FISHERS, Ind. — Representing his country has been a long-traveled journey.
“It was surreal," said Fishers native Noah Malone. “A lot of work has paid off, so it was definitely a sigh of relief knowing I’m done with that part of the anxious feeling.”
The 19-year-old Malone qualified for the Paralympic Games last month and will compete in the 100- and 400-meter dashes in Tokyo.
Not long ago, he had to relearn everything after losing most of his eyesight as an eighth grader.
“Man, it was hard for sure because I was 13," Malone said. "I didn’t know how to handle major events in my life yet. It was hard especially knowing that it would keep getting worse over that span of a year.”
He was diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy.
“What that does is strips away most of my central vision and leaves me with peripheral vision outside of my eyes, so I can see in the corners of my eyes a little bit and just around the central part of my eye," Malone said.
An athlete all his life, he wondered if that could put an end to his sprinting career.
“For track, it was more so just knowing if I would be able to compete on that same elite level like I was before, and that was the hardest part because I was still running in Junior Olympics in seventh grade before I lost my vision," said Malone. "I still wanted to be at that level, so that was probably the most nerve-wracking part for me.”
Malone had it all figured out when he reached Hamilton Southeastern High School.
“It might have been my freshman year of high school here at HSE," he said. "That was probably the first time I was like, ‘I could really, really, really do this on like an elite, elite level.’”
During Malone’s junior year, he was a state champion for the Royals in the 200-meter dash.
“I just had to have track to motivate me," he said, which is something he picked up from his dad when he began losing his vision.
“He just said, 'Find something to keep you motivated.' For me, that was track. I had goals of becoming a state champion, going D1, all these different goals for track, and I didn’t really want my vision to get in the way of that," said Malone. "Having a very good supporting team around you and having that one thing that keeps you motivated and happy no matter what.”
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