This year, the 2024 Paralympic games kicked off in Paris, France on Aug. 28. The games hosted more than 4,000 athletes from all over the world, including one from Upper Arlington.
Blake Haxton, from the UAHS graduating class of 2003, competed in para-canoeing during the beginning of August. His journey with marine sports began during his time at UAHS.
As a student, Haxton was a competitive force in crew, both a varsity rower and captain in his senior year.
Haxton attended The Ohio State University and began training for para-rowing at the professional level.
Haxton’s first time competing internationally was in the 2014 Rowing World Championships. During his international debut competition, Haxton placed 4th overall. Since then, Haxton has competed in subsequent World Championships, as well as three
Olympic Games.
He first attended the paralympics in the Rio 2016 games. During the Rio Paralympic games, Haxton placed 4th overall. After that, he moved on to begin para-canoeing as well as rowing.
In the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Haxton competed in both events, taking home a silver medal in para-canoeing.
Due to his success in these games, Haxton decided to switch his main focus to perfecting canoeing. Since 2021, he has been competing in the Paracanoe World Championships and also competed in the Paris Paralympic Games.
This year he took home a bronze medal for the United States National Team after his race on Sunday, September 8th.
Back home in UA, Haxton was inducted into the UAHS Sports Hall of Fame and is an inspiration to many of the Upper Arlington crew athletes.
