He Could be the First American Amputee in the Olympics

Being born without lower legs didn’t keep Blake Leeper from playing baseball and basketball when he was a kid. After being fitted with prosthetic limbs, Leeper took a lot of falls, but he always got right back up. In college, he discovered running, the sport that would become his lifeblood. After winning silver and bronze medals in the Paralympic Games, Leeper is now training with one goal in mind—to compete against able-bodied athletes in the Olympics. His bid to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was denied by World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body in February 2020. The organization maintains the prosthetic blades Leeper runs on give him an unfair advantage. But Leeper hasn’t stopped there—he has filed an appeal to the committee.

Director: Noah Throop | Producer: Mark Boyer | Supervising Producer: Samantha Stamler | Editor: Mark Boyer