Craig LeMoult: This is GBH’s All Things Considered, I’m Craig LeMoult. The Paralympics start next week in Paris, and one of the elite athletes representing the U.S. is Massachusetts native Femita Ayanbeku. She’s the eight time national champion in the 100-meter sprint, and she qualified to compete this year in her third Paralympics, just six months after giving birth to her first child. Femita Ayanbeku joins us now. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
Femita Ayanbeku: Thank you for having me.
LeMoult: So if we could start near the beginning of your story, you lost your right leg below the knee in a car accident when you were just 11 years old. Can you tell us about that experience, what it was like for you growing up after that?
Ayanbeku: It was an uphill battle, I would say, just getting used to being a young child with an amputation, going back to school, seeing my friends and just, you know, developing as a young woman with the prostheses. There were times where I was, you know, I had my insecurities. I had bullies in school and just adjusting to life. It was a lot. But I think through the support of my family and friends and just wanting to accept myself and love myself, I was able to kind of get to the other side of the whole incident.
LeMoult: How do you think losing that leg has shaped who you are as a person?
Ayanbeku: I think definitely in the beginning it sheltered me. It made me feel like I had to hide myself. Being bullied for my prosthetic made me feel like I didn’t want the world to see who I was. And so from 11 till I was 18, I would wear long pants and long skirts and long dresses and that type of stuff because I didn’t want other people to see me and judge me for that. And so it definitely took a toll on me, but I think it allowed me to want to embrace who I am even more after the fact.
LeMoult: You didn’t discover track and field, and try on a running blade, until you were 23 years old.
Ayanbeku: Yeah. So the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Össur do these running clinics all over the country, and they donate these blades. And, yeah, they donated the blade to me that day in November, back in 2015. And from there, I just, I fell in love with running.
LeMoult: What is it about running? What does it feel like to you to have that blade on and to be just flying?
Ayanbeku: I had my accident when I was 11. I’m now 32. And so I don’t remember what it feels like to have two legs. And so I remember the first day I put it on and I absolutely fell in love. I was like, "oh my gosh, I don’t know what this feeling is." And then as I continue to run on it, I was like, "I just feel so in sync. I feel whole again." And so I feel like I have two legs when I run, and that’s really the feeling that I chase every time I’m on the track.
LeMoult: Your first Paralympics was in Rio in 2016, just a year after you started running. What was that experience like representing your country for the first time?
Ayanbeku: It was overwhelming. Overwhelming, but definitely a very humbling experience because I feel like I had great success in such a short amount of time. I thought I was going to go to Rio and just dominate — and that definitely did not happen. [laughs] So it it definitely humbled me a lot as well.
LeMoult: And the next Paralympics in Tokyo was held a year late in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic, which hit close to home for you. Right? You tested positive for COVID while at the Games?
Ayanbeku: Yes, yes. I tested positive right when we touched down in Tokyo. And I had to be put in isolation for the first seven days that we were there. I was not able to go outside. I was barely able to train. It was a tough seven days. And so prior to going to Tokyo, I had just set the American record. So the podium was definitely, like very, very close, very close to being there.
LeMoult: You were able to run. It just wasn’t the race that you hoped it would be.
Ayanbeku: Oh my goodness, not even close. I didn’t even make it into finals and I was ranked top three in the world going into Tokyo. And so not making it to finals really, really hurt.
LeMoult: You must have been just thinking about that every day for the last four years — or three years, I guess.
Ayanbeku: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Four years, it feels like a long time, but it flew by. It definitely flew by. And so I’m very excited to see what happens here in Paris. Definitely on a good track. And so [I’m] just getting ready.
LeMoult: But there’s one other huge change since then. Just six months before you qualified, you gave birth. How did you do that? How is that even possible?
Ayanbeku: Yeah. Oh, I was a mad woman during this last year. I was training all throughout my pregnancy, and I started training as soon as I could after I delivered my daughter. And she’s making her appearance now. And it was intense. It was a lot, but I was very determined.
LeMoult: Did you always believe that you were capable of this?
Ayanbeku: If I’m being completely honest, no. I believed in myself, but I wasn’t sure how much that actually mattered. Knowing that I just had a baby and I wasn’t training as intense as I possibly could have — well, not even as I possibly could have — as intense as I would have liked, because being pregnant and having a baby, you know, there are just certain limitations you have to be aware of. And so I was doing everything that I could possibly do, but matched up to my competition, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough. I’m like "None of these girls just had babies. They’re not worried about their pelvic floors and their cores going soft." And so there were so many little things that I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough. And so as determined as I was, as much as I was working, I just wasn’t sure.
LeMoult: I should say. We’re talking by Zoom, and you’ve just picked up your little one, and she’s absolutely adorable. How’s she doing?
Ayanbeku: Thank you, thank you. She’s doing good. She’s she’s talking up a storm right now, so.
LeMoult: Yeah, I love it. How have you managed to balance, you know, training and parenting. That’s a whole other thing.
Ayanbeku: Oh, it’s a lot. And she’s getting more active now as the days go by. And so taking her to the track is a lot more draining than it used to be when she was just a newborn and I could just leave her in her stroller and just kind of sit quiet. Now I have to take her out and I got to, you know, just entertain her for a little bit in between my runs or during my warm up. And so it’s been a lot to balance. I’m definitely excited to be going to Paris with her, though, because she keeps me motivated.
LeMoult: Yeah, what’s it going to be like for you to have her there with you?
Ayanbeku: It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to make me feel complete. And I’m not going to be worried about her or missing her. And I’ll be able to see her every day. And so that stress will definitely take a lot of load off of me. [Baby babbles]
LeMoult: What are you looking forward to most at this Paralympics?
Ayanbeku: I’m looking forward to my performance. [laughs] I definitely surprised myself at trials. And so, I’m just excited to see how my time will continue to drop. I’m trusting my training and trusting my coaches, and I’m just excited to see how I’m able to lay it all down on the track when we get there.
LeMoult: It’s so great to speak with you, and we’re all going to be cheering for you in Paris. Thank you so much for joining us.
Ayanbeku: Thank you for having me.
LeMoult: That’s Massachusetts native and team USA sprinter Femita Ayanbeku, who’s competing next week at the Paralympics in Paris. This is GBH's All Things Considered.
Massachusetts native Femita Ayanbeku is preparing for her third Paralympic Games — and a shot at winning her first medal.
She’s an eight-time national champion in the 100-meter T64 sprint. And just before her last Paralympics, she set the American record in that race with a time of 12.84 — just two-tenths of a second shy of the world record. She was one of the top athletes in the discipline, but the Tokyo Games didn’t go as she’d hoped.
“I tested positive [for COVID] right when we touched down in Tokyo, and I had to be put in isolation for the first seven days that we were there. I was not able to go outside. I was barely able to train. It was a tough seven days,” Ayanbeku said. “I didn’t even make it into finals.”
Ayanbeku wasn’t always a runner. She fell in love with the sport after participating in an event in 2015, where she got to try on a running blade for the first time. She says when she runs, she feels “whole.”
“I feel like I have two legs when I run, and that’s really the feeling that I chase every time I’m on the track,” she said.
The athlete lost her right leg below the knee in a car accident when she was 11 years old, and remembers being bullied in school for having a prosthetic.
“I didn’t want the world to see who I was. And so from 11 till I was 18, I would wear long pants and long skirts and long dresses and that type of stuff because I didn’t want other people to see me and judge me for that,” she recalled. “And so it definitely took a toll on me, but I think it allowed me to want to embrace who I am even more after the fact.”
This year, Ayanbeku said she surprised herself at trials — and she is excited to see her time continue to drop.
“Four years. It feels like a long time, but it flew by. It definitely flew by,” she said. “And so I’m very excited to see what happens here in Paris. [I’m] definitely on a good track.”
Ayanbeku didn’t always feel this confident about the Paris Paralympics. She gave birth just six months ago, training through pregnancy and resuming as soon as she could after giving birth. But she was concerned about not being able to train as intensely as she’d wanted, and the impact that would have on her times at the Team USA trials.
“I was doing everything that I could possibly do, but matched up to my competition, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough,” she recalls thinking. “I’m like, 'None of these girls just had babies. They’re not worried about their pelvic floors and their cores going soft.’ And so there were so many little things that I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough.”
She’s brought her daughter to the track during training and now they’re both going to the Paris Paralympics.
“It’s going to make me feel complete,” she said. “And I’m not going to be worried about her or missing her ... so that stress will definitely take a lot of load off of me.”
