The U.S. finished third in the World Para Track and Field Championships standings with 10 gold medals and 39 total medals over the 10-day meet in Paris that finished Monday.
Brazil (47 medals) and China (16 golds) topped the medal standings.
Jaydin Blackwell, a 19-year-old from a Detroit suburb in his first international meet, led the way with 100m and 400m titles. He broke the world record in the T38 classification in the 400m.
“I’m new here, but I know my way around the track,” Blackwell told TeamUSA.org. “I got the win like I was destined to do.”
Blackwell was born at 26 weeks and weighed 1 pound, 9 ounces, according to feature articles by Detroit newspapers that ran before worlds.
“I had pre-eclampsia, so they needed to do an emergency C-section,” mom Rochelle Davis said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “He spent three months in the hospital.”
Davis said her son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy about 10 years ago, according to the Detroit News.
Blackwell came back from ACL and meniscus surgery last year to star at worlds, which were held in the same city that hosts the 2024 Paralympics.
The U.S. also got gold medals from Noah Malone (100m), Brittni Mason (200m), Breanna Clark (400m), David Blair (discus), Ezra Frech and Roderick Townsend (high jump), Isaac Jean-Paul (long jump) and Noelle Malkamaki (shot put).
Jaleen Roberts and Tatyana McFadden shared the U.S. lead with three total medals.
Roberts took silver in the 100m and long jump and bronze in the 200m in her classification.
McFadden, a 19-time Summer Paralympic medalist and major marathon star, earned silver in the 400m and bronze in the 100m and 800m, giving her 23 career medals at world championships.
Next year, she can break the U.S. record for Paralympic track and field medals held by Bart Dodson (20).
