Representing the United States once at the Olympic Games was a blessing for Southeast alum Jenna Fesemyer. She will get a second chance to again perform on the national stage, having been named to the USA Paralympic Team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“I am thrilled to be representing Team USA at the Paralympic Games,” Fesemyer told The Weekly Villager on July 25. “It has been a pretty quick turnaround from the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics to Paris. I am happy with the three years that I have had to get stronger and faster and I am happy that I get to showcase that in a couple of weeks.”
The Paralympic Games will take place from Aug. 28 to Sep. 8 and Fesemyer will compete in the seated 1,500 meters, seated 5,000 meters, and the marathon which is approximately 26.2 miles. Those are the same three events that she competed in during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Fesemyer did not win a medal in any of the three races she competed in three years ago but is looking forward to improving her performance in each race.
“I think my motivation comes from doing my best. I would love to see a couple of personal best performances at the games, and I would love see a couple of personal records. If that means a medal, I would be super honored to represent Team USA with a medal,” she added.
Fesemyer is one of 52 American Paralympic athletes competing for Team USA in Paris. She qualified for her second straight Team USA berth when she competed at the Paralympic Trials in Miramar, FL and was announced as a member of the team shortly thereafter, based on her times.
According to her, the previous experience from the Tokyo Olympic Games has helped her better prepare for the Paris Games.
“In Tokyo, I did not know what to expect with it being my first Paralympic Games and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. I went to Tokyo with a lot of questions, with just an open mind and an open heart on what to expect with my first Paralympic experience. Going into the Paris 2024 games, I feel like I have a wealth of knowledge and experience,” she noted.
Fesemyer is especially excited to compete in the seated 5,000 meters, which requires the perfect blend of endurance and strategy.
Since her time in Tokyo, Fesemyer has intensely trained at the University of Illinois with several other Paralympians, racing 100-120 miles each week and putting in time in the weight room for strength work.
In addition to representing her country, Fesemyer acknowledged that she also feels the responsibility of representing Portage County in Paris.
“I feel really honored to represent Portage County,” she said. “I have been feeling a lot of support from Northeastern Ohio for the past couple of days since I heard the Team USA announcement and I feel really grateful for my roots in Portage County.”
Competing as a Paralympic athlete is something Fesemyer has been used to since she was a child, having been born with a birth defect that left her without a left leg and was fitted for a prosthetic when she was only a one-year-old.
Being one of a set of triplets, she said her brother and sister helped push her to be competitive.
“We were always competitive, and I don’t think they ever let me put a limit on myself ; they always challenged me. So I think that growing up as a triplet helped me because of the competition in having siblings,” she said.
Fesemyer competed in the discus throw in track and field when she was in middle school and continued doing so when she reached high school until her sophomore year, when wheelchair events were officially recognized as an Ohio High School Athletic Association sanctioned event.
In only three years of being a seated athlete, Fesemyer became a 12-time OHSAA Division II state champion and eventually went on to continue her athletic career at the University of Illinois.
“The University of Illinois has the best wheelchair athletic program in the country, so to go from high school where I did not know very much about wheelchair racing to a college that has a full program for wheelchair athletes, that is when I really started to see my performances improve in just a short period of time,” she said.
Fesemyer still has a few more weeks to go before she makes the trip to Paris but noted how excited she is to once again be a member of the USA Paralympic Team, especially since she sees this year’s team as one of the most talented squads in history.
