Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Grace Norman exclusive - from 'champion goat shower’ to Paralympic champion

Three-time Paralympic medallist Grace Norman has been shattering glass ceilings since she was a child, and not just in the world of sport.

Before she became the two-time world record holder and Paralympic champion that we know today, Norman, in her words, was a “champion goat shower.”

Speaking exclusively to Olympics.com in the lead up to Paris 2024, the American star dove into her philosophy for success and how the fact that she “trained pigs, cows, goats and chickens” throughout her childhood might have had something to do with everything that she has become.

That, plus the grit and steadfast spirit that it took to compete against able-bodied athletes for much of her high school and collegiate career, seemed to be somewhat of a perfect recipe for success.

The 26-year-old first made headlines in 2015 when she became the first female amputee to finish on the podium at a high school track and field state championship and has since amassed an incredible total of 14 world and Paralympic medals.

Nine years after that historic podium, the reigning paratriathlon PTS5 world champion is preparing to take the Paralympic stage for the third time and she is hungry for another crown in Paris.

Grace Norman: “Stronger than I ever thought I could be”

For much of her athletic career, Norman has been competing against able-bodied athletes.

From her success as a high school runner, where she was named U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School Female Athlete of the Year, to a Division II running career that saw All-American honors and collegiate podiums, Norman put down fierce competition no matter the opponent.

When she made her elite paratriathlon debut in 2014, it was only right that it was done against the best in the world at the ITU World Triathlon Para Championships.

There, she missed the podium by just two spots, but the fifth place finish for the then 16-year-old marked the beginning of what would become an incredible athletic career.

In 2015, just one year after her debut, she clinched a silver (PT4) and bronze (400m T44) medal on the world stage and by the end of 2016, she was a world and Paralympic champion.

Her philosophy: “don’t let one ‘no’ make you not follow your dreams".

“It can be really difficult,” she said, explaining the challenges that many para-athletes face. But, “that doesn’t mean it’s a no. It just means that you’re going to have to work a little bit harder than the rest.

“For me, growing up competing against able-bodied athletes could have been a ‘no,’” she said.

“Instead, I took it as a challenge and it’s made me stronger than I ever thought I could be.”

As Norman steps up to her third Paralympic Games, she is a heavy contender to reinstate her title as Paralympic champion after being denied a second gold medal by just 0.81 seconds to take the silver at Tokyo 2020.

Based on the results that she has been posting since those Games, including five of her 11 total World Championship medals, her momentum is only building.

One thing Norman can’t wait for in Paris, she said, is the return of the crowds after the Games in 2021 were quieter than they have been in the past.

“It’s electric and you just feel it,” she said about having an audience.

“For me, when I'm having a good race, it just feeds me. It feeds the energy. I love hearing yelling, cheering. I love seeing my family. It gets me excited and helps me relax. And when I'm relaxed and smiling, I'm having a good race. It's almost like free energy.”

So if the excitement levels at the Olympic Games were any indication of what is to come this week, Norman will have no shortage of that ‘free energy’ that feeds her performance.

Norman’s 'pig-tastrophy'

Many of the best athletes in the world spend their entire lives, including their childhoods, focusing almost solely on their sport and every aspect that goes into what it takes to become great.

That was no exception for Norman, but on top of the work that she was putting in on the track, bike and in the pool, she led somewhat of a double-life.

“My family [were] prideful goat showers,” she explained to Olympics.com, talking about her upbringing on a 23 acre farm in rural Ohio. “[We] took home many championships,” she said.

The craft, that might be considered unconventional by many people in the world of sport, went far beyond a hobby for Norman, as the 12 years that she spent training an array of farm animals for competitive shows largely shaped her adolescence.

“It was a big part of my routine as a kid,” she said. “We would wake up before school to feed the animals. After school you have to feed them and take them for walks or practice with them.

“Pigs are especially difficult,” she said, beginning to smile as she told the story of one of her most memorable, though not necessarily positive, moments.

“You work so hard with these animals,” she continued. “Then in the show ring, they can do whatever.”

One time, “my pig decided to not stay with me and sprint at the judge,” she said, explaining how it was a near-worst-case-scenario because “if the pig touches the judge, you get disqualified.

“I think the judge dodged the pig as it was sprinting throughout the arena. I was just standing there like... that one’s mine.

Laughing, she said “since then, I have no longer showed pigs”.

It sounds like the experience was worth the story, though, as she preferred to show goats anyways, and “the pigs [were] more of a side gig.”

Just six months after aging out of that competitive circuit when she turned 18, Norman clinched the para-triathlon PT4 crown at the event’s Paralympic debut at Rio 2016, becoming the first ever woman to take gold in the race.

Grace Norman will compete in the women's PTS5 Para Triathlon at Paris 2024 on 1 September and you can follow the race on Olympics.com.