Durham Magazine Feb/Mar 2017

Page 60

class act Run the World

Rio Paralympian Desmond Jackson blazes his own trail

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 by Laura Zolman Kirk  by Briana Brough

illside High School senior Desmond Jackson started competing in track and field at age 8 with the Carolina Cruisers in Charlotte. “Most of my teammates were wheelchair users, and I joined as the first amputee,” says Desmond, whose leg was amputated above the knee due to a birth defect before he was a year old. In seventh grade,

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February/March 2017


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