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EAGLE MOUNTAIN — More than 16 years ago, David Blair made a decision that dramatically impacted his life.
After setting six records at Weber State in the hammer throw, discus and indoor weight toss, Blair, who was born with a clubfoot but competing against able-bodied athletes, would’ve broken several world records at the time had he submitted his throws for recognition.
Then, in 1999, he graduated and went to work as an SQL programmer. His athletic career was over — until years later when suddenly it wasn’t.
Blair picked up the discus again in 2015 and made Team USA’s 2016 Paralympic squad bound for Rio de Janeiro. The 2015 world runner-up went to Brazil and came home a winner, earning a gold medal in the F44 discus with a world-record throw of 64.11 meters.
“Most (college football players) have a goal that they are going to be drafted into the NFL,” Blair said after showing off his medal to students at Eagle Mountain’s Ranches Academy. “Whatever sport you compete in, as soon as you get to the university and you get a scholarship, that gives you a boost to go higher, go pro.
“But every spring, the snow would melt and I would want to go throw again.”
To stay in shape, Blair would play basketball every week with several friends from the neighborhood at a nearby church. It was there he met Noah, an elementary school student at Ranches Academy who changed his life.
Noah was born with one leg significantly shorter than the other, causing him to walk with a limp and run under extreme physical duress. When he saw Blair running up and down the basketball court with relative ease, the grade-schooler became excited.
He told Blair “it was really neat” to be able to watch a grown man similar to him participate in organized athletics.
“When I saw how excited he was, that was my last straw,” Blair said. “I thought I could do that for a lot of kids, and I went and did it. That’s what started it up.”
Blair still works full-time in the software development field, but he also practices four hours a day to remain one of the best Paralympic discus throwers in the world. His winning mark in Rio bested his own world record. That he accomplished such a feat at 40 years old, more than a decade after competing collegiately, is nothing short of remarkable.
“He was a great worker,” said Weber State track coach Dan Walker, who was one of Blair’s assistant coaches with the Wildcats. “I always had to buy him two pairs of shoes for training and throwing, since his feet were a full four sizes different. He would just throw away the two shoes that didn’t fit. That was hard to do with our small budget, but it was something that needed to be done.”
When Blair returned to his home in Eagle Mountain, he received a hero’s welcome. After spending all morning visiting nearly every elementary and middle school on the west side of Utah Lake in a fire truck, he stopped at the school that educated his four daughters along with his family — all of whom donned blue Team David Blair shirts with his silhouette on the front.
“Today was fun,” he said after the blitz. “The community got together and called my wife to let me know they would like to take me around the city and show people a Paralympian.”
The scene hearkened back to a similar celebration of skeleton rider Noelle Pikus-Pace, the Eagle Mountain resident who won silver in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, before retiring for the second time.
In addition to the parade and several media opportunities, Blair was awarded a ceremonial key to the city by Eagle Mountain mayor Chris Pengra.
Blair’s whirlwind post-Olympic tour continues, too. He’s off to Washington, D.C., for a visit to the White House with Team USA. Then, he’ll return to Utah and Davis High where he and fellow alum and Olympic marathon runner Jared Ward will be honored at halftime of the Darts’ football game Oct. 6 against Highland.
Then, it's back to training. Blair will compete in the 2017 world championships in London, and he already has designs on defending his Paralympic gold at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
The media spotlight and community tour will likely fade until then. But Blair hopes his message to the children of Eagle Mountain continues to shine as bright as his gold medal.
“There is not a person on Earth that doesn’t have some form of problem or disability that might hold them back,” Blair said. “Some of them are more visible than others, like mine. But we are all fighting something as we go through life, and the point is to stick to it, trust in yourself, and move forward. Don’t let it hold you down.
“Don’t worry about what other people might think about you.”
