Final Quarter feature: Roderick Townsend going for gold again at 2024 Paralympics

STOCKTON, Calif. (KTXL) – Roderick Townsend recently returned to his old stomping grounds, Stockton, to train for the upcoming Paralympics.

“To see someone represent USA is huge for us at Delta,” said Lauryn Seales, the college’s track and cross country coach. “You know, a lot of talent comes out of Stockton and it’s even better when they come out of Delta College.”

This will be Townsend’s third time competing in the Paralympics.

In 2016, Roderick Townsend competed in Rio and won a gold medal in both the long jump and the high jump. Five years later, in Tokyo, he repeated the feat in the high jump and won silver in the long jump.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Townsend set a new record in the high jump: 7’1.”

“I’m just extremely happy to be at this point,” he smiled. “And excited to do this again.”

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Back in 2014, Roderick Townsend was a football player at San Joaquin Delta College, and he had no interest in track & field. Until, that is, Lauryn Seales convinced him to join her team.

“When I first stated working with him, he was like, ‘my arm,'” she said. “And I’m like, ‘what can you do?’ And I said you need to do the decathlon and he was like, ‘my arm.’ And I said, ‘use your other arm.’ And that’s exactly what happened. We focused on what he could do and he just soared.”

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When people look at Roderick Townsend, they may not notice is his disability.

Townsend says every nerve in his neck down to his right shoulder is damaged. They are nerves that carry movement and sensory signals from the spinal cord to his arms and his hands.

“At birth the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, so the doctor had to break my collar bone and dislocate my shoulder,” said Townsend. “All the nerves in my brachial plexus are damaged. So my right arm, I don’t have full range of motion or strength in it.”

But he never let that stop him; in fact, he embraces it.

And that is why Coach Seales, among other coaches, introduced Roderick Townsend to the Paralympics. He competes in the T47 class, which is for competitors with a “below elbow or wrist amputation or impairment.”

In 2024, Townsend has extra motivation: his wife (who also competed at the Tokyo games) and his newborn baby.

“Having done this so many times, it’s still what drives me to want to win. But even more so now,” he said. “I just don’t want anybody else to win when I’m capable of doing it. I want to be the reason nobody else gets to stand on top of that podium.

“I want to be the reason everybody has to hear the United States national anthem be played. I love that.”

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