Former D&E coach wins gold at Paralympics

ELKINS, W.Va. (WBOY) — Chris Hammer, the former women’s triathlon coach at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, is now a Paralympic gold medalist.

Hammer secured gold in the para triathlon PTS5 on Sept. 2, winning his first-ever Paralympic medal. He finished the race on Sept. 2 in a time of 58:44 , 17 seconds ahead of second place.

Hammer, 38, placed fourth in both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, and in an interview with NBC after the race, he said that if he hadn’t finished fourth in the last two games, he may not have even raced this year.

“I can’t explain it. I mean, I had a little bit at the very end to start to soak it in, and I don’t think it hit me yet—yeah, I don’t think it’ll hit me for a while. It’s just—I don’t know, if it wasn’t for those fourth places, I don’t think I would have been racing this time around, so it’s been quite an adventure, quite a journey,” Hammer said in the interview.

He was far from in the lead when he finished the 750-meter swim at the start of the race. He made up some ground during the 20k bike and then closed the race with a 5k run in 15:59 to get the win.

Hammer was the D&E Senators triathlon coach from 2018 to 2022 when he decided to focus on training for the Paralympics full-time.

“Chris has made Senator Nation and Team USA incredibly proud!” D&E said in a social media post after the win.

You can watch a clip of Hammer’s incredible finish on the NBC Olympics website here .

Hammer was the only American competing in the men’s PTS5 para triathlon, but over all the triathlon races on Monday, Team USA took home eight medals .

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