Ryan Medrano , a Survivor alum who competed on Season 43 in 2022, won a silver medal in the men's 100-meter T38 event at the 2024 Paralympic Games. Medrano placed behind fellow American Jaydin Blackwell, who set a world record for the event with a time of 10.64 seconds.
This is Medrano's first time at the Paralympics. The T38 event is designated for athletes with hypertonia, ataxia, and athetosis, common symptoms of cerebral palsy. Medrano was born early, and grew up with mild cerebral palsy.
"They said I would never walk," he explained to Parade in a preseason interview during Survivor 43 . "My mom took me to therapy for four years every Thursday for two hours. And eventually, I started to walk, and I started running, and I started to swim, and started to climb. I can do the things I do today because of her."
Related: Read Our Survivor 43 Postseason Interview with Ryan Medrano
Medrano was a physical standout of the CBS reality show's 43rd season, serving as one of the best challenge competitors and providers on his tribe. He made it to the merge and individual portion of the game, but was ultimately voted out in ninth place. His inspiring story prompted a wealth of support from both inside and outside the disability community, and he even received money from pop star and Survivor fan Sia .
"The amount of support and the amount of people that have reached out is stupendous," Medrano told Parade in an exit interview the day after his boot episode aired. "I'd say over 100 people with not only mild cerebral palsy, but other things that have given them disabilities. Though I felt different most of my life, I came back and got this amount of crazy responses. Like, 'You have helped me motivate myself to help my son.' Or, 'Our child has CP and their father's not taking it too well. But seeing you on TV really helped motivate him and motivate us to have faith and have the will to keep pushing.'"
Related: Everything to Know About Survivor 47
Survivor not only brought immense support for Medrano, it also literally got him to the Paralympics to earn the silver medal. He competed on Season 43 alongside Noelle Lambert , who lost her leg following a moped accident in 2016. Lambert had gone to the 2020 Paralympics, placing 6th in the 100m T63 with a time of 15.97, setting a new American record. And, according to Medrano, it was her advice that even made him aware he could be a Paralympian.
"She pulled me aside after we were both voted off because we were voted off back to back," he explained to the Texas Standard , "and she had stated, 'Hey… you can run the Paralympics.' She opened that door for me, and she allowed me to get that information to make this journey possible. Without that, I would have just been a Survivor guy, not a Paralympian."
Medrano is set to hopefully build on medaling in his very first Paralympic race with two more T38 events: The men's 400-meter race and the men's long jump. Lambert, meanwhile, is competing in the T63 Long Jump and the T63 100-meter race, and is expected to perhaps set a new world record in the former.
Next, check out our postseason interview with Survivor 43 contestant and fellow Paralympian Noelle Lambert .
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