Legally blind runner clocks 3:50 1500 but college team rejects him

So if we don't know all of this information why is step 1 a consideration of discrimination by the kid, Ken Stone and you?

don't think it's discrimination, coach Oliver is just bad at scouting talent

no, the focus is on cross country. he doesn't have mile/800 specialists on the team. they were 11th at NCAA XC in 2019.

trying to be an MD team in the big 10 is a losing battle. Good luck beating penn state, wisco, indiana, and michigan in the 800/1500. that has always been their specialty.

Interesting topic: My guess is the athlete in question has a severe case of
Blue Cone Monochromacy where this impacts his ability to distinguish color, lack of acuity and he may suffer from nystagmus which is rapid eye movements back and forth. In order to be classified as legally blind, a person must have an acuity of 20/200 in their better eye or a field of vision of 20 degrees or less. Most people with Blue Cone Monochromacy have acuities of 20/100 or better, but there are cases where individuals have acuities of 20/200 or greater, however in my work with blind individuals the past 2 decades I have not seen this, but it is very possible and that maybe how he meets the criteria to compete in the Paralympics. Paralympics are amazing but you do have athletes competing against each other with varying degrees of impairments which IMO does not make it a level field like the Olympic games.

There are some forms of color blindness (very rare, thankfully) that make it almost impossible for the individual to navigate in daylight, which is literally blinding for them. (Think what it's like when you leave a dark movie theater and go out into a sunny day. That's what it's like for them all the time.) That type is indeed a serious disability.

en.wikipedia.org

The Island of the Colorblind

The Island of the Colorblind is a 1997 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks about achromatopsia on the Micronesian atoll of Pingelap. It was published in the UK as The Island of the Colour-blind. The second half of the book is de...

Link:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_th...

Also causally mentioned in the article is that he is coached by Joachim Cruz

you can even compete in the paralympics if you have autism, let alone color blind.

A 350 runner can find a school to transfer to and run for, maybe even with a small athletic scholarship.

Agree. I am sure if he was to start competing in the open men’s events and he caused a collision or someone to trip up he would be getting all sorts of judgement too. One of those can’t win scenarios.

Had a friend that ran at this meet and it was very windy and fairly wet from what I remember. He definitely made a massive improvement as the conditions wouldn’t have caused him to lose 26 seconds.

I remember this guy, I used to run against him in high school. He was pretty good, with 1:55/4:20 PRs, but idk if that's good enough to get a spot at Purdue.

Seems like a stretch if that’s the case. Who knows how many times this guy contacted the coach. They briefly mention it in the story. For all we know, he could have sent the coach one email. Coach might of missed it or forgot about it. Might not even know he exists

Wow! I was so shocked to see this thread. I can say that just by chance, when I started my running journey back in about 2017-18 era, and I was popping out many an 11-min miles, the local track in San Diego that I would run with some buddies at, Joel would come there and train all the time while we were on the track. He was a great guy, even back then at 13 years old. Hard worker, great humble attitude. I am so happy to see him still having great success. Keep up the great work Joel, you're killing it!

35 mph wind with 50 mph gusts

Most people were about 15 seconds slower per mile in both the 800 and 1500

I met him at another track, we were both doing workouts. I didn’t know who he was. I’m an old guy, but he was nice, friendly, was working hard, on his own.

He does not control the story written, what the article emphasizes or implies. But he has improved a lot since high school- obviously a committed athlete who was nice to a random old guy who started talking to him at a high school track. So I wish him the best for sure.

Yup. Pathetic.