When Misato Michishita won the Paralympic marathon in Tokyo this summer, she picked up more than a gold medal. The visually impaired Japanese office worker became a must-get for organizers of today’s Boston Marathon, where she is to headline one of three new para divisions being unveiled for the 125th edition of the race.
“I had a dream about running a Boston Marathon for a long time,” Michishita said. “Most runners have the goal to run the Boston Marathon, so I would like to be a part of that.”
The first major marathon to include a wheelchair race, in 1975, Boston has named a champion in a visually impaired division since 1986.
Photo: AP
Ever since the 2013 finish-line bombing that killed three people and left so many with prosthetic limbs, organizers sought a way to be more inclusive for para athletes who had long participated only for the satisfaction of finishing.
For the first time this year, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) is to award titles and prize money in three new divisions: visually impaired, upper-body impairment and lower-body impairment. The top men and women in each would receive US$1,500 from a total purse of US$16,500.
“It doesn’t surprise me that it was Boston first to do that,” said Manuela Shar, a two-time defending Boston wheelchair winner who also took gold at the Tokyo Paralympics. “It’s good to see things moving in the direction of inclusion and equality.”
Blind in her right eye since middle school due to a rare genetic disease in her cornea, Michishita began running marathons at 26.
Using a guide to direct her along the course, she won a silver medal in Rio de Janeiro and saw the opportunity to upgrade to gold in her homeland.
When the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were delayed for a year, Michishita remained confident that they would not be canceled.
Now 44, she struggled to train because of a COVID-19 state of emergency in Japan that prevented her from getting together with her guide.
She broke the tape in Tokyo in 3 hours, 50 seconds — a Paralympic record that increased her profile and sealed the deal with Boston organizers.
“We had to have her,” BAA chief operating officer Jack Fleming said.
Joe Walsh, who is the former head of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Paralympic division and is advising the BAA, said organizers hope the new categories will provide the sort of motivation for impaired runners that the push-rim competition has given wheelchair racers.
Five-time winner wheelchair winner Tatyana McFadden “is a role model and inspiration to others who are wheelchair users who may want to be active and participate in sports, maybe even do something like the Boston Marathon,” said Walsh, a two-time Paralympian as a cross-country skier.
“In the same way that has grown over the last 50 years, the vision here is that the same thing will happen with the divisions that focus on the visually impaired and mobility impaired runners,” he said.
There are 35 runners entered in the visually impaired division for today’s race and 238 total in the para athlete divisions.
Many others would be running recreationally because they have not gone through the international or US classification process, or could not meet the more stringent qualifying time of 3 hours, 40 minutes for men aged 18 to 39.
Walsh said the benefits of the new divisions might not be obvious right away.
“Maybe it doesn’t blow up the number of athletes with vision impairments running the Boston Marathon, but maybe it boosts the number who run 5Ks and 10Ks, and who are active in other sports, triathlon or swimming or whatever,” he said. “It has a broader perspective than just running, it crosses over into other fields of accomplishment as well, especially those that are related to sport.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but