Lex Gillette Video Interview, U.S. Paralympic Long Jumper

Elexis “Lex” Gillette headed to the 2012 Paralympic Games with one goal in mind: earning a gold medal. Gillette is a two-time silver medalist in the event — in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 — so he knew that a gold medal in London would cement what has been an already outstanding career into a truly great one.

Born in Kinston, N.C. and raised in Raleigh, Gillette couldn’t stop jumping as a child. Against his mother’s wishes, he would jump on his sofa and around the living room. When he was just seven years old, Gillette mysteriously suffered detached retinas. He underwent ten surgeries, which were ultimately unsuccessful, and by the time he entered Athens Drive High School he was completely blind. But that didn’t stop him from jumping. With the encouragement of a teacher, Gillette tried his hand at long jump. His coach would give him audible commands as he approached the board, telling him which direction he needed to go and when he needed to jump. The method and practice worked. The year Gillette graduated from high school he found himself in Athens at the 2004 Paralympic Games, where he went on to claim his first of two silver medals.

Gillette has had an impressive competitive career, and he is perhaps best known for his accomplishment at the Desert Challenge Games in May of 2011, when he set the long jump record for fully blind athletes, jumping 22 feet and 1 inch. He is also the fastest recorded athlete over 100 meters. Gillette adheres to the motto, “No need for sight when you have a vision” — a message that carries great significance for the man when he is performing at the highest level.

“My thing that I love about long jump is that I’m able to feel free and open and I don’t have any restraints,” Gillette told Uinterview exclusively. “I don’t have anybody telling me that I can’t do anything. And so to be able to initiate the run and then the jump just gives me a sense of fulfillment, a sense of worth, and it’s something that I’ve been practicing for a while and so it means a lot to me and it’s honestly something that Lex Gillette can say ‘I’ve done this.’ ”

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