00:00 I'll never forget when my doctor told me I would never be able to play soccer again.
00:04 You know when I over-exert myself my brain tends to just shut down.
00:13 Gotta throw that shit harder than anything.
00:26 I know, I feel like it's not going anywhere.
00:28 I know.
00:30 You're not gonna feel it.
00:31 Now they've got a little bit of tempo work.
00:34 So they've got 5 times 200 meters with 2 minutes rest.
00:38 So it's not all out sprinting.
00:40 It's a little bit of some cardiovascular work, some work capacity stuff.
00:44 Just trying to build up their system so that, especially for Nick,
00:49 because we're going to attempt the 400 as well this year.
00:51 So he's got to have a little bit more gas in the tank.
00:54 My disability is neurological.
00:57 So longer days like this, over 200, 250, is a little tougher on my brain
01:03 since my brain can't recover as quickly as I would like it to
01:06 or on shorter distance stuff.
01:08 So you just kind of have to push through it.
01:11 And you know when I over-exert myself my brain tends to just panic and shut down.
01:16 My mom actually had a really rough pregnancy with me.
01:23 I was premature, umbilical cord wrapped around my neck,
01:27 which caused me to have a stroke in utero,
01:29 which then led to me having a seizure at 14
01:32 and then being diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
01:36 I hid it from my friends, my teammates, my college coaches that recruited me.
01:40 You know, I hid it from everybody.
01:41 And I mean, even some of my family members
01:43 just because I didn't want to be looked at as any different or any less.
01:47 Soccer was sort of an escape.
01:49 It gave me the opportunity to be faster, be stronger than everybody.
01:53 But as I got older, you know, things got tougher.
01:56 I had so many questions and so many dots that never connected.
02:00 And when my neurologist finally told me,
02:03 the lack of range of motion, nerve function,
02:05 the sensation and everything that you were feeling,
02:08 that's what cerebral palsy is.
02:10 My neurologist looked at me and my mom and my dad
02:13 and told me I would never be able to play soccer again.
02:16 I knew from that day forward I had to make a decision.
02:18 You know, I could either feel sorry for myself for now being labeled as disabled
02:22 or I could use it to motivate me to, you know, do what I want to do.
02:27 And that was to be a professional athlete.
02:29 To believe in yourself is probably the biggest thing to me personally.
02:43 Manifestation, visualization, anything that is sort of mental
02:47 is such a big piece that I think is lost in a lot of things.
02:51 If you really think that you can do it and believe truly that you can do it
02:55 in your mind, your body and your soul, then nothing is impossible.
02:59 It's pretty impressive when you think about the fact that this is the first major event
03:10 he has run at 18 months into his track and field career.
03:14 There they go, the 100-meter T37 final.
03:20 Good starts for Mayhew and for Norvo.
03:22 Now Nick Mayhew surges to the front.
03:25 Nick Mayhew starts in pursuit of three goals with another world record.
03:30 10.95.
03:32 Mayhew's already made up the stack.
03:34 Mayhew pulling away.
03:35 The Tokyo Games belong to Nick Mayhew.
03:38 World record.
03:39 I'm always happy to be inspirational.
03:43 Anything is possible. Don't take limits.
03:45 The more I succeeded, the more I realized that it didn't have anything to do with me.
03:49 And it wasn't until I joined the Paralympics that I realized the impact
03:53 that it could have on other people.
03:55 I remember, until this day, my first fan mail.
03:59 A letter from a kid that has cerebral palsy, said that he watches my highlights
04:03 on YouTube and looks up to me and wants to be like me when he's older.
04:06 Like, you know, I'm just a normal kid trying to make sense of everything
04:10 that I was born into.
04:11 [Music]
04:14 Ah.
04:15 Ah.
04:19 Ah.
04:26 How are you doing?
04:31 It hurts.
04:32 Head or legs?
04:34 My head.
04:35 Ah.
04:36 Worse than normal.
04:40 Well, that's another thing.
04:41 Same.
04:42 The same thing with kind of his thigh.
04:44 Ah.
04:45 It's tight.
04:46 I can't tell you how bad everything hurts right now.
04:50 But I know, I know, it'll all be worth it.
04:54 Yeah, I know.
04:55 158.
04:56 [Laughs]
04:57 [Music]
05:04 My goals for this year is just to be better than I was last year.
05:07 We have world champions this year.
05:08 I want to be a world champion.
05:09 I want to win three gold medals at Worlds and really win a medal in every single one
05:13 and do my best.
05:15 Looking forward to Paris and looking forward to LA in 2028, which will probably be my last.
05:21 And my goal is to, by the time I retire, that no other kid in this country, let alone this
05:26 world, having a disability, you may know you have or you may not.
05:29 Knowing that there's a community and a world, a federation of people out there that will
05:35 accept you for who you truly are.
05:37 [Music]
05:42 In life, everybody has their disabilities and mine just happens to be my left side.
05:47 No matter how normal or biologically predestined you are for success, you're always going to
05:53 face trials and tribulations.
05:55 And as long as you push through that and understand that, it'll always get better.
05:58 [Music]
06:18 To anyone out there that's doubting themselves and doesn't believe that they can truly do
06:22 what they set out to do in life, I'm living proof.
06:25 I have four medals in four events that I knew nothing about three years ago today.
06:30 And if I listened to my doctors, if I listened to my teammates and coaches that laughed at
06:33 me and that told me because I was disabled that I would never be here today, then I wouldn't be.
06:38 But I believed in my close support system, always truly loved and believed that I would
06:42 be able to do anything I set my mind to.
06:44 And you have to believe in yourself first because if you don't believe in you, nobody else will.
06:48 [Music]
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