JOE spoke to Jason Smyth, the Derry man who is one of the stars of the Paralympics. In a candid interview Smyth discusses his attempt to make the Olympics, Stargardt’s disease, his Mormonism, Oscar Pistorious and more.
“I believe that Jason is very talented, I honestly think that his running technique is better than mine. Sometimes, when he runs, he reminds me of Maurice Greene. He would be in my top five when it comes to technical guys running; Maurice Greene would probably be No. 1. I think Carl Lewis may be in there, Asafa Powell, Leroy Dixon and then Jason.”
– Tyson Gay
To have one of the great sprinters of a generation and one of only three men in history to beat Usian Bolt compliment you as one of the greatest sprinters in history, is really something.
When American sprinter Gay says it about his training partner Derry’s Jason Smyth, a double gold medallist at the Paralympics in 2008, it is something else.
Having dominated the last Paralympics in Beijing as a 21-year old Smyth has since become the first athlete to compete in both the Paralympics and the full-able bodied European Championships this past summer and the World Championships in Daegu last year.
Despite narrowly missing out on becoming the first Paralympic athlete to qualify with the A Standard at the Olympics this summer, Smyth is back in the Paralympics which start today, ready to retain his 100metre T13 and the 200metres T13 golds.
Stargardt’s Disease
A frequent theme of the Paralympics is that athletes like Smyth have to overcome huge obstacles before even competing.
The obstacle he has had to overcome was a genetic condition called Stargardt’s disease that has left him with 10percent vision. It became apparent in Smyth when he was nine years of age.
I start out asking the pleasant, yet somewhat shy sprinter what it’s like living with the condition?
“It’s always a hard question to answer because this is what is normal to me. This is what it is. I don’t know what it is like to have 100percent vision… just like people can’t compare what it is like to have 10percent vision.
“The reality of it is that it has to affect everything – you lose 90percent of vision – it can’t not affect it.
“Just simple things that I’m well aware of is travelling, you know, obviously I can’t drive. I can’t get around many places without knowing where I have been or having someone with me.”
The real things frustrate Smyth are small social considerations others might take for granted.
“Even simple day-to-day things … Unless people know me I would just keep myself back from them.
“I find, at times, people would try to engage with me in a conversation but I would actual never see them, or walk past me and wave.
“I’ve had people say ‘Is that guy wild ignorant or what?’ to a friend of mine, but just not realising that I don’t see as well as people think.
“It is frustrating and there’s no getting around it,” concedes one of Ireland’s greatest athletes.
At first his mother Diane found it difficult to deal with the fact that her son had the inherited disease.
“You see her Dad had it as well and he got it when he was sixty, she may have seen what it was like to live with, but you see he had gone through all of life without it and not had to worry about it too,” says Smyth who then explains Stargardt’s disease usually manifests itself in young children, or latterly like his grandfather after the age of sixty.
Smyth setting a new World Record in 2008
Growing up
Smyth was born in 1987 and grew up in Derry prior to ceasefire, the troubles that plagued that place that can barely agree on its own name didn’t land on his doorstep.
“You’re not really that aware of what’s going on, unless you’re living in the heartland of the area of where it was going on and I wasn’t,” he explains.
“Obviously you’re aware of the Protestant-Catholic thing but I wasn’t that aware of how bad things were until I was growing up.”
I’m going in as the champion and I really have to come out retaining my titles. It’s a massive thing and a massive goal.
As well as his mother Diane and father Lloyd, Jason has three sisters Leeza, Laura Jane and Jessica, as well as one brother Justin.
They’re all extremely proud of their older brother’s record-breaking achievements, as well as being delighted, Jason suspects, of the opportunities they have to travel to exotic locations like Beijing to watch him win gold.
The Smyths are quite a sporty family, though Jason says that they dabble in all sports and he would be the more focused than his siblings in terms of athletics.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that people judge you straight away on, you know, ‘He can’t see’ or I’m a Mormon and I’ve had people ask me ‘How many wives have you got?’ You know some ridiculous theories and very quickly people will judge you on something like that before they know you.
This is in keeping with another big aspect of Jason’s life and identity – his religious faith. Sport and a healthy competitive lifestyle is something that is encouraged by the Church of Latter Day Saints, better known as Mormons, of which the Smyth’s are members.
“In our religion it kind of works side-by-side with sport in that we don’t drink or smoke and that converts over and works hand-in-hand as well,” says Smyth.
“One side of my family is all the same religion. They would have always been active in the church and I would have grown up in that. I suppose as I have got older it just continued and I learnt more about myself and how important and needed it is.
“As you grow up you stand on your own two feet and you realise what works and what doesn’t and for me it’s always been a massive part of who I am and who I always will be. It’s a big part of why I do well,” Smyth says thoughtfully.
“I think it has made me quite grounded and given me perspective and other things in life and what’s important.
“I’ve been blessed with a talent and opportunity to do good and inspire others in a world where times are tough.
“It means a lot to me, but at times it’s hard to explain.”
A quiet, self-assured identity
Growing up in a place where a lot of tension was caused as a result of being from one of the two major religious denominations, you would think there would be a lot of curiosity from others that Smyth was from neither. Not so says the man himself.
“Now I’m happy to talk about it to anyone, but when I was younger I didn’t want to stand out as being way different, I mean I would have told anyone had they asked but I wouldn’t have publicised it,” says Smyth.
You ask Smyth if that is part of the same aspect of his personality that led him not to tell his training team that he had Stargardt’s disease when he first joined Lance Brauman’s world famous training camp in Florida which featured Tyson Gay back in 2008?
Smyth isn’t sure: “I’m not one to blurt my business. I generally find that people come to respect you as they get to know you.
“I don’t know if it’s the fact that people judge you straight away on, you know, ‘He can’t see’ or I’m a Mormon and I’ve had people ask me ‘How many wives have you got?’ You know some ridiculous theories and very quickly people will judge you on something like that before they know you. Maybe that’s part of why I do that…” says Smyth without any evident frustration.
Smyth narrowly missed out an Olympic “A” Standard this year for the able-bodied Olympics, a year of injuries catching up with the Derry man whose personal best time is only four one-hundredths of a second off the Olympic A. He is now refocusing on doing well in the Paralympics as well as looking to the Olympics in Brazil in 2016. Is the goal to be the first “A” Standard qualified Olympic and Paralympics athlete partly due to a desire for his achievements to be judged on their own merits and outside the prism of his disability and religion?
“I think definitely in terms of my eyesight – yes,” answers Smyth.
“It’s certainly a disadvantage -you can’t get away from that, but I work hard and try to make the most of the talent and opportunities I’ve got. Bad eyesight or not I try to do what I’m capable of…so on an eyesight level probably yeah…” he continues.
“On a religious term, not really. You know I very much believe, as I have said, I have been given a talent from God and I’ve been given an opportunity to have success. I do things because I’ve been blessed to do them if you know what I mean?”
The Usain Bolt of the Paralympics
The conversation turns to the forthcoming Paralympics. Smyth has been equated to the Usain Bolt of the Paralympics by many observers in the past.
The parallels are clear – not only did he win the 100metre T13 and the 200metres T13, he destroyed the field doing so in 2008, he is very much a posterboy of the Paralympics.
Another face of the Paralympics is South African runner Oscar Pistorius, the Blade Runner, who recently was selected by his country to represent them in the 400metres and 400metre relay at the Olympics having made the “B” Standard for the games. (Team Ireland only accepted A Standards this time around hence Smyth’s exclusion.)
Smyth is just behind Pistorius as the face of the Paralympics movement, it’s not something that sits easy with the Derry man.
“I’m second behind Oscar in media terms and everything else, the difference is massive, even though we’re not that different. I mean we’re both just both short of qualifying for the Olympics and that sort of standard,” he says, “So it’s a massive difference and it’s kind of frustrating to try and break away from it and be your own man.”
Smyth continues to explain that it’s not a personal gripe against Pistorius, more that he feels the spotlight should be shone on more athletes in the Games.
“I suppose the Paralympics is very much engulfed in him and I think it struggles for a lot of other athletes to get recognition aside from him… I mean there are a lot of other athletes working very hard too, aside from him.”
You ask Smyth did he get recognition and respect for his ability after his training mate, and one of only three men in history to beat Usian Bolt, Tyson Gay’s comments on him that put him in the same league of technically gifted runners as Asafa Powell and Carl Lewis?
“I think when someone of Tyson Gay’s calibre saying anything to compliment you it has to have a positiveness regarding your perception when people read it,” Smyth says with consideration.
“Tyson, in fairness, has been a great support to me over the past few years and it has been a great opportunity and I couldn’t have asked for any more, I’m honoured to get a compliment of that kind of level.”
Smyth laughs when you ask if he was taken aback by the compliment. “Yeah I was a bit. I was thinking ‘Nah, come on, I’m not that good!’”
Training with an all-time great and friend
Originally Smyth’s lack of desire to speak of himself meant he didn’t tell his training group in Florida of his achievements in the Paralympics or even of his condition. When the group found out they made a point of telling Gay that he didn’t have as many medals as the man from Northern Ireland.
“Yeah that happened, I suppose when you first go in there you’re working with world-class athletes and you’re really a nobody, you go in there and get your respect from working hard and keeping your head down.” Smyth says by way of explanation.
“Eventually they found out a bit more about me and there was a bit of joking to Tyson about it…it was funny, Tyson probably just had a laugh and looked it up to see if it was true.”
It wasn’t all jokes though as Smyth trained with his long-term coach Stephen Maguire who also went over stateside with him.
“It was a bit of a miracle really that we sustained it financially, we just about got to the end of this year.”
The benefit was immense though and Smyth is counted amongst the elite sprinters in the world now. Smyth says that the one athlete that he talks about his profession with is Tyson Gay himself.
“I wouldn’t chat to anyone at home. The person who I’d chat the most to about training is Tyson, actually.
“He constantly gives me advice on things he thinks or sees, we exchange texts, if I had a bad race he’d have a look at the race and just tell me of things to think of, silly things like that…you couldn’t get many better people to give you advice.
“It’s just tiny little things like if he was watching me race he might say at the start this tiny thing needs improving or later there might be something when you’re up running.
“What I find fantastic about it is that coaches are great, but he physically runs the race. Over the years he’s learnt little things to think of or with technique – he’s great in that way.”
The future
The immediate future for Smyth is the Paralympics, then maybe Rio in 2016, but to finish up you have to ask Smyth about recent advances in stem cell research that may mean his Stargardt’s disease may be a thing of the past soon.
“I did hear something of them doing tests a few months ago – I don’t know – if it works, fantastic. I certainly wouldn’t be one of the first to get the treatment. If it was something that was guaranteed to work you’d have to say ‘why not?’ but then if there was a risk of going blind, and it was a decent risk, probably not, I’d absolutely hate to be blind,” says Smyth thoughtfully of the developments.
You mention that it must be weird dealing with his feelings over the developments considering that he is the Usian Bolt of the Paralympics and has such success in the games – that the very reason he is in the Paralympics could be gone all of a sudden.
“Yeah it is,” agrees Smyth, “but at the same time there’s lots of talk about things improving or cures, but you could be talking ten, fifteen, twenty years or even in my lifetime, so I won’t get carried away until there are decisions to be made.
“At the same time it’s weird to think that someday, literally overnight, things could change.”
Until then Smyth’s body and soul is focused on one goal in the coming days.
“The Paralympics is massive, it’s the biggest thing because it’s where I get my funding. I’m going in as the champion and I really have to come out retaining my titles. It’s a massive thing and a massive goal.”
