Lex Gillette and his mother.Photo: Lex Gillette Instagram
The results were “amazing” for the 36-year-old athlete and something his mother, who is also blind, has been instrumental in helping him accomplish.
“My mom, she’s incredible,” Gillette tells PEOPLE of Verdina Gillette-Simms after scoring silver. “Long before the sports, it was my mom helping me through the sight-loss process, me seeing the world and then losing my sight and it was her strength that I was able to leverage, to really help just shift my mindset. She told me that, ‘Your experience is different now, you’re blind but I’m going to expose you to as many resources and programs and tools and technology as possible and I want you to be independent. I want you to be able to survive on your own. I want you to be self-sufficient and not be confined to what other people’s expectations are, their opinions of you. I want you to know what you can do, and I want you to decide what it is or who it is that you want to become and you make that decision, no one else does.’ "
Gillette was diagnosed with detached retinas in both eyes at age eight and, after multiple surgeries, lost his vision entirely. His mother lost her eyesight at 18 due to glaucoma.
He continues, “It was her literally not only inspiring me and motivating me, but it was her literally showing me how to achieve certain tasks. It was definitely a lot of inspiring talk, but it wasn’t just talk, there was the walk too.”
Lex Gillette.YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images
“My mom, she found adaptive sports and recreation options, programs that I could participate in and all of the things that, even if there was some something that she didn’t know, she had to network to reach out and ask, ‘Hey, I want my son to be a part of this, I want him to experience this. Who can I talk to?’ " the long jumper shares of his mother’s contribution to his livelihood and career. “It was literally her foundation that helped me to catapult to where I am today.”
Gillette also tells PEOPLE about his gratitude to his athletic guide Wesley Williams for his “hard work and dedication.”
“This man can literally be doing anything in the world, but he made the decision to travel the world with me and help me train and help me to compete,” the Paralympian says. “And we need more people like that; people who will put their own endeavors to the side to see that someone else succeeds in life. I think that’s beautiful.”
Gillette and Williams' professional relationship is much more complex than the guide clapping while he soars into the sandpit, he says.
“The biggest misconception I would say is people look at Wesley and I’s relationship and just, as it relates to him, they only think that he stands there and claps,” the Paralympian tells PEOPLE. “Obviously when you really look at it and break it down there’s so much more that’s going on, but I don’t think people understand that he runs with me throughout the week also. Me having the speed that I have on the runway is because of him running with me on the track on a day-to-day basis, everything that I’m able to do is because of his hard work and dedication.”
Moving forward, Gillette and Williams are training for gold in the long jump at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France.
Earning a silver medal this year was also emotional in an unexpected way for the long jumper because, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, officials had Williams place the medal around his own neck.
“That was a very special moment for Wesley and I to share,” Gillette tells PEOPLE.
Lex Gillette and his guide.Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges for the athlete and Williams, who had to halt training for a considerable amount of time.
“I think I’ve just gotten better at executing and following through, especially on the things that I want to achieve in life. You can’t just talk about it, you got to follow through, you got to execute,” he reflects.
For Gillette, athletics has always been something he pushed himself to excel in because “sport doesn’t care about our disability.”
“There’s biases, there’s criticism, there’s opinions, there’s so many different outlooks that the world has of us,” he tells PEOPLE of disabled athletes. “Sport doesn’t care what I look like. It’s there for me to go, to enjoy it, to be the absolute best that I can be regardless of the circumstances.”
Long jump, in particular, helps Gillette feel like he is rising above “naysayers and people who are always trying to hold us down.”
“I’ll soar through the air. That’s me defying gravity. You’re not going to hold me down and you’re not going to keep me locked,” he says. “I’m going to find a way to soar new heights.”
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source: people.com
