2: and I was like, no, no, no, he's he's a
Speaker 2: white South African. So it's like, you don't have to worry.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I competed. I was actually the last person
Speaker 2: to compete alongside of Pastorius in twenty twelve at the
Speaker 2: Paralymic Games.
Speaker 1: They weren't the last.
Speaker 2: One, yeah, yeah, yeah, someone else was.
Speaker 1: Trying to run.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's not that's insensitive. Was he was he faster
Speaker 3: than you? Yes he was at the time. So at
Speaker 3: the time we competed, he was faster than me. But
Speaker 3: I ended up breaking all of his world records. So
Speaker 3: I went forty He went forty five three five, it's
Speaker 3: his fastest fourmeter. I went forty four thirty eight, so
Speaker 3: I ran about almost a whole second.
Speaker 1: He's still in jail. I had to look it up.
Speaker 1: Yes he is, but for some reason he still didn't
Speaker 1: get what he was supposed to get.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he got. I think it ended up with thirteen
Speaker 2: I think thirteen years for culpable homicide. Do you think
Speaker 2: he'll run in la I don't think so. I think
Speaker 2: he might. I mean banned. No, he's not banned. I mean,
Speaker 2: to my understanding, he's not banned from the year.
Speaker 1: What do you have to do to get banned cocaine?
Speaker 2: You just a little bit of bookisher, You're out. You're
Speaker 2: right out of here.
Speaker 1: You fire four blind land your bathroom. You're fine. Do
Speaker 1: you have a lot of friends now because of the
Speaker 1: in the pair of community, like from the Olympics and stuff,
Speaker 1: I do Do you need that or do you go
Speaker 1: enough already?
Speaker 2: Like, I mean, I like it. It's just like we're
Speaker 2: a community. Like so like we all get together and
Speaker 2: we like go to dinner or whatever, and can you
Speaker 2: imagine like four dudes, like we're all missing our legs, right,
Speaker 2: So like we hop out the car and just like
Speaker 2: there's four dudes missing both of their legs.
Speaker 1: The servers like, oh, this is gonna be a shitty tip.
Speaker 2: These guys, that's just gonna be terrible. They expect half
Speaker 2: off or something. I don't know what's going on. So
Speaker 2: I was going for but it works out, and it's
Speaker 2: just like it's it's cool to like to build that community.
Speaker 2: And that's what's honestly, that's exciting too about the LA
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight. It's gonna be the first time the
Speaker 2: Paralympic Game is going to be in LA. The Games
Speaker 2: have been in LA twice, but the first time for
Speaker 2: the Paralympics to be in LA.
Speaker 1: How great is your parking situation at the Olympic Village?
Speaker 2: Oh it's I mean I park right in the front
Speaker 2: is handicapped parking, which, by the way, you don't have
Speaker 2: to pay for handicap parking in LA. So I have
Speaker 2: a handicapped sticker.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, in LA, you don't if if you have
Speaker 1: the street a handicaps, you don't have to pay meters.
Speaker 2: You pay meters, you don't pay meters, which is like gold.
Speaker 2: That's best.
Speaker 1: That becomes every spot becomes a handicaps. Right. How come
Speaker 1: we say handicapped spot but we don't say handicapped people?
Speaker 2: No, that's so interesting, right, It's like you say the
Speaker 2: word handicap, right, because it's like, technically it's very inappropriate
Speaker 2: to call somebody handicap. We're kind of working on the
Speaker 2: whole the word disabled, right, We're trying to change the
Speaker 2: word disabled because you're done. You're not doing nothing to
Speaker 2: the word disability where you're living with this and you're
Speaker 2: moving with this, and it's just like the word you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, what it comes with. But yeah,
Speaker 2: handicap spot is appropriate, but handicap person is definitely.
Speaker 1: No non acceptable. I knew that. Seventy five and Sonny out,
Speaker 1: you go with shorts or you go with.
Speaker 2: Pants seventy five and sunny shorts.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like shorts are always technically pants
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, right, my legs if my legs do
Speaker 2: not get cold. So it can be like thirty or
Speaker 2: it can be negative twenty. I could be in Minnesota
Speaker 2: and I can wear shorts in it and it wouldn't matter.
Speaker 1: How long have you been married?
Speaker 2: I'm engaged. Oh yeah, I'm not married yet.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you're definitely going to do it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Are you going to drag your feet? It never gets old.
Speaker 1: It gets Where'd you meet your uh, your partner.
Speaker 2: Back home in Tennessee. We grew up together.
Speaker 1: It's a mistake. That's a mistake.
Speaker 2: She was the girl next door.
Speaker 1: I don't do that. No way. You meet the girl
Speaker 1: in l A.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, the girls in LA. They're nice. They just
Speaker 2: I'm a country boy from Tennessee. It was it was
Speaker 2: too much. We're no longer a country's boy. Those days
Speaker 2: are gone. They're gone.
Speaker 1: Oh you have a sponsorship?
Speaker 2: I do. I do have a sponsor, Yes, I did.
Speaker 2: The crazy thing is I do have a shoe sponsor.
Speaker 2: I'm sponsored by Nike's great. Yeah you should be sponsored
Speaker 2: y shoes? Yeah, because what better endorsement to be. Like, Listen,
Speaker 2: if I had feet, I would want to wear Nike.
Speaker 2: These are the ones I would wear, right, And so
Speaker 2: I get the question, what's your most comfortable Nike shoe
Speaker 2: that's out there in the market that you like to wear.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I don't know, I don't feel nothing.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, whoever pays me that feels the best. By
Speaker 1: the way, you were on a game show on Netflix
Speaker 1: two hundred grand on Away, Yes, which I didn't even
Speaker 1: know was a show at first.
Speaker 2: Me and neither or they just torture you, oh my god,
Speaker 2: which we didn't know what the show was until like
Speaker 2: we got there. They locked us in a room and
Speaker 2: took our cell phones and then they told us what
Speaker 2: the show was, and then we had to make affery.
Speaker 1: How did you sign up to that?
Speaker 2: Just random stuff in the off season when I'm not training,
Speaker 2: I like to just like be anywhere and everywhere, And
Speaker 2: I signed up for the show. I booked it, and
Speaker 2: I freaking won it. It was It was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: It was that's great. Yeah, yeah, you actually got the
Speaker 1: money and I actually.
Speaker 2: Got the money. It was like two hundred grand, So
Speaker 2: it's like.
Speaker 1: Is that more than you make running?
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean at the time, it definitely, it definitely was.
Speaker 2: It lasted me like a year's worth of La rent,
Speaker 2: So it was it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You make money as a runner, yeah, you can, you can,
Speaker 1: you can.
Speaker 2: I mean you have sponsorships, you have metal money, you
Speaker 2: have prize money, metal money. So metal money is like
Speaker 2: the metal the money that you win when you win
Speaker 2: a medal from the federations.
Speaker 1: Oh, I thought you had to pawn off the metal.
Speaker 2: I know. I mean the gold that comes into the metal,
Speaker 2: you take it to the pawn shop and whenever they
Speaker 2: get you like ponzars, it's just.
Speaker 1: Like all right, so you get a chunk from that
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course me too, like you know, I
Speaker 2: do other stuff. I try to, you know, be versatile,
Speaker 2: just not be a runner. So I do motivational speaking.
Speaker 2: I do a little commercial acting too as well. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to get more into acting too as well, just
Speaker 2: like trying to be that representation just with the for
Speaker 2: the disabled community.
Speaker 1: Would you be like one of these people that if say,
Speaker 1: there was a famous person that was being portrayed in
Speaker 1: the movie that didn't have legs, would you be like, well,
Speaker 1: then you can't put an actor in that has legs.
Speaker 1: That's not fair.
Speaker 2: I mean it's so interesting because there's so few of us,
Speaker 2: and I guess in the business or in the industry,
Speaker 2: it's like missing both their legs or with the disability.
Speaker 2: So I mean there are more calls for actors with disability.
Speaker 2: So I'm trying to like step up so when they
Speaker 2: do need an actor missing both their legs, I can
Speaker 2: be I have the reels and enough you know, talent
Speaker 2: to step up into that role.
Speaker 1: Could you be in the NFL? Why can't you be
Speaker 1: in the NFL?
Speaker 2: No, I think I can. But if I get tackled
Speaker 2: and my leg comes off, like that might not look
Speaker 2: flag football?
Speaker 1: You keep going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like with that count, can I just
Speaker 2: like keep running? My leg is like.
Speaker 1: Shit, what's the what's the smell situation? Underneath the sock at.
Speaker 2: The end of the man it gets it gets bad.
Speaker 2: That That's how I knew that my fiance was the
Speaker 2: one when she like took them off and washed them
Speaker 2: for me. And just like because it gets atrocious.
Speaker 1: Like like it's faces like a watch band. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: that type of smell.
Speaker 2: Imagine because there's no air that's getting in, so it's
Speaker 2: like all the sweat and I'm like, I would say
Speaker 2: I'm one of the most active amputees in the world.
Speaker 2: Do you swim I cannot swim, I know, I mean
Speaker 2: I won't drown. I'm not a swimmer.
Speaker 1: I mean swimming for exercise is the only thing on
Speaker 1: the planet worse than running for exercise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like sledding in the pool. That sounds that sounds terrible.
Speaker 1: You ever had a day job I did? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my day job was selling shoes a chance or
Speaker 2: at a shoe store. I sold shoes at a shoe store.
Speaker 1: You ever wear dress shoes?
Speaker 2: I do wear dress shoes every song, but they have
Speaker 2: the heels on them, and it's just like they thick
Speaker 2: at the heels on a dress shoes just like throw
Speaker 2: me completely off. So I just wear sneakers most of
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: Is there any advantages to uh, you know, not having
Speaker 1: the bombyl I would assume a disadvantage. Bathtub, I assume
Speaker 1: you already slide down.
Speaker 2: Yes, So what I do is I found a little
Speaker 2: quick like you know and hack right, So you put
Speaker 2: it like either a towel or like a washcloth or
Speaker 2: something just like you know, tears something down and it
Speaker 2: gets wet on but yeah, on your butt and then
Speaker 2: you sit on your butt, so you don't you don't
Speaker 2: slide right.
Speaker 1: And then and the next time that your fiance is
Speaker 1: in the shower washing their face, Like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: is this your ass slipper?
Speaker 3: Just like it's like a butt print, just like, but
Speaker 3: you probably do have quite a few hacks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, if you. I mean, the handicap parking is
Speaker 2: just like a huge hack for me, just like I
Speaker 2: pull up. I mean Trader Joe's.
Speaker 1: You like Trader Joe's. I do their produces ship. I mean,
Speaker 1: but it's produce all the snacks. You're right, because you're
Speaker 1: a big druggy.
Speaker 2: I got the munchies. I'm just do you eat healthy?
Speaker 2: I do eat healthy? I do. I'm always in a
Speaker 2: well in season. I try to stay in a Calgary season.
Speaker 2: So season is just like where I'm about to get
Speaker 2: ready to like ramp up to compete.
Speaker 1: Right, but what is the actually like.
Speaker 2: Say, from December all the way up to August September,
Speaker 2: so right now, I mean I'm technically an off season.
Speaker 1: Do you gain weight?
Speaker 2: I do? I do gain weight. I gain like five
Speaker 2: to ten pounds. I've been eating. You can't tell I've
Speaker 2: been eating good?
Speaker 1: You look I mean look like an apple.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean, I'm like I'm like five pounds
Speaker 2: heavy right now, like five ten pounds heavy and then
Speaker 2: I shred up as we get closer to the do
Speaker 2: like my biggest race of the year. So I was
Speaker 2: in Paris a month ago for like three weeks for
Speaker 2: my World Championships.
Speaker 1: You like Paris, I love Paris.
Speaker 2: Paris. Paris was cool. Everybody was just like sitting around
Speaker 2: eating like you so late. Yeah, they eat eat for
Speaker 2: three hours, like each meal is like and a half hours,
Speaker 2: which is crazy. And everybody smoking cigarettes just like smoking
Speaker 2: and eating and happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just had in New York City if it
Speaker 1: was only four stories high. Yeah, You've seen the world.
Speaker 1: That's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2: I have. I have. I've seen the world. You know.
Speaker 2: I've been to like and this all came from running.
Speaker 2: So I've been to like, you know, Brazil, you know,
Speaker 2: New Zealand, Czech Republic, you know, all through Europe. You know,
Speaker 2: I even went to Latviia.
Speaker 1: You ever been to China?
Speaker 2: No, I still haven't been in China yet. No, I
Speaker 2: haven't been in China.
Speaker 1: To go and talked Japan to the people that have
Speaker 1: measured your heights.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got something for you. Yell at them.
Speaker 1: You guys got it wrong. Do you ever run a marathon?
Speaker 2: Hell? No, are you kidding me? Like that is twenty
Speaker 2: six point two miles? Are you kidding? No? Absolutely, I
Speaker 2: would never.
Speaker 1: I held a marathon once, all on treadmills.
Speaker 2: Oh really?
Speaker 1: How did that gos funny? I had like like like
Speaker 1: fifty treadmills out on the pier in Hermosa Beach?
Speaker 2: Was it professional runners?
Speaker 1: I put a few ringers in, like a couple of
Speaker 1: guys like you know, Kenyons that like just kill it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: two hours, twelve minutes or something.
Speaker 2: They're sprinting the whole time, which is just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, how is that just some people just
Speaker 1: can run? I just I get my chest wants to explode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like genetically speaking, just like some people
Speaker 2: just like have that sprinter runner you know just look
Speaker 2: or just you know, build about them. So that's why
Speaker 2: I look at you and just know that I would
Speaker 2: destroy you.
Speaker 1: I mean, now I'm over the hill. Now I'm hold
Speaker 1: as shit. So it doesn't it's you know, it's easy.
Speaker 1: But all right, well listen, Blake, we appreciate you. We're
Speaker 1: gonna we'll be cheering for you, and then h I
Speaker 1: don't know, just I'm just I just want to see you,
Speaker 1: I guess in twenty twenty eight. Yes, here in our
Speaker 1: own backyard.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be awesome. Daniel, Man, I really appreciate just
Speaker 2: like taking the time to hear my story. I had
Speaker 2: so much fun. This is awesome, Thanks, buddy, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right, Pasha, how was that one, Carl? I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what bothered me. How quickly Blake profiled me. The
Speaker 1: thing that he says people do to him constantly, he
Speaker 1: immediately does it to me, judges me by my glasses
Speaker 1: and a sweater, assuming that I'm not an athlete. People
Speaker 1: always underestimate how quick I am. I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: teach him a lesson. He said he could raise me anywhere,
Speaker 1: anytime and smoke me. Oh okay, all right, well let's
Speaker 1: see how that gobot does on the beach. I'm not
Speaker 1: even asking for a head start today, No head start.
Speaker 2: I mean you do have me on that.
Speaker 1: You do have me on the beach. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is where it's at. Besides, what's better than the feeling
Speaker 1: of sand between your toes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my It's actually my favorite. All right, let
Speaker 2: me do my drills.
Speaker 1: You do your drill. God, I'm gonna do my drills.
Speaker 2: Are We're going all the day down there?
Speaker 1: You see the end fifty yard dash.
Speaker 2: I talked a lot of shit. I talked a little
Speaker 2: bit too much shit.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing all white, just so you know what you're
Speaker 1: racing against.
Speaker 2: Should we do this day?
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm ready whenever they are.
Speaker 2: I can't move. I did not move in this sad
Speaker 2: I did that with a necklace. What good raise a
Speaker 2: dude doesn't?
Speaker 1: Doesn't don't beat yourself up. No, don't, don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't look at as a loss. Look at it as
Speaker 1: a milestone or at the end of your career. I
Speaker 1: don't know, was there ever any doubt. I'd like to
Speaker 1: dedicate my victory to able bodied people everywhere. I hope
Speaker 1: I've inspired you. Representation matters. I've got some stand up
Speaker 1: dates coming up in San Diego and Rena boys wear
Speaker 1: Pink dot com And don't feel bad for Blake. As
Speaker 1: a consolation prize, I gave him a gift. Every guest
Speaker 1: on our show will receive something from me. I don't
Speaker 1: purchase anything. I just find something in my home that
Speaker 1: I think they would appreciate. Also, it's an easy way
Speaker 1: to declutter. All right, I'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 1: All right here, I got you skateboard, but I don't.
Speaker 1: This isn't for you to ride. You give it your daughter,
Speaker 1: she could ride. I don't want you like going around
Speaker 1: Venice Beach.
Speaker 2: No, my legs off and just like I don't want it. No. Okay,
Speaker 2: thanks Mabe. I appreciate it. I'm gonna write this all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: Not in the sand.