With his hair colored in a design reminiscent of the eyes in a Picasso painting, Team USA athletics captain Roderick Townsend was ready to go for a three-peat at the Paralympics.
“I’m a showman,” Townsend said, explaining the hairstyle he had done at a salon in Paris. “Had they been out there booing me? I’d probably still be jumping.”
Instead of booing, the Stade de France crowd followed Townsend’s every command, sitting quiet or cheering, as he won the T47 high jump finals on Sunday night, notching a 2.12-meter (6 feet, 11.5 inches) jump and collecting his third straight gold medal in the event. The T47 category is for competitors who have either lost part of an arm, or have low to moderate movement problems in one arm.
The 32-year-old Townsend, who has an upper right shoulder impairment after sustaining nerve damage at birth, considers himself the “bad guy,” going on a mission to be the “reason that nobody else gets to win.” He’ll get one more chance at that role Tuesday in the long jump.
To win the high jump, Townsend had to outlast top competitor Nishad Kumar of India, who won silver in Tokyo Paralympics and finished second again in Paris. Kumar nearly reached the 2.12 mark in his three attempts, but clipped the bar each time. He lay in defeat on the high-jump mat for a long moment before Townsend came over to embrace him.
In that moment, Townsend, of Stockton, California, told Kumar that he’s “phenomenal” and he pushes Townsend to do great things because they are both so competitive. Townsend said following the race he has another goal in mind regarding Kumar: “I just want him to have as many silver medals as possible.”
After Townsend out-jumped Kumar, he went for more.
In the Tokyo games, Townsend broke the high jump record with a 2.15-meter jump before topping himself in the 2023 Paris World Championships with a 2.16-meter leap. This time, he was going for 2.17.
The crowd roared and clapped, but Townsend was ultimately unable to reset his record on Sunday, later revealing later he sustained a hernia while at the U.S. trials in July, and is still recovering.
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Avery Hill is a student with John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
