Eight-time Paralympic Track and Field Champion Blake Leeper recounts the day he stopped asking himself 'Why Me?' and started asking 'Why Not Me?'
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00:00 but doctors said I would never walk a day in my life.
00:02 I remember I was playing tee ball
00:03 about five or six years old.
00:05 This tee ball season, I wanted to do one thing,
00:07 one thing only, I wanted to hit a home run.
00:10 And there was two reasons why I really wanted
00:12 to hit the home run.
00:13 The first reason was for my father.
00:15 You know, me and him together would show the world
00:17 that I could do it.
00:19 He would be so proud of me.
00:20 And the second reason was for my teammates.
00:22 You know, if I hit a home run,
00:23 they would accept me and love me.
00:25 And I remember like it was yesterday,
00:27 I walked up to the plate and then on the third swing,
00:29 I hit the ball as hard as I can.
00:31 The ball just starts flying in the air.
00:33 And I get so excited that I forget to run.
00:36 So everybody's saying, "Run, Blake, run."
00:39 I'm on my way to second,
00:40 and I look over on my way to second,
00:41 I see my dad, you know, on third base cheering for me.
00:44 He's so excited.
00:45 This is the moment that I was waiting for.
00:46 He's jumping up and down, talking about,
00:47 "You got this, you got this."
00:48 I look over to my teammates,
00:50 and they're like jumping on the fence,
00:52 yelling for me, saying, "Run, Blake, run."
00:53 And I'm on my way to third base,
00:55 and on my way to third base, my leg falls.
00:58 I eat dirt, right?
01:00 The guy comes over and tags me out.
01:03 The inning's over, and I look over to my dad
01:06 and all the excitement that he had,
01:08 he was, you know, it was gone.
01:10 And I look over to my teammates,
01:12 and, you know, they was jumping and yelling for me.
01:14 You know what I mean?
01:15 They was done doing that.
01:16 I can remember while I'm sitting there in the dirt
01:19 with my leg, you know, one leg on, one leg off.
01:22 I felt like I let my father down.
01:25 I felt like I let my teammates down.
01:28 I was mad at myself.
01:29 You know, I was mad at the world.
01:32 I remember asking myself, "Why me?
01:34 "I don't get this.
01:37 "This doesn't make sense.
01:38 "This isn't fair.
01:39 "Why am I the one born without legs?
01:42 "Why am I the one that has to go through this?
01:44 "Look at my father, my mother, my brother,
01:46 "my teammates, everybody has their legs.
01:47 "This makes, this isn't fair."
01:49 I always remember I was asking the wrong question.
01:51 I was asking something I had no control over.
01:55 You know what I mean?
01:55 Why me?
01:56 So I decided to flip it.
01:58 I decided to take control over it.
02:01 Decided to ask myself, "Well, why not me?
02:03 "I'm meant for this.
02:04 "Well, why not me?
02:04 "I'm strong enough for this.
02:05 "Well, why not me?
02:07 "I'm smart enough for this."
02:08 Everything that we go through is for a reason.
02:10 Whether it's something big or something small,
02:11 that it's preparedness for our next mission.
02:13 So that moment when I fell down and my leg fell off
02:16 and I had that feeling of letting my teammates
02:18 and my father down, that feeling of failure,
02:20 that's the moments that built me.
02:22 That's not how hard you can hit, right?
02:24 Life is not about that.
02:25 Life is about how hard you can get hit
02:27 and keep moving forward.
02:29 I was about 17, 18 years old
02:31 and I got my first pair of running blades.
02:33 Something kind of came over me.
02:35 I was running as hard as I can.
02:37 I could feel the way the wind was hitting my face.
02:40 I've never felt that ever.
02:42 My heart was pumping.
02:43 You know what I mean?
02:44 My blood was flowing.
02:45 In that moment, I knew this is what I want.
02:48 All those doubts and people think I won't be able to
02:52 or no, you can't, that's the field to the fire.
02:54 I will show you how hard I've worked.
02:57 I will show you my capabilities.
03:00 I will show you how I fight through adversity
03:03 to prove them that this is not my disability,
03:07 that this is my ability.
03:08 I was actually in the 2012 Paralympic Games
03:11 where I took a silver and a bronze.
03:13 After I won my first Olympic medal,
03:15 I kind of met the family, like in a part of the stadium.
03:18 I looked over and my grandfather was actually crying.
03:21 And I remember that moment, just it was tears of,
03:23 you know, it wasn't tears of sadness.
03:24 It was tears of joy.
03:25 He was just so excited and so happy for his grandson
03:28 that was born without legs.
03:30 And for me, that was the first time
03:31 I ever seen the crowd before.
03:33 And just that moment right there,
03:35 that's the reason why I wake up each and every day
03:37 and grind and put forth the effort
03:40 to become one of the fastest men in the world,
03:42 legs or no legs.
03:43 So, you know, my story is that anything is possible.
03:46 You can do anything, as long as you set your mind to it
03:49 and as long as you focus hard and you put 120% effort
03:52 in whatever task that is at hand,
03:55 you can overcome any challenge that's thrown your way.
03:57 We all, you know, face certain challenges,
03:59 have some type of disability,
04:00 whether you're born short, born tall, born without legs,
04:02 whatever it is,
04:03 you should never be a victim of your circumstances.
04:06 Life is 10% of what you're dealt with
04:08 and 90% on how you deal with it.
04:10 Focus on that 90, that 10%, you have no control over.
04:13 Whatever challenges that you're facing today,
04:15 embrace them, right?
04:17 Whatever struggles that you're going through,
04:19 that you're gonna go through tomorrow,
04:21 accept it, be excited about it
04:24 because it's gonna show you how to overcome that challenge.
04:28 Whatever else is thrown at me, I can face it.
04:31 I used to forget everything and run,
04:33 now I face everything and I rise.
04:36 My name is Blake Lieber,
04:37 I'm a two-time Track and Field world record holder,
04:39 eight-time international medalist,
04:42 and I was born without legs.
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05:04 you