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MArko Cheseto will line up for Monday’s Boston Marathon with justified confidence: he has the fastest time known for a double-leg amputee: 2 hours 37 minutes and 23 seconds. In other words, Cheseto is able to cover six-minute miles for just over 26 miles.
The journey he took to get to this stage took him across two continents and through immense physical and emotional suffering.
Cheseto’s athletic career began as a child in Kenya, when he still had his two feet. He was inspired by Tegla Loroupe, the first African woman to hold the world marathon record and win the New York City Marathon, who was also his aunt.
Cheseto was then recruited to run at the University of Alaska, where he ran the 5k and 10k. He also convinced his trainer to recruit his cousin and close friend, William Ritekwiang. But in 2011, Ritekwiang committed suicide, and Cheseto blamed himself for not being able to help him.
One night in grief, Cheseto took antidepressants, went for a run in the woods, and passed out. He had overdosed. He woke up in the snow three days later, unable to feel his legs. Her feet froze and developed gangrene, and her legs had to be amputated below the knee.
His world had changed. He was fitted with walking prostheses. At first, Cheseto didn’t think running would be his future. He had never seen anyone wear prostheses and he had never heard of the Paralympic Games.
But he started running again in 2012 on his walking prostheses. Although they weren’t made for running, it felt good, he says. He decided not to let the trauma of losing his cousin and his feet get the better of him. “I was trying to find a purpose in life, something that I could be proud of,” he says. “And running was that.”
In 2013, he received his first running prostheses from the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). Racing blades can cost $ 15,000 each, and they need to be highly specialized for each person.
Cheseto decided to try and qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in the sprint events, but it didn’t work out, so he changed course for the marathon. His first was the 2018 New York Marathon, and his second was the 2019 Boston Marathon.
However, running is not just a sport for Cheseto. CAF and prosthetic manufacturer Össur run running clinics all over the country, and Cheseto has volunteered there over the years, helping amputees learn to run.
“In the beginning, running was for me. I wanted to do this for my own sanity, ”Cheseto says. But he soon realized that other people were linked to what he had been through. “The only difference between me and so many people I’ve talked to and shared their pain with is that mine is physical pain. I’m not saying I don’t have internal struggles and pains like everyone else … but my physical injuries have made people feel comfortable sharing their pain.
Bob Babbitt, co-founder of CAF, is a fervent admirer of Cheseto. “When someone has a trauma, someone is lying in a hospital bed and they turn on the television and see Marko running, it gives people hope,” he says. “Not all double amputees are going to run a 2:37 marathon, but knowing the opportunity is there is huge.”
Cheseto also works with amputees in his work as a technician at Prosthetic & Orthotic Associates, a company that equips patients with prosthetics and which he joined after receiving his own prosthetic care there for years. “This ability to help someone else walk or run was so gratifying,” he says.
But Cheseto knows there are still challenges for athletes like him. One example came in February 2020, when he was competing in the Disney Princess Half Marathon, which he hoped to win. The race has separate categories for athletes with disabilities and those without. Cheseto said before the race, race director Jon Hughes told him that if he finished first in the overall standings, he would not be recognized as the overall winner.
For his part, Hughes said he was “delighted” to have Cheseto in the race, but there were concerns that his prosthetics would give him an unfair advantage. Hughes says he contacted USA Track & Field for advice, “and in the end, we couldn’t get anything definitive.” In the end, Cheseto finished fourth overall despite the detachment of one of his prostheses during the race.
Cheseto is adamant that the victory would have been deserved. “There’s nothing good about losing my footing, and I’m talking about valid athletic experience for over 20 years.”
Stan Patterson, owner of Prosthetic & Orthotic Associates (POA), the company Cheseto works for, supports the athlete’s position. “Anyone who says that an amputee has benefits from running a marathon on a part of their anatomy that is not supposed to have load forces applied, and on an unstable platform, really doesn’t understand biomechanics and prosthetics. “says Patterson.
On big marathons, where the presence of the best runners in the world means that overall victory is out of reach, the problem is different. Cheseto has never run in a marathon which recognizes him as the fastest in his ranking. At the 2019 Chicago Marathon, when Cheseto set a world record, no race official recognized his achievement when he crossed the finish line. That will change in Boston, which has added its very first competitive para-athletics divisions, alongside its existing competitive wheelchair division.
“You can have Paralympic gold medalists or athletes who have been at the Para Athletics World Championships, and yet they come to a major marathon, and they are just thrown into a more participatory or adaptive program” and not recognized like the world – the class athletes they are, said Marla Runyan, an Olympian and Paralympian, and formerly the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) Para-Athlete Manager.
The new divisions of para-athletics are Visual Impairment, Upper Limb Impairment, and Lower Limb Impairment, and each includes various classifications. Cheseto’s classification is T62, for amputees of both legs and below the knee.
“Marko is a fantastic athlete,” said Chris Lotsbom, BAA communications director. “It is truly an honor to have the world’s fastest T62 athlete competing in Boston and to support the para-athletics divisions.”
These divisions create space for para-athletes to be recognized for their achievements with awards and cash prizes. They also create a physical space: ambulatory para-runners will have a separate start time, no longer mixed with the main crowd. Cheseto runs on prosthetic blades curved across his back, which means he can’t stand still on them without rolling back. He has to keep going back and forth which can be a problem in a crowded starting area.
The Paralympic Games do not include a marathon for ambulatory lower limb amputees. So, for Cheseto and other amputees like him, this Boston Marathon is the most publicized competition there is. Cheseto said he hopes amputees running in Boston will open the door to a Paralympic marathon. “There are a lot that would come out if there was this event,” he says.
The future looks secure for Cheseto. In addition to his work with prosthetics, he is sponsored by Össur and Nike. He says their help and the continued support he receives from POA and his wife, Amanda, and the rest of his family has helped him reach this point.
By sharing his story, Cheseto has become an advocate for mental health. “I struggle every day because of what I’ve been through and losing my feet. But then, at the same time, I ask myself: how did I get this far, always having a positive attitude towards life? – most of the time, anyway, ”he says. The answer was to be able to “switch from your old self to your new self,” which a lot of people have a hard time doing, he says.
Cheseto decided he could spotlight other people who went through challenges, so he interviewed people and shared their stories through his YouTube channel. “I felt like I needed more angles to tell the same story: you know what? Falling is good. But the most important part is the number of times you stand up, ”he says.
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