National Champion

SARASOTA — Sporting a neon yellow singlet, black spandex shorts and matching Nike running shoes, David Prince is all business.

Prince grabs a roll of athletic tape from a supply closet in the Hanger Clinic in Sarasota and carefully wraps the tape tightly around his right track spike.

He pauses for a moment, noticing a couple of his spikes are now relatively dull to the touch, but with less than 24 hours until he boards a plane for the 2014 Paralympic Track and Field National Championships in San Mateo, Calif., Prince realizes new spikes will have to wait.

He grabs a tiny piece of lead, which will help control his form during the race, and carefully wraps it at the base of the spike.

With his spike ready to go, Prince carefully removes his prosthetic walking leg and puts on his new custom-designed prosthetic leg made specifically for running by Hanger Clinic prosthetist Dan Strzempka.

Prince bounces around on the running leg a few times, making sure to check his flexibility and range of motion, before heading off to California.

Prince, who won a bronze medal and set a new world record in the 400-meter dash at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, finished first in the 200-meter dash (22.90 seconds) and second in the 400 (51.72) at the 2014 Paralympic Track and Field National Championships June 20 through June 22.

“(I knew) the 400 (was) going to be a good race,” says Prince, who trains at IMG Academy. “The 400 is my signature event, but this year I’ve been focused more on the 200. My focus right now is to peak in November.

“We as Olympic athletes live our lives four years at a time. You plan four years to be at your very best that last year.”

Although Prince has already begun training for the IPC Athletics World Championships in November 2015 and the 2016 Paralympic Games, there was a time when Prince was seemingly on the fast track to nowhere.

Growing up, Prince played soccer and baseball in middle school, basically as a way to pass the time, and he joined the diving team in high school. He enjoyed the sport but was forced to give it up after his grades began to slip.

Prince eventually dropped out of high school and soon started using drugs and alcohol. In 2002, Prince bought a motorcycle. Five days later, at the age of 18, Prince was involved in a life-changing motorcycle accident.

Prince suffered a brain injury and a broken arm, and he lost his right leg below the knee.

Prince spent three-and-a-half weeks in the hospital and didn’t walk for about six months before receiving his first prosthetic leg from Hanger Clinic.

Prince began to re-evaluate his life choices.

“I knew I needed to figure out a way to channel my addiction and behavioral tendencies and turn it into something good for me,” Prince says. “I remember sitting there telling God, ‘I know I need to change. Help me change. I can’t keep doing this anymore.’”

Prince went back to school and also started working out. Shortly thereafter he received his first running leg from Hanger Clinic. Three-and-a-half weeks later, he competed in his first track meet.

Prince spent several years competing in triathlons before turning his attention to running in 2005. Four years later, Prince made the U.S. Paralympic track team. In January 2011, Prince finished third in the 400 and second in the 4x100. Later that year, he broke both the 200 and 400 world records at the Parapan American Games.

But in December 2011, Prince suffered another major setback when he tore all of the major ligaments in his knee, with the exception of his MCL.

“The doctor told me I would never run again,” says Prince, who was training for the Olympic Trials at the time. “I was pretty devastated because I love running. My thought process was, ‘OK, God. This is your plan for me. I don’t like it, but what can I do but be patient and see how it all plays out.’

A week after surgery, Prince had full extension of his leg, and by mid-April he was back out on the track. With only six weeks of training under his belt, Prince went to London and set a new world record in the 400 (50.61) to earn a bronze medal.

At last year’s national championships, Prince broke the world record in the 200 and broke his own record in the 400, clocking in at 49.87 and becoming only the second unilateral amputee to run under 50 seconds.

With the national championships behind him, Prince will train for the world championships and the Olympics.

“Rio is the goal,” Prince says. “After that I’ll re-evaluate where I am, and maybe I’ll train for Tokyo in 2020. I’m not slowing down anytime soon.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected]