Jayson Smyth – Never give up. There’s always a reason…

Jayson won two golds for Ireland at the 2008 Summer Paralympics setting records at the Men’s 100 metres T13 and the Men’s 200 metres T13, which led some Irish news sources to compare his feat to that of Usain Bolt, who achieved a similar feat at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Jayson made history as the first Paralympian to compete at an open European championships, qualifying for the semi-finals of the 100 metres. Smyth ran 10.43 seconds, finishing 4th in his heat. He just missed out on the final by finishing 4th in semi-finals in a time of 10.47 seconds.

He won a bronze medal with the Irish relay team in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2011 European Team Championships.

Smyth hoped to compete in both the Paralympics and the Olympics in 2012. Although he ran 10.22 for the 100m in May 2011, this was 0.04s short of the A time needed to secure a place in the Olympic games.

At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Smyth won Heat 1 of the 100m final breaking the World Record in a time of 10.54 seconds before breaking the record again in the final where he defended his Paralympic title in a time of 10.46 seconds. This final was also marked as the fastest Paralympic 100 metres in history. Smyth equalled his Beijing achievement by winning gold in the Men’s T13 200m with a world record time of 21.05 seconds.

At the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Smyth won Gold in the 100m Final. The Irishman clocked 10.64 seconds as he finished 0.14 ahead of Namibia’s Johannes Nambala.

Jayson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Never give up. There’s always a reason why we face the challenges we do.