A Paralympian"S Oral History: Lex Gillette

A Paralympian’s Oral History

LEX GILLETTE

2004 Paralympic Games – Athens 2008 Paralympic Games – Beijing 2012 Paralympic Games – London 2016 Paralympic Games – Rio

– Track and Field –

Interviewed by: Alan Abrahamson February 20, 2019 Los Angeles, California

This oral history may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form without prior written consent of the LA84 Foundation

www.LA84.org LA84 Foundation 2141 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90018 LEX GILLETTE

Alan Abrahamson Interviewer: It is Wednesday, February 20, 2019. I'm Alan Abrahamson. We are here with Lex Gillette and we are continuing our series on Paralympic Champions. We are here in Los Angeles, California, at the LA84 Foundation. Good Morning. How are you Lex?

Lex Gillette: I'm good. Good morning. How are you?

Abrahamson: I'm OK, thank you. It is a pleasure to have you with us.

Gillette: You as well.

Abrahamson: So let me ask you, big picture question that I'm going to come back to at the end of our two hours together – the Paralympics. You are a Paralympic champion. You are the 2017 world championships gold medalist, world record holder in the long jump, silver medalist multiple times over, most recently at the Rio Paralympics. Paralympics have had an incredible meaning in your life. What do you want for the Paralympics for the United States of America, and the world from now to and through the 2028 Paralympic Games here in Los Angeles?

Gillette: For the Paralympics, I believe, in the United States I want the awareness to increase. I want people to know about it. I want the general public to recognize athletes, to know what sports they compete in. I want to change their perception on how they view Paralympians. I know a lot of times we get confused with the Special Olympics, which the Special Olympics is a great organization and they've been doing great things for years upon years upon years, but there is a difference between the Paralympics and Special Olympics. I want the general public – I want everyone to be able to know that difference. I think from a global standpoint I want the world to have the same sentiments. I want them to see the athletes and see how incredible, how hardworking, how resilient, how phenomenal Paralympic athletes are. Also, I want them to know that a Paralympic athlete is just like the next person. Although they are out here doing amazing things in sports, they're living normal lives and they have families. They have jobs. They have obligations and they are just living life just like the next person. It's really about changing the perception and shedding more light on the athlete, but them as a human being, as a person as a whole.

Abrahamson: So this has been a recurring theme throughout this series of interviews, Lex, is the – and you'll correct me if I'm using the wrong word – the normalizing of the Paralympic experience, the normalizing of the experience for people with – again help me with my word choice – people with disabilities. How do we go there and get there together?

Gillette: A lot of it is education. I think a lot of it is actually taking the time to jump into a situation and learn and really find out more about the athlete, ask questions. Ask them about their life, about their disability, what they do on the field of play, what they do off the field of play. Just really dive deeper and get down to the core of that particular person. I know that from the outside looking in, what I've gathered is that a lot of people feel uncomfortable with asking certain questions, but I think that if they are genuine and you're literally wanting to learn to better yourself, then I think the athletes will be more receptive and will totally understand that it's a matter of this person trying to learn. I've been talking recently in a lot in my speeches on emotional intelligence and really trying to understand people. Understand their emotions, their attitude, their personalities. I think that's a lot of what it is, is really trying to figure out people at the core. Learning how to be empathetic, putting yourself as much as you can possibly imagine, putting yourself in their situation and trying to look at life through their lens.

Abrahamson: If I was a better interviewer, I would probably wait until we were an hour and forty- five minutes into this talk to ask you this question, but I'm going to do this right now anyway on the chance that your thoughtful eloquence has given us the entry point into this. I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan, for better or for worse. Here's one of my favorite songs. It's a song that he wrote on an album called "Tunnel of Love." I don't know if you like Bruce or not.

Gillette: I know Bruce, but not [unintelligible].

Abrahamson: It's OK, you know, I've seen him play live 39 times and I often say that my wife, our kids, that if I just dropped out of life and followed Bruce around, would anybody notice? So, here's a song called "Cautious Man," and the first line of the third verse goes like this: "On his right hand Billy tattooed the word love, and on his right hand was the word fear. In which hand he held his fate," Lex, "was never clear." And I often think that those two lines sum up a lot of what we are talking about right here and right now together. For me, this series of interviews has amplified and brought into stark and vivid relief a lot of the fear that people in mainstream society have in confronting people with disabilities. Especially in talking with Shirley just a few moments ago, the issue of love and how it has the amazing capacity to change everything and everyone around us and when people can, like you just said so beautifully a second ago, learn to talk to someone who has a disability. Oh wait, that person is just like me! And we can love each other just like anybody else. It changes everything.

Gillette: Right.

Abrahamson: Right?

Gillette: Yeah.

Abrahamson: And that's, I think, the journey between here and Los Angeles in 2028.

Gillette: Absolutely.

Abrahamson: Right?

Gillette: Absolutely.

Abrahamson:: OK, now I'm going to go back to your deep dive because that's what we are going to do together for the next hour and a half.

Gillette: OK.

Abrahamson: OK? Where, my friend, were you born please?

Gillette: I was born in Kinston, North Carolina.

Abrahamson: Where?!

Gillette: Kinston, North Carolina.

Abrahamson: And where is that please?

Gillette: You probably have never heard –

Abrahamson: I have never.

Gillette: Very small town, Jerry Stackhouse is from Kinston, North Carolina.

Abrahamson: Jerry Stackhouse? So, who's more famous?

Gillette: I am. Yeah. I am.

Abrahamson: Who can shoot a better three?

Gillette: It depends on if we're both blindfolded. Yeah, I was born in Kinston, North Carolina, and it's in the Eastern part of North Carolina. Most of my family is from the small town called La Grange. So, I was there for the first year of my life. And then my mom, her and I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, when I was one year old. So, Raleigh is basically the city that I know, although I was born in Kinston.

Abrahamson: And how did you get a name like Elexis?

Gillette: You know what, I think my mom liked the name Alexis, and she switched the A to an E. Over the years I have been searching online to kind of see what sort of meaning there may be behind that. And, I need to do some more research. But yeah, Elexis Lavelle Gillette. That's the name that she liked and that's what we

went with. That's what she went with. That's what I have no choice but to go with. But I like my name!

Abrahamson: It's a cool name.

Gillette: I appreciate it.

Abrahamson: Do you have brothers and sisters?

Gillette: I have a younger sister. She's six years younger. We are totally different. I'm more of the cool, calm type guy. She's more like the fiery person. And we have the same father so I guess you can say half-sister. But she's my sister.

Abrahamson: Are you close?

Gillette: We are close now. We're way closer than what we were growing up because we didn't grow up in the same home. But, always, for the most part, we would see each other during the summer times and I would say within the past, you know once I was a teenager, or a little older, we got closer. And my dad was killed in a car accident in 2010 and since that time we have definitely gotten a lot closer.

Abrahamson: So, I'm so sorry about your dad. My dad died in a plane crash in 1984 so I totally empathize with you. So, just so I can understand in my own head. Same father correct?

Gillette: Yeah, same father.

Abrahamson: And you grew up with your mom?

Gillette: Yup.

Abrahamson: So it was you and your mom against the world?

Gillette: Basically yes.

Abrahamson: And, what kind of work does your mom, or did your mom do?

Gillette: She worked for – she was an executive assistant for the Head of Health and Human Services in Wake County. I'm not sure how long she had that particular job, but it was definitely a good amount of time. I think when we first moved to Raleigh she was a CNA, I believe. Like a nurse's assistant. And, I remember going to her job at times and watching her and seeing what she was doing. It was cool following behind your parent and being in my mom's presence.

Abrahamson: If your mom still with us?

Gillette: Yes.

Abrahamson: Are you still close?

Gillette: Yes.

Abrahamson: So the obvious next question is about your vision. And this is a genetic condition? A degenerative genetic condition. Is that correct?

Gillette: It was degenerative and we don't have any – sight impairments don't run in our family per se. We have individuals that have worn glasses and things like that. In my head that's a normal type of situation I suppose, maybe not. But in terms of actual conditions or diseases, those types of things didn't run in our family. My mom, however, does have glaucoma. But there's no direct correlation to her having that and me having my situation. I have retina detachments and it literally just starting happening out of the blue when I was kid.

Abrahamson: And when you say, "when I was a kid", how old were you?

Gillette: I started having issues when I was 3, at first, and once I was 8 years old, I started having more complications and that's when they really decided to have a lot of operations so they could try to salvage my sight.

Abrahamson: And it was just from retinal detachments?

Gillette: Yeah.

Abrahamson: Wow.

Gillette: Yeah. So literally just coming home and noticing that my sight was blurred. Sight was faint. It was hard for me to see certain things clearly and I'd go to the doctor and after the examination they would say, "Hey, we need to have an operation because your retinas have detached."

Abrahamson: Both of them?

Gillette: Yeah, so the reason I say it started when I was three was because I began to have them in my left eye when I was three years old. My mom, I believed she noticed at that particular time that I was standing in front of the television really, really close to see what was going on on the screen.

Around that time, it just so happened to be time for an annual check-up to the doctor. That's when they noticed I was having issues with my left eye. I had three operations on that eye to try to fix the situation, but they were unsuccessful and I ended up losing all of my sight in that eye. But I was still able to, of course, see out of the right side. So up until I was 8 years old everything seemed to be fine, and

then I came home from school one day, and as I was taking a bath that night I realized that my sight was blurred. And I thought maybe I had – I'm washing up and things like that, so I was thinking that maybe I had gotten some soap in my eyes. I tell my mom, and she was thinking, "Well, you were playing outside earlier that day. Maybe you got some dirt or something in your eyes." So we took some water, cleaned my eyes out, it made it feel better, but it didn't clear my sight any. And that prompted us to go to the doctor the next morning. And the reason it was the next morning was because we were thinking that, "OK you go to sleep, wake up, maybe everything will be OK in the morning."

But nothing had changed. So we went to the doctor and after an examination they said, "We need to have an emergency operation. The retina has detached. We need to get this fixed."

Abrahamson: Eight years old, you're third grade, maybe second grade? Do you have any memory of this?

I'll tell you a small story. My eyesight was terrible when I was a little boy. When I was 5 years old, I could not see very well. I was tremendously nearsighted and I could not close my O's or Q's. We were doing handwriting lessons. My mother thought that, and this was 1964 in Dayton Ohio, and my mother was 28 years old, I was her first son. She knew nothing about parents. I was, as my brothers call me, the lab experiment. She didn't know that I needed glasses, and there was great concern that I was developmentally disabled and the doctors didn't know what to do with me. They had me do – it's still a family story that's now legend – where they had me trying to navigate pencils in front of my face, and walk on a 2 x 4, and all kinds of balance and other issues when really what I needed was glasses. And the very short version of a long story is that by the time I was in my 20s, I was minus 8 in both eyes and I ended up right before the Beijing Olympics having contact lenses implanted in both eyes. So, for me, I've always been very sensitive to issues of vision. For me, at the risk of TMI, my vision has been fraught with issues for me of weakness. I was always the super scrawny little Jewish boy in a very non-Jewish environment with glasses who couldn't see. So I ask you, at 8 years old, when you thought to yourself, "Uh-oh now I can't see out of my right eye," how that felt?

Gillette: It was hard. I think at 8 years old, the things that ran through my mind were, "Am I going to be able to play Super Mario Brothers, or play all of my video games, or ride my bicycle, play outside with friends?" Things like that, I would say I definitely had questions as to what was going on. Why were my eyes acting the way they were acting? Am I going to be blind one day? Are the doctors going to be able to fix this issue? Then, when it actually happened, I had the last operation and the doctors said there was nothing else they could do to help my sight. Now I was in a spot where I would go home, I would go through my normal routine, go to sleep, and wake up the next morning and I would see a little less than what I did the day before until one day I woke up and I couldn't really make up much of anything.

So at that point, everything is reality now. And although I couldn't see to play my video game or ride my bicycle and things like that, now I hear my mom come into the room and I can't see her anymore. That's tough. For a lot of people I think they think that, "Oh, 8 years old is not a lot of time on this earth." Those memories are all strong. I remember what my mom looks like. I always think back to – She has long hair. And looking at her face and we would go outside and play catch, and she would take me to the park. We would do a lot of things together and I remember what she looked like in those instances. So, to not be able to have the ability to see her anymore or to see my environment, the surroundings, where we lived, that was definitely pretty tough. For sure.

Abrahamson: Did you have, and at the risk asking this super obvious question, the "why me" moment?

Gillette: To honest with you, I cannot remember having that type of moment. I think my mom always – so, she tells this story about after everything had set in, and we had the last operation and now we were in this transition period and sight was decreasing. She was in a space where I know that she had the weight of the world on her shoulders because now she's trying to figure out as a parent how is she going to transition and move forward in this process.

She tells this story of how, I think, one night she was praying and I had just randomly came and ran to her and said, "Hey, hey mom, I need to learn how to read by dots!" For her she understood that, "You know what, my kid, he gets it. He knows that something is obviously different. Something is changing. He just told me he needs to learn how to read Braille. So if he had gotten to the point where he's accepted it, then I need to jump on the bandwagon too. Let's figure out how to make this work. Let's find some resources and tools and put it in motion. Let's get him out here and help shape and craft this new life."

Abrahamson: And again, I'm asking you to remember the 8- or 9-year-old, Lex; do you remember being that little boy?

Gillette: I do. At that time I was very active. I was very energetic. Moving around, jumping around. We actually had this ledge in front of our apartment building. It was about three foot high and there was grass below. Prior to me losing my sight, I would run and jump off this ledge, spread my arms, and pretend like I was flying. After I had lost my sight, there was a point in time where I wasn't as active largely because of me having to allow my eyes time to heal after all of the operations.

But once I was cleared to go and do things again, my mom encouraged me to go outside and explore, still, and figure out the neighborhood. Find out how many steps it takes to get from the curb to our apartment building. Just learn the area in a different way, use all of my other senses to capture an illustration of where I am. So it got a point where I was comfortable again with walking to this ledge, and I

would hop down into the grass. The next thing you know a few weeks later, a few months go by and I'm running and jumping off of this ledge again. It was all because I was learning those surroundings and figuring out what everything looked like by using my other senses.

Abrahamson: And your friends – were you just plain old Lex to them?

Gillette: In the beginning, I think they struggled with figuring out what was going on as well. I totally didn't know how to explain the situation to them. The only thing that I knew was I can't see. But I think the awesome thing about kids in general is kids are just resilient. At the end of the day they just figure it out. So I did have a couple friends in my neighborhood who I hung out with on a daily basis. And yeah, in the beginning it was a little off-setting and we all didn't know how to handle the situation. But you figure it out. You start to understand people. You start to recognize different things. And we're creatures and we're able to adapt. And that's what happened. So my friends, they recognized, "Well OK, Lex, he can't see as well, so hold onto my shoulder and I'll help you get from your apartment to the park. Or I'll help you get from your apartment to my house." And as we continued to do those types of things, it just became another day in the life. It was super easy. But also as we continued to do those things over and over and over again, we are also creatures of habit. I was able to recognize where we would walk, where we would turn, so then now I was able to actually get from my apartment to my friends' apartment on my own just by recognizing the paths that we would take when they were assisting me.

Abrahamson: Are you still friends with these friends from the neighborhood?

Gillette: We're not as close, but one of my good friends, Lamar, I saw him one of the last times that I went home. That was really good to see him. One of my friends, Brian, who – my neighborhood where I livedwhen I was going through the sight loss – we weren't friends at that particular time. But, I would say we met each other when I was about 11 or 12. Although we lived in different neighborhoods, we've been friends forever and forever. We talk pretty consistently. And actually, I was at home about a month ago and we were able to meet up and hang out. It's been good to see the friends that I did have who were a part of that process with me. To answer your question, yes we are super close and we still have contact to this day.

Abrahamson: So the reason I'm asking these questions and the reason we've spent almost a half hour on this, is because in the same way that this story about little Alan being 5 years old shapes you. These experiences, and obviously, losing your sight can't help but shape you. But you know the dynamics of being a little boy help make you into the man that you are today. And that's why I'm asking these questions now, right? Just so you understand why I'm asking

Gillette: Yeah.

Abrahamson: Right?

Gillette: Yeah, I get that.

Abrahamson: At some point little Lex starting growing up and being bigger Lex. At what point did adolescent Lex realize that in this body might be a germ of some athletic talent?

Gillette: My mom's side of the family, that's the athletic side. So, they played it all from softball, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, football. Whatever it is they probably played it. I knew that I had some sort of athletic gene within me and it all stemmed from me playing in that neighborhood and running and jumping off of that ledge. I knew that I was fast. I knew that I could move around pretty well. I was quick. I was agile and it was just a matter of me finding something that I could participate in. My mom, she was a very big advocate for me being in as many programs and camps as possible. So, I was always – I was in Boy Scouts and we would play flag football. Just always moving around. I knew I had a little bit of skill. I knew that if someone gave me the opportunity I could go out there and make it happen. I could at the bare minimum figure it out. And once I figured it out, it would be on and popping from there.

Abrahamson: Where do you think this comes from? As I've said to every single one who has been sitting here with us, championship athletes are different from the rest of us. There's a mental strength, there's a mental difference that the rest of us mere mortals don't have. Where do you think that comes from?

Gillette: That's a tough question.

Abrahamson: Because you said to me just now, "I knew I could do it."

Gillette: I think a lot of it comes from – at a certain point when we are introduced to different opportunities and different things, I think, in a lot of ways that serves as, figurative speaking, like a pair of glasses. You put them on, you are able to see a lot more clearly and you start to see beyond the horizon. You see things that aren't yet possible, or not yet possible but aren't yet seen. And so, for me, when I was being introduced to sport, I started to see that after all the operations I wasn't encouraged to move around and be active, but now that I am it's like, "Hmm! This is fun. I wonder what's out there. I wonder what else I can discover. I wonder where else I can explore."

So you get to this point where you just want to figure out more and you want to do more. And it's like a fire that continues to burn and continues to build as you do more as you get out there and learn and see more. Next thing you know it, it becomes like a wildfire of desire and you're ignited and it's always burning. It's never satisfied. And then next thing you know, you find something that you want to be an expert in and it's that same thing. It's just a steady burning, a steady desire to want to keep going and keep pursuing and keep ascending and elevating.

Abrahamson: Those are beautiful, magnificent words Lex. When you were jumping off that ledge, I think it would be far-fetched to say "I want to win a silver medal or gold medal in the long jump with the Paralympics." A long way from X to Y right there. How did you get introduced to running and jumping? How did that start?

Gillette: I was in high school. My mom, she kept me in public school because she felt like it was a real world, a more real world experience for me to be in public school learning alongside my sighted peers. So she chose that route instead of putting me in a specialized school. There was a teacher that I had, his name is Brian Whitmer. He was my visually impaired teacher. So he was responsible for getting my assignments and books in an accessible format so that I could participate in class. I learned how to read Braille after I lost my sight. So that was he was doing. He was getting all of my books in Braille. Getting my homework, classwork assignments in Braille. He would make sure that I had all of those things when I would be in class. But he was also responsible for going to P.E. class with me. One day we had a physical fitness test that we had to participate in. We had to do as many push-up and sit-ups, things like that.

One of the activities was standing long jump. Stand in one spot – whoom – you jump forward as far as you can. It was my turn to jump, so Mr. Whitmer takes me to the start line. He makes sure that my feet are behind the line. He says, "Alright, get after it. Arms back, knees bent." Whoom. Jumped forward as far as I could. And I just remember when I landed a lot of my classmates was just, "Whoa, wow, that's crazy." Coach Whitmer, he walks up to me, he's laughing excitedly. "Oh my gosh, this is so crazy." He says that "we would measure your jump, and you jumped 10 feet. Do you know what this mean?" And I'm like, "Well, yeah I jumped 10 feet right?" And he says, "Well no, have you heard of the Paralympic Games." I said no. He told me it's the highest pinnacle competition for athletes who have a disability and he said that I could potentially go and win medals, and break records and represent team USA. At that time, it sounded good. I said, "Well if I can stand in one spot and I could jump this far. That jump, I was the best in the freshman – I was the best in my class and I was in the top three in the entire school."

So in my head I'm thinking that "if this competition is just for athletes who have a disability and I'm beating everyone at my school that could see." I said, "Well sheesh I should be able to tear up the competition at the Paralympics." The only issue was in the Paralympics is they don't have standing long jump. They have running long jump and I'm in a position where, how in the world are we even going to do this? And Coach Whitmer says, "Well, I'll stand at the take-off board. I'll clap for you, and yell, and you'll have to run to the sound of my voice." And initially I was like, "Nah, nah. You're crazy. That's not happening." And he was so adamant about it. He was just very, "C'mon man, I know you can do this. I really – I see this for you. If you can stand there and jump that far. Just imagine what you can do when we put a run to it. When you get out there and you run to my voice as fast as you can and then you jump. You can go even further." So we get out there and we

10 try it a couple times.

I didn't like it, but what really changed the narrative was Coach Whitmer had taken me to this sports camp in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I was 16 years old, it was my first flight from Raleigh. We're at this sports camp. It's a week-long camp and it's specifically for blind and visionally impaired. They teach you about the Paralympics and all the sports that are involved. Throughout the week, you chose which event that you want to be a part of and you learn about the events throughout the week. You practice. And at the end of the week they have a friendly competition between all the participants. I'm very competitive, though, so nothing is ever friendly when it comes to competition. We get to the end of the week and throughout that week I had been working on running long jump. So, coach Whitmer was there and he wasn't clapping, "Straight, straight straight, straight, straight, straight, straight." Following the sound of his voice, and I was jumping. In the beginning it was very just minimal in terms in the amount of steps. So, I would take five or six strides. One, two, three, four, five six, jump. And commit, fly through the air, land in the sand. Those five or six times was so awkward feeling because you don't really know your surroundings. You being to wonder, "Am I going to run into anything? Am I going to twist an ankle? Am I going to get hurt?" But Coach Whitmer, he told me, "Just put your trust in my hands, and I'm going to make sure that from a physical standpoint, and safety standpoint you're going to be fine. I'm looking, I'm watching. You're OK. You just need to run to the sound of my voice. Be as fast as possible and make sure that you jump off the appropriate stride."

And there was something within his voice and him as a person and I said, "This guy believes in me, he believes in me and he sees something." That was very contagious. And I said, "Well if he's investing time in me and he's helping me to get to this point, the least I can do is give him my absolute best." We get to this competition at the end of this sports camp. There's this guy there. He's like the Michael Jordan of this sports camp for the past two three years. In my head, initially, I was saying, "Well, you know what this guy is obviously better than I am. If he just so happens to win the competition, then oh well. This is my first chance." But as we got into the competition, everyone received three jumps. And, you know Michael Jorden went and he jumped. Boom put a good one out there. He probably jumped about high 13, 13 feet high. And my first jump, it wasn't that good. I would say about 12 feet or so. Michael Jordan jumps again. Boom. Now he's at like 14 feet. My second jump, I improved to 13. So he had his last one, I want to say Michael Jordan, he went about 14 feet maybe 3 or 4 inches. And Coach Whitmer he's like, "Alright man, this is your last one. You've got to give it to me. Put it out there."

I just remembered all the things he was saying to me in high school. "You can go to the Paralympics. You can win medals. You can break records. You can travel the world. You can compete in front of thousands and thousands of people. You can wear the red, white, and blue. You can be the best in this. I know you can."

And that third jump, at the sports camp. I do my round, I'm following coach Whitmer's voice. Jump, boom. I get out there and my jump was 14 feet 9 inches and I knocked off Jordan, I knocked off Goliath and that literally, that was everything to me.

I love to compete and after that sports camp I said, "You know what, I can literally see this happening. I want to go to the Paralympics, I want to compete. I want to represent team USA." We went back to North Carolina. I joined my high school track team. And it was on from there.

Abrahamson: What did Coach Whitmer say to you right then and there? I have another question, but that's the first one I have for you.

Gillette: What did he say?

Abrahamson: Yes.

Gillette: He's just as competitive as I am. So, he was very stoked about that and he was proud and I think on a personal level, since my dad wasn't like a consistent figure in my life at that time, not only was Coach Whitmer someone who I looked to from an academic standpoint, but he began to be that strong male figure that I trusted. And we bonded in that sports realm and I knew that he was in it to win it. He was definitely there to really help me go above and beyond.

Abrahamson: This would have been – you were 16 –this was either the year 2000 or 2001, depending on your birthday. Because you and I have a very almost similar birthday. You're October 19, I'm October 21. So we're both Libras. Good for us. Right? So, do you remember if this was 2000 or 2001.

Gillette: The sports camp was 2002 I believe. Or – yeah, it was 2002.

Abrahamson: OK, so 16 or 17. So Sydney was gone and now we are going to be looking at Athens.

Gillette: I'm sorry, you know what, check that. It was 2001.

Abrahamson: 2001, yeah that would make sense.

Gillette: Yeah.

Abrahamson: So I go back to my friend Bill Horton, Bruce Springsteen's character. We're talking love on one hand and fear on the other because Coach Whitmer said, "Trust me. Trust me, together we can do this." Right? "Put aside your fear, let's go to love and trust in each other here, we can do this."

Gillette: Absolutely.

Abrahamson: One hundred percent. Feel free for your motivational speaking to steal from me here ,OK? Bill Horton is this guy's character, OK? Did the state of North Carolina, when you came back as a freshman or sophomore in high school say, "Whoa, the blind kid cannot compete with the sighted kids. What are we talking about here?" Did you have any pushback?

Gillette: I don't think it was because I was blind. I think it was more so with the adaptation in the rules that are in the Paralympic games. Some of the officials weren't the most accommodating with me having the powder on the board. When I compete, when I jump, they put a layer of white powder on the board, and the board is slightly bigger, it's a meter big so that the athletes in my category, when we jump, they measure from where this imprint is on the chalk. Some of the officials weren't as accommodating. It was awesome having Coach Whitmer there because he would step in and say, "Look this is what needs to be done." There was push back with me in sprinting. That was a large reason why I didn't sprint as a member of the track team because people weren't as willing to give me the two dedicated lanes. One lane for me and one lane for my guide. I didn't really mess around with the sprinting. We were able to get away with it in long jump.

Coach Whitmer, he was there. He was not only a coach, but he was a huge advocate. So he would go and he would face these officials that would sometimes give some pushback and he would say "Hey no, this is what needs to be done. If you don't make the accommodations then we will figure out what the next steps will be." We never really got to that point.

Abrahamson: So, awkward question, hard question, I'll try to personalize it in my situation as well. I think I mentioned that we're Jewish. So, we were the first ever little Jewish boys in our school district. Or at least in my elementary school that had never seen anybody like us before. We were the classic other, right. My father had to say, "I don't think you all are being malicious, but you can't give tests on the Jewish holidays. You can't do this. We are just trying to educate you all here." So was there any pushback because you're African-American? I think about North Carolina's legacy. Sometimes it's very positive, in other ways not so much.

Gillette: That's an interesting question. I get that question, actually, I get it occasionally and my answer is always no. And the reason being is because from a conversation I haven't felt as though I've gotten pushback in that regards, but I don't have the capacity to see and so I say that to say that there may have been times where, from the outside looking in, maybe somebody would say, "That just isn't right," but it's something I'm totally oblivious to because I don't pick up on the gestures or the looks or any other non-verbal feedback that may be given. But I've never felt as though I've gotten pushback. It's interesting, though.

Abrahamson: And Coach Whitmer has never said anything one way or the other?

Gillette: Nah.

Abrahamson: And he's white or black?

Gillette: He's white.

Abrahamson: And nobody ever said to him, "Hey coach, you're a white man traveling with a young black man." Nothing one way or the other?

Gillette: Nothing that he's brought to me. Nothing that he's said to me.

Abrahamson: So there's progress, huh? This is how we measure progress. One person to person. Right? 100%. OK so now we're at 2001 sports camps, we go back to Athens Drive High School. Do you start tearing it up or not?

Gillette: In the beginning no, I wasn't tearing it up at all. But it was really nice. What I got from that first season was the camaraderie, being a part of a team. I had friends on the team and we were brothers. We would go out there. We would compete. We would train. I was learning from them and I think that they were getting a lot from me, having a teammate who was blind and somebody who is just really out here trying to get it just like the next person. I think in a lot of ways that helped push them and motivate them. So, at the end of that first season, I want to say I went from jumping 13 feet, 14 feet consistently to jumping 17 feet consistently.

Abrahamson: Holy cow, my friend!

Gillette: So, it was a big jump.

Abrahamson: Did you grow physically that year?

Gillette: I grew physically. Coach Whitmer – we went to the weight room. We lifted weights. We just started perfecting the craft and really getting out there. I was becoming a lot more comfortable. I think that played a huge part in me being able to jump further. My senior year, on the track team, that was the year I was jumping 18, 19 feet consistently, and it was at that time I had become our most consistent jumper. I would go and you can count on me putting out a good jump. I was certainly one of the better ones on the team. I was actually contributing to our team's success and that felt good.

Abrahamson: Do you think – talking about just big picture, the normalization of people with disabilities and their contributions – here we are, what year did you graduate from high school? 2000 – ?

Gillette: Three. Yup.

Abrahamson: OK, we're 16 years down the road here. These folks are 33 or 34 years old. Do

you think your friends on the high school track team are like, "Let me tell you about my friend Gillette." They're like, "Lex, my friend, he can't see. He could jump 18, 19 feet. He was contributing to our track team. I'm so proud of him. He was my guy!" I'm sure barbeques in North Carolina, when they get together like, "Lex is my guy." Don't you think?

Gillette: Yeah, I can totally because I think about when I go to family barbeques or friends' barbeques, that's the thing. People are telling stories, "Hey, yo let me tell you about this dude in high school. He was doing X, Y, and Z. This is amazing." People always have stories for dang near every scenario. "Oh, let me tell you about this. I remember when, this guy he slipped on a banana peel," and you know, whatever, so people always – you have these memories and you have these situations where you're able to point back to. I can 100 percent agree that 2019, time has gone by, I'm pretty sure they have pulled a story out of their bag as it relates to us on the track team, or even us traveling together on away trips. Yeah, I know they have some stories.

Abrahamson: I think those kinds of things make such a huge difference in the way they percolate through people's normalcy, which is, after all, the whole point of all this. Just the normalcy of it. You know? Alright, you graduate from high school. Did you get a scholarship to go to East Carolina?

Gillette: I received a – yes. From Disability Services for the Blind, yes.

Abrahamson: I want to ask you a couple more questions, then I want to take a break before we actually get into the Paralympics. That's an entirely other segment. It's not only that you can long jump like crazy, you have some musical talent.

Gillette: Yeah, a little bit yeah.

Abrahamson: Yeah, a little bit. Let's talk about that. At what point did you realize you could play the piano and sing a little bit?

Gillette: I had gotten this keyboard for Christmas when I was really young. I would say probably 6 or 7 years old.

Abrahamson: So, you could see the keys.

Gillette: Yeah, so I remember getting up Christmas morning, going into the living room, and I saw the keyboard under the Christmas tree. So, I was like, "Aw this is cool." I would tinker around with it and play with it. But shortly after that, that was when I began to have issues with my sight. So I stepped away from it. I didn't bother with it too much. And over the years I would – here and there, if there was one around – I would hit the keys or bang the keys or something. I wasn't until I had gotten to college. And I said, you know what I should get back into playing. I had dated this girl in college and she actually played. She was really good.

Abrahamson: On the keyboard?

Gillette: Yeah, she was really good at playing piano. She played for – we both grew up in Raleigh and she lived up the street from me. But she played for one of our churches in Raleigh so she was really good. I said, "Yeah I need to get back on the piano. I just need to get that back in my skillset." So I started to learn more and I learned from her. I've always been able to just listen to certain things and mimic it vocally, like singing songs. Or, just being able to listen and figure out the chords on the piano. From college, up until now, it's just been one of those things where it's like, "Alright, I'm competing, I'm doing all of these really cool things. I want to be able to play music as well." I always felt like music is another thing similar to sport. It connects us and you may not – the music may not have words to it, it may just be an instrumental, but people are able to vibe with that. They are able to see something and hear something and it differs across the landscape. It differs from person to person. Everybody loves music. I mean it's just a thing. Music is life. And I just say it as another way to really communicate with the world. And so, when you have that music, everything else goes out the window. It doesn't matter if you have a disability. It doesn't matter if you don't. It doesn't matter what you have going on in life. You hear that music and it does something to you.

Abrahamson: I often – I've written his before. I don't necessarily claim to be original here. Music and sport are the two universal languages. Right? If I throw down a soccer ball, if I'm in Kansas City, or Buffalo, or Rwanda, or Tokyo, or wherever, everyone knows the rules.

Gillette: Oh yeah, we kickin it, yeah.

Abrahamson: If you throw down a riff on your keyboard, everyone can connect. You don't need to have a language for that. How long did it take you to achieve some proficiency in your music? Wait, let me interrupt. Was it for you, or to impress the girl, or for both?

Gillette: I don't think it was – I mean of course you want to impress, but I think that for me, personally I'm all about trying to do better, be better than I was the day before. So, I was definitely trying to figure it out so I could challenge myself. So I can just figure it out and be better. So, I mean, it definitely has taken a while and it's still a learning experience. My dad's side of the family is the musical side. So. you know, a lot of my dad, my aunts, cousins, you know they can sing and some of them play instruments. The athletic side. however, I mean I made it to the games and things like that, I would say it's certainly better than the musical side. But the musical side has definitely improved over the years and it's an area I would like to start to fuse more in in my speeches when I go and speak at different conferences and events. But, to answer your question, you know, you get on the piano and play a few songs and sing a few songs and, yeah, I mean it's never-ending. Music is always changing and I always want to get better at that as well.

Abrahamson: Lex, you said, "I always want to get better." Super obvious question: where does this come from? Great athletes have this inside. Try to articulate what that is; where does that come from? You have a way with words. What is that? And where is it inside you?

Gillette: That is, like, man that's a question. That's so hard. That's like the question that everybody would pay for the answer. That's, I think – it literally all boils down to where does it come from? I'm going to use your analogy. I think it comes from that love. I think that when we get to the point where we connect, and it's through love, it springboards that drive and that determination.

I just imagine had I not had someone like Brian Whitmer in my life from an athletic standpoint, to see something within me, to see enough to give me this opportunity, and to help me see this opportunity, where would I be right now? I probably would not be in this situation. Him having the patience, having the knowledge, and if he didn't have the knowledge, him going out and learning, that was everything. I think it's that connection. Even talking about my mom – she's my mom, so of course, you would like to think that as a parent, that's your responsibility. Of course it's different across person to person, but my mom, we've been connected. She found these resources and tools and these opportunities for me.

And, in a lot of ways I always use the analogy of teaching people to see. And, for me, my mom, Coach Whitmer, my Godfather Troy, the guide runners Jerome Avery, Wesley Williams, all of these people, they have shown me love and have ultimately been teaching me to see – teaching me to see my potential, teaching me to see more than what is in front of my eyes, teaching me to do more, to be more, to fly as far and as high as I can. And I think when we're in that space that is full of love, full of understanding, full of connection, full of empathy, I think that really fosters that drive, that "I want to do better." It ignites it. It puts it in this enormous – just this feeling – I can't even really put it into words because that's how powerful it is. It's the love.

Abrahamson: That's awesome. Let's take a break for a few minutes. We'll come back and talk about four medals at the Paralympics.

Abrahamson: OK, we're back. So, we are roughly, I think, in fall of 2003-ish, Coach Whitmer has gotten you to East Carolina University, and the Paralympic games are approaching. Can you walk us through the next few months up to the Athens Paralympics? Because right there is when you burst onto the international scene. How did all that happen, my friend?

Gillette: Yeah, fall of 2003 I enrolled in East Carolina University. My first semester, I remember – one of the big milestones I remember – I was walking back to my dorm and my phone rings and it was someone from the Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic Committee from the Paralympic division. They were telling me how

they had been seeing my results and I had achieved results that qualified me to be on the national team.

Abrahamson: This is 2013?

Gillette: 2003.

Abrahamson: 2003. OK. OK.

Gillette: And so that just meant that I was on the radar and now that I was on a national team my results and things like that would be – I would be under a microscope I guess, if you will. So the difficult thing was that now that I was in college, Mr. Whitmer, he wasn't there anymore. He was at Athens. I'm sorry, correction, he had left Athens and he was now in Georgia and I was in North Carolina still. So, I had to find somebody to get workouts in here and there. It wasn't the same as Coach Whitmer so we weren't doing as much weight lifting and as much running. So I was doing whatever I could to get by, and 2004 rolls around and we're in that qualification period where athletes are competing and trying to get their marks to be considered for the Paralympics. Coach Whitmer had driven up a couple times from Georgia. We competed at a couple competitions in Raleigh. One was at NC State. I jumped pretty well, but it wasn't as well as I felt I needed to in order to make the team. But that was my last competition, that was my last shot before the period closed. And fortunately, when they announced the team that summer and my name was on the list –and that was a really cool point in time, where I was thinking to myself, "Man I made the team. This is going to be awesome."

Abrahamson: Was coach Whitmer still helping you out in helping you train for the Athens Paralympics? He was your coach more or less?

Gillette: Well, no because, again, since I was at ECU, he was now in Georgia, that's a significant amount of mileage in between us. So, like I was saying, I had a student who was helping me basically get by. And you know that was what I had to do at that particular time, but once I was nominated to the team in 2004, I was invited to go to the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, California, and there is where I met Jerome Avery. Prior to the games, we had about two weeks to get ready. It was our first time meeting each other. That was his first time working with an athlete who was blind or visually impaired, so a lot of it was it really connecting and understanding each other and him understanding what his responsibilities were as a guide because now he was essentially taking over the role that Coach Whitmer played when I was in high school.

Abrahamson: So why don't you explain for people who are going to be watching this and coming to this, I could the play on words – blind – but I'll just say cold. How logistically, mechanically, technically, this event works. For those who have seen, literally seen the Olympic long jump – OK, men and women run down a long ramp and they jump off a board into a sand pit. Uh, hello they can see the board. How does

your event work differently? Because to begin with Lex, like how after you run down a straight line, that would be the first thing people would want to know. Second of all, as you mentioned the board is different because you do jump into a sand pit. But explain to folks how this event works please.

Gillette: So, you have your guide and the guide stands at the take-off board and in the field events, your guide, they have to be stationary. They can't move at all, whereas in the sprinting events they're running alongside you. So that's one of the major differences. It's all sound, you have to be able to listen to this person, follow the sound of their voice, run and jump. They're standing usually by the take-off board, or by the pit and they're clapping, yelling, as loud as possible, giving you that auditory feedback so that you know exactly where they're standing and where you need to run to. The board is a little bigger, it's a meter big, They cover it with white chalk so now when we jump from that board, you're able to see that footprint and they measure from your foot, from the toe, to where you land in the sand. You have to jump from this board. If you jump from behind it, then they measure from the board into the sand since there's no mark there. But if you step over the board, which is a foul, then similar to Olympic long jump, that's a disqualification or a fouled jump. That particular jump doesn't count. And, everything else is pretty much the same for the most part. You stay in your lane. You run as fast as possible. You count your strides and you jump.

` For us, it's a matter of practice. You work on it five, six days a week, you work on running straight. It's very hard. It's a matter of the athlete focusing on the sound of the guide and really pinpointing where they are so that you could run to that spot and jump. In the beginning, the guide will take you to the start mark. My guide, Wesley, he'll make sure that I'm in the middle of the runway. He'll make sure that my shoulders are straight, my body is straight, my feet are pointed directly down the middle of the runway. He jogs to the opposite end and then I get into my running position. He then makes sure that I'm still pointed in the right direction and after he does that, then he starts to clap and, "Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly."

So, I'm following that sound the entire time. So, a lot of people think that he's there to tell me when to jump. But I actually know how many strides I take. I know it takes me 16 strides to get from point A to point B and that distance is usually around 115 feet or so. It takes me 16 strides to cover that 115 feet. Once I get to my 16th stride, then I should be in the correct area and I jump. And again, that's something we train Monday through Friday, so after a while it just becomes muscle memory. But if I do so happen to run off of the runway, then Wesley will yell, "Stop!" and we will go back to the beginning and reset.

Abrahamson: Just to get way ahead of myself, since the crowd noise in London was so exceptional, did you have trouble concentrating in London?

Gillette: London was OK. All of the Games that I've been to I feel like there's always been something that has tried to stand in my way of getting on the podium and

potentially getting to the top of the podium. But in London, London was phenomenal. The stadium was packed the entire time, but the awesome thing about London was that the awareness of Paralympic sport is greater there. And they understand it and they get it so that now when we're on the track inside the stadium, the PA announcer would give a signal to let the crowd know that, hey, the blind athletes need silence. So, we had the luxury of a quiet stadium when we would jump. Rio was a totally different situation. It was what I would describe be the total opposite.

Abrahamson: It was that way for the sighted athletes by the way.

Gillette: That was just a challenge that I had never encountered before. Typically, when the athletes ask for silence, it's granted to them. That wasn't the case when we were in Rio. So, it was something we had to fight through and I personally believe that had it been silenced, then I feel like I would have won gold instead of the silver. I was able to catapult from, I think I was in sixth place or something, and it just so happened that I did have a quiet spot and I was able to get a good jump off. I went from where I was to first place. And then we had one jump remaining. I told myself, "Well I want to jump, I need to jump a lot further just so I can make sure that no one catches me," because I wasn't – due to my sixth place ranking in that final round, I didn't have the final jump, I wouldn't be granted the final jump. So, I knew that having that last one, "Alright put it out and put one out there and everything will be good."

But there was still challenges with the crowd. I asked, I relayed the message through Wesley, "Hey, can you ask the officials to, you know, relay the message to the loud speaker that hey, can we get some silence down here." But, apparently I guess they didn't feel as though they could do that. I don't know, who knows. But yeah, the sixth jump wasn't as good as the fifth one. So, now I was holding on and just hoping that no one would pass me up. And it just so happened that the Brazilian athlete, he had the final jump. And, of course with him being at home, they're going to show him that courtesy and I'll remember it to this day, right now I remember how quiet the stadium was. You could hear a pin drop in that place. He was able to capitalize on that and he ended up by passing me for the gold.

So, that was a tough experience. I know that as an athlete, if I'm not strong enough, then I can get stronger. I know I need to get stronger. If I'm not running as fast, I can change my technique and run faster. When those types of things occur, you know that, "OK, well, I wasn't able to get the win in this competition because I didn't do this, or I didn't do that." And I would much rather prefer to be in a position where the blame is on me. Like, put it on my shoulders, I could have did this better. That was one of the few times where I didn't feel like I had control of the situation. I felt outside factors truly dictated how that competition – how it transpired. I was distraught. After the competition is over you go through the mixed zone and you're doing interviews and things like that. And at one point the tears just started coming down because I just felt like I couldn't do anything. It wasn't in

my hands.

And that one hurt, but the awesome thing is I love the competition healthy, and I knew that past that competition I wasn't going to be done athletically. So, we went to world championships in 2017 and I was able to win that competition. We have world championships this year and I'll plan to win gold in Dubai in November, and go to Tokyo in 2020 and get the gold I've been wanting for a very long time.

Abrahamson: You had a centimeter lead going into the sixth round, 6.44 to .43, as I know you know. Going back to the great telling of the story. Going back to Athens, did you have – and if we were putting in basketball terms, your dog, is intense. It's incredible and I mean that in the most complimentary, constructive terms. I'd love to see you shooting threes with Jerry Stackhouse. Stackhouse is blindfolded. I know where my money would be. You had just, you're two weeks into a coach and you go 6.24. That's a silver medal and let's put this into some perspective. Fifteen months before that you had been in high school. How did that feel young man?

Gillette: It was crazy. It was absolutely crazy because you go from high school competitions – being out there, you know how it is in high school. You may have a few people out there watching. People hanging out on the fence and things like that. But, you go from that environment to this huge stadium with thousands and thousands of people in there. They're screaming, and some people are cheering for you, and some people are cheering against you and it's a totally different energy and in a lot of way it was exciting. It was frightening and at the same time it was going back to the fear and love analogy. It was fear and love wrapped up in one. And it was my first opportunity, it was my first Paralympic Games. It was my first time flying across the ocean, first time being in this athlete's village with athletes from around the world, being inside of this stadium competing against people from all over the world. It was amazing.

I think what made it even more amazing was that Coach Whitmer was in the stands, his wife was in the stands, my mom and my grandmother. They were all there and they were watching. So, for Coach Whitmer, for him to come to that competition and see what he had started, to see that foundation that he had helped me establish, seeing the product of that, that was huge. That meant a lot and then you get into the competition.

I didn't even mention prior to us really getting going, I had ran into Jerome while we were doing our practice run-throughs on the track. He didn't move out of the way fast enough, so I accidentally hit him where the sun don't shine, and I ran into the pit. Remember I twisted my ankle and I fell. And so now I'm thinking to myself like, "Oh sheesh, I hope I'm good." I had a sharp pain in my ankle, but I remember Jerome coming up and after he had gotten himself together he was like, "Alright man, you know we made it here. We made it to this point. I know you got it in you. Just let me know what's going on. How can I help? What can I do?" He was able to get me to my feet and I ended up – I was able to shake that off. I think, I went

and saw the athletic trainer and they gave me a little treatment and just made sure I was OK. We returned to the track and it was my second jump. That was the one that got me to 6.24 meters.

That was a crazy feeling knowing that I would be able to step on that podium at that competition. My first time, having my family there, having that medal placed around my neck, being handed the flowers, and having the wreath put around my head. That was crazy, that was a very emotional time, it was very invigorating at the same time, but again it also allowed my family – and that includes Coach Whitmer and his wife –it allowed them the opportunity to see and experience this product. Something that they helped engineer.

Abrahamson: Were there tears?

Gillette: Coming out of my eyes?

Abrahamson: Anyone's but especially yours.

Gillette: I didn't see anybody crying. I don't think any tears came from my eyes. Definitely chills and feelings of joy and excitement and achievement

Abrahamson: You're funny Lex. Because just a few years earlier, Coach Whitmer had said, "You can go to the Paralympics and you can win medals," and here you had done just that.

Gillette: That's crazy, I mean he painted that illustration and to live that out. That was pretty amazing.

Abrahamson: Lex, you know when, for people who have sight, it's now a very common thing, let's say we're playing NFL football or playing college football or basketball or whatever. We'd play the game and then we'd break down film. You can't do that. How do you get better in a way that a sighted person might rely on film breakdowns over and over and again and again? When you listen to an NFL game, "Well you see here, blah blah blah." OK, that tool's not available for you. What do you substitute for that, please?

Gillette: I think a lot of it is it's my coaches that I've had over the years – and they're very verbal, they're very descriptive and the fact that I was able to see up until I was 8 years old, that helps out a lot because now they're able to pull from things that I was able to see. And they're able to use that in a way that helps them explain a certain point. So, for example, they may tell me to, "Well you want to make sure that your body is about a 45 degree angle. And then I want you to lift your knee like this, or position yourself like, put your hands in the air like you're celebrating and you know just things like that, examples that I can close my eyes and literally see what that looks like. And that's the basis for a lot of it. They find these ways to communicate with me and sometimes if it's something that I literally can't grasp it,

then they'll show me, and they'll get into the position that I need to be in and so now I may have my have my hands on their shoulders and their waist, or knee, or whatnot. So that gives me the opportunity to feel what exactly I need to do and then I can make that adjustment so that when we get on the long jump runway or on the track, then I can begin to implement those things. But it's really a lot of their communication and its's a lot of patience.

Abrahamson: When you came back from Athens, did you say to yourself – there's a very famous story in the Olympic and often the Paralympic world: Usually the happiest person at the Olympics or the Paralympics is the person that's taking third place, because that person's on the podium. Usually the person who is the unhappiest is the person who has taking second place. The person who is obviously the happiest is the gold medalist. And you've alluded to that a little bit here by telling the story of what happened in Rio. Look, my man, if I won four silver medals, I would be over the moon with happiness, like you. I'd be like – I'd be untouchable. You are untouchable my friend. You're awesome. I know you want that gold medal at the Olympic Games – the Paralympic Games, excuse me. I know you do. I get it. So when you came back from Athens, I'm sure there was a 2008 training for 365 x 4,whatever the math is, I'm sure there was a plan in place, "Alright, Li Duan, you're mine," even though you knew who was going to be jumping in front of a home crowd in Beijing. So, how did that plan go? From day one through day 1,500, or whatever it was.

Gillette: Yeah it was still hard because –

Abrahamson: And by the way you're going to college full time?

Gillette: Yeah I was in college and that's where my energy was. I was focused on getting through school. There was an opportunity that was presented to me to move to the Olympic training center in 2005 because they were starting the residency program, but I think internally it was a promise that I made to myself and that I made to my mom that I was going to finish school. For me, sports weren't the – that wasn't the thing that was at the top of the rung of the ladder in our household. It was the academics and making sure that I could get through school. My mom was very big on me learning as much as possible.

She would always tell me that, "You know what I'm not going to be around all the time. I need you to learn, I need you to be independent, because you're going to need to go out there and survive on your own one day." I needed to get through school. I did my usual –I would run a mile three days a week, I would jump rope here and there, I would lift weights and that's what helped me get through competitive sports and Paralympic sports from 2004 to 2008. I went to the European Championships in 2005, World Championships 2006, Para Pan- American games in 2007. Fortunately, I was able to make those teams off of the little bit of working out that I was doing. In the beginning of 2008, I went and moved to the Olympic Training Center. I graduated from college, so I had my

degree.

Abrahamson: What's your degree in?

Gillette: It's in sports management.

Abrahamson: Your mother's name is what?

Gillette: Verdina. Specifically, my degree focuses on the management of recreation facilities and services.

Abrahamson: What's more important? Four medals or the degree?

Gillette: Oh my gosh. Why did you ask me that? I'm going to say the degree.

Abrahamson: I would've bet your answer would be the degree.

Gillette: As much as I love all of my athletic accolades and achievements, the degree, that's what is going to really help me past the sandpit. It's actually helped me within the sandpit too. They all kind of mesh together, so I am just going to say that they're all important.

January 2008, I am at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, I dove in head first. I am out training Monday through Saturday, lifting weights and running. I have actual programs, specific detail-oriented programs with goals and benchmarks that I have to achieve. Track and field was now my life. I was thinking about going to Beijing. I wanted to win gold. One of my friends, Chuck, he's on the rugby team, I heard him speak about the analogy of studying for a test. You study, study and study. You want to win. You want to get an 'A.' That was the same thing for me. You put in so much time, so much effort and sweat into being the best, that when it's time for the test, it's time for the Paralympic Games. You want to ace it. Fortunately, I was dealing with some minor injuries in 2008, but I was able to get through the trials.

I made the team. So now we are getting ready for Beijing. It was a really good competition, one of the few competitions that I looked at myself at the last opportunity, the last jump and I messed up. I made a mistake. Typically, I jump off of 16 strides, but I was so wired, super excited, because I knew I that I could take this guy out. Li Duan was in first place and I think he had already jumped 6.61 meters or 6.60 meters, one of the two. He had put a decent jump out there. I had one at 6.46 meters, but I was juiced. I was ready to go, out of this world, I could feel it. I got on the track, took off running and for some reason I pulled the trigger early and jumped off my fourteenth step. As soon as I left the ground, I was like, "Oh no, I messed up, I made a huge mistake." I still landed in the pit, but obviously since I jumped so far behind the board, I gave up a lot of distance. To this day, I feel like had I jumped from that mark, it would've been something extraordinary,

but we will never know. It was a phenomenal competition. At the end of it, I put it all out there, with the exception of making that small blunder, or big blunder if you want to call it that.

But, it's all a part of the journey. I embrace it, I love it, it goes to show that you get to that level, you get to that stage, you got to be on point. You have to be ready, but it does happen, people make mistakes. In 2020, I want to get the gold.

Abrahamson: I teach journalism at the University of Southern California. I teach the kids, I try and make them better writers, but what I really to try teach them are three basic things. Number one is relationships in life are the number one thing. Number two I try to teach them to be a master of the obvious. Number three I teach them that we are going to make mistakes. You need to own your mistakes, forgive yourself and move on. When it comes to number three, in the case of this jump in Beijing, have you forgiven yourself?

Gillette: Oh, for sure. At the end of the day it happened. I wish that it didn't happen, but it's taught me and I have learned from that. It's made me a better athlete, better person.

Abrahamson: What did it teach you, Lex?

Gillette: It taught me that in those pressure moments, really bunker down. Really relax, focus and execute. I think that's what it all boils down to. That's something that I trained for Monday through Saturday, and I just didn't execute as well I should have. Those are the consequences that follow when things like that happen, that you don't execute the best you know how or can. Also, at the end of the day, it taught me that it's OK to mess up. It's OK to fail. Gold was on the line and that's what I wanted, but I am still here, I am still training, I'm alive. Life is going absolutely phenomenal and it's fine. It's a mistake. There's another opportunity, there's another door to walk through and I am ready to walk through that and see what lies ahead.

Abrahamson: That is awesome. Let me explain why I wanted to ask that question, the theme of these interviews, in particular the theme of this interview, has been the normalizing of this experience. I found that often times, if someone is blind or gets through life in a wheelchair, there is a tremulousness in asking questions where you might be afraid to say, "Dude, you messed up. You have a disability. Oops, you screwed up at a pressure moment. The whole point of this is to be normal. In the NBA, the NFL or Major League Baseball, that's what we do for a living. We're like, 'Hey man, ninth-inning, World Series, it was a high fastball and you missed.'" That's what we do, we ask these questions, right? My friend Mr. Gillette, you train Monday through Saturday. You had the gold medal right there for your taking, you took off from the fourteenth step instead of the 16th. What did you learn from the experience? I asked you the question and you gave me an awesome, honest answer. I salute you for the answer. Now, we've got Tokyo coming up, right?

That's why I asked the question. It is normal to ask a championship athlete, Olympic, Paralympic, that question.

Gillette: I agree with that. The other thing too is, I talk to a lot of kids and I think it's very important to teach them at an early age that it is OK to mess up, it's OK to fail. I think even as you get older, it's something that you have to continue to harp on that. It's 2019 and we live in this day and age where people want to be perfect, altering certain things. Visually, I guess people may change the way they look cause they want to be perfect. They don't want to be viewed as someone who has a deficiency, or feel less than, or they don't want to fail and mess up. Failing at the end of the day, that's how you learn. That's when you figure out what's next. Your decision to say, "Hey, this is OK," that's huge in being able to not only forgive yourself, but move forward, step forward.

Abrahamson: Which is how you got to London. Let's talk about London, because London was a watershed for the Paralympic movement. Did you feel it in the stadium?

Gillette: The energy was amazing. One of my favorite stories in London was when I was competing in triple jump. I was trying to get myself pumped up, I'm standing there on the runway and I started clapping my hands. Getting myself ready, "Let's go Lex." The entire stadium started clapping their hands in a similar rhythm as me. At that point in time, there was so much energy in that place, it was absolutely insane. I remember turning my head and I gave like a, "Alright, I need it to be quiet," and everyone went ssshhhh and went to sleep. I was ready to jump. That was arguably just as cool as me getting on the podium in London. That was really amazing, and just that unity, that sense of togetherness and that connection. In that one moment, that story it spoke of all of those things. That spoke volumes. That was love written all over the place.

Abrahamson: There's widespread agreement that Los Angeles was sort of a starting place – if not the starting place – a huge moment for the Paralympic movement and London was a next big transition point, next big inflection point, if you will. That story is so emblematic because you were the maestro conducting the orchestra. Didn't matter whether you were a Paralympic athlete, or Olympic athlete, you were just an athlete. Just like Willie Banks back in the day. You had the crowd, you amped them up and were like, "It's my turn, I need to go." Normal, right? Totally, totally normal. Did you feel chills in your body when you did this?

Gillette: Definitely. To seemingly have that type of power, that was insane. It was crazy. To also know that they understood. They knew exactly what was going on, they were aware. We all were at this one point in time, we all were on the same page. That was huge.

Abrahamson: Super huge, and you know? You're American, you're black, and you're a Paralympic athlete, none of that mattered. All of them together, 70,000 people at that instant, right. That's the power of sport.

I want to ask you about the ability to make a living as a Paralympic athlete, also. I started this two hours ago by asking you what we wanted for Los Angeles in 2028. Now, we've had two hours together. Los Angeles 2028 – leapfrogging from London in 2012 through Tokyo in 2020 and maybe that gold medal. Do you see yourself competing in 2028? Whether yes or no, what's your hope and goal for the Paralympic movement and your place in it in 2028?

Gillette: 2028, I'm not totally sure. I haven't ruled out me competing there. 2020 I'll be 35.

Abrahamson: Young man, Tom Brady just won a Super Bowl at 41.

Gillette: Tom is protected though. He has like five huge 300-pound offensive lineman that keep him upright. He's able to do what he needs to do. That's not to count myself out. It's totally possible. I also think about how long I have been doing this. I have been doing it since I was 15 or 16 years old and I still love it. I also have a lot of other things that I want to do in life and track and field requires so much time, so much dedication. The difference between Tom Brady and I is that he has the money to do what he loves and you know he's able to support his family. He has that luxury whereas the Paralympic athlete and a lot of Olympic athletes, we don't have that same luxury. I'm not sure, we'll see; but what I will say is that I will be there in some capacity, whether that is as an athlete or in some sort of support role or support situation, I'll definitely be in the building some way or somehow.

To go back to the question on what I would like to see for LA 2028, I stand by that same answer. I want people's eyes to be open and I want them to see more clearly what the Paralympics are, what the Paralympic athlete is, who the Paralympic athlete is and at the end of the day, I want LA to be covered in this love that we've been talking about. The unwavering desire to just be connected, to understand each other, to cheer on each other, to lift each other up when knowing that we may have our moments of defeat, to just love each other and push each other to be the absolute best we can, whether in sport or life. To truly understand the Paralympic athlete at the core. We are human beings first and foremost, we just happen to be experts in a certain sport, in a certain area. We are humans and as humans we have a lot of similarities. We're able to connect and vibe with each other. Whether we have a disability or not, that never changes.

Abrahamson: What does Lex Gillette want to do with the rest of his life? Is it motivational speaking? To go back to the bushes, the vision thing.

Gillette: I love to speak. I love to go out there and impact people's lives in a positive way. My slogan is: No need for sight when you have a vision. It was something that initially I felt like it only related to those who are blind and visually impaired, but in actuality, it's not sight that determines whether we are successful or not. I's the vision to be able to see past the horizon, being able to see things before they're in existence.

I know that when I had lost my sight, that was a challenge for me. I felt disconnected from the rest of the world. We live in a visual world. You use your eyes for a lot of things. That could be reading books, or driving. If you're in a crowded room with individuals, you may see one of your close friends across the room and you're able to connect with them on a visual basis, you're able to see their eyes and see their expression. You two can speak to each other and not say anything verbally. For me, I can't do any of those things anymore and it was really tough.

What I realized is that everything that has ever been created and everything that will be created, it always starts from a vision. You see it within your mind, you feel it within your being. It starts from inside, so it's all about you seeing that and being able to put together a plan to be able to turn that vision into reality.

Lastly, I would say that a true vision is never solely for one individual person. It's always for a multitude of people. With that being said, there are certain areas where I'm strong. There's certain areas I'm not as strong. Alan, you are strong in certain areas and your strong points may be things that can help compensate where I lack. Next thing you know, you get more people. We are able to put all of our ideas together and you get this machine. We are able achieve that much more. For me, as a track and field athlete, yeah, I have this vision of winning gold, I have this vision of being the best athlete I could possibly be, but I know that I needed god, I need a coach. I need a nutritionist, a psychologist. I need all of these working pieces so I can get to the top of the podium. So, I think for LA 2028 that vision should be at the core stamped with love.

Abrahamson: I think that's a wrap my friend. Awesome. Thank you.