Wednesday is the first day of the Paralympic Games in Paris. More than 4,000 athletes from all over the world compete in 22 different sports.
The Games include everything from for swimming and from equestrian events to wheelchair racing.
Daniel Romanchuk, a Paralympic athlete in short and long distance cycling, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that affects the spine. He has been in a wheelchair since age 5, a decision he made after trying to walk with braces.
“I basically told my parents I’m done with walking. I want to use a wheelchair. It allowed me to get where I wanted to go quickly and easily. So, you know, the wheelchair was really freedom for me,” he said in an interview with “CBS Mornings” at his training facility in Champaign, Illinois, ahead of the Games.
Travel to the Paralympic Games
Romanchuk transitioned to a wheelchair with the help of Bennett Blazers, an adaptive sports program in Baltimore, where he grew up. The program helps kids set and achieve a goal, emphasizing that your journey may be different from others and that’s OK.
For him, that perspective has been a guiding principle throughout his life. It led him to the Paralympics in Rio in 2016 and to his first gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. He also won a bronze medal in Tokyo.
“One thing I learned from Bennett is to just keep going until the end. The race isn’t over until you cross the finish line,” he said.
The 26-year-old has been pursuing the thrill of racing and competition all his life.
He trains six days a week, starting with a five-mile warm-up and then hill workouts, reaching speeds of about 40 mph in his wheelchair.
“I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself and seeing how far I can go? How fast I can go?” Romanchuk said.
CBS News
Family impact
Romanchuck and his two siblings were homeschooled as children, and he remembers spending a lot of time outside in the backyard.
“I’m the youngest of three … and so the other two were involved in sports. So there was really no question that I would do that too,” he said.
Today, Romanchuck and his mother, Kim, are a team. They have traveled the world together, running and winning dozens of marathons and races over the past 10 years.
Outside the Paralympic Games
While Romanchuck has his sights set on another gold medal at this year’s Paralympic Games in Paris, he has another goal close to his heart.
“We want to give as many other people as possible the same opportunities that I had,” he said.
A few weeks before he left for Paris to play basketball, Romanchuck went home to help out at a Bennett Blazers basketball camp.
He also founded Wheels for Change, a non-profit organization dedicated to changing the perception of disability through wheelchair racing.
“I just grew up in that ‘I can’ atmosphere, and never, ever had the excuse of ‘Oh, my legs don’t work, so I can’t do that,'” he said. “I never internalized that thought as a kid, because I never really saw it. I just saw all the possibilities that were there.”
