F E AT U R E
At h i s ow n p a ce W R I TT E N BY A L E N A WA L K E R | P H OTO G R A P H BY PAU L P E TC H
Not many 24-year-olds are retired blade-running Paralympians and also members of the New Zealand Order of Merit. But Liam Malone is extraordinary.
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orn with fibular himimelia − an extremely rare condition that caused the absence of the fibula bone in both his legs − Malone had his legs amputated below the knees, and had his first pair of prosthetic limbs fitted at 18 months old. At 19, he crowdfunded $20,000 to buy a pair of blade prosthetics, and represented New Zealand three years later at the Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. He won silver in the men’s T44 100-metre final, and gold medals in the T44 200-metre and 400-metre finals, breaking the previous Paralympic record held by Oscar Pistorius. ‘The Paralympics will make the Olympics look like the Antiques Road Show in 50 years,’ tweeted Malone in July 2017. ‘Paralympians will be the most advanced humans on the planet.’ Malone’s decision to retire from the Paralympics in January was, in part, influenced by waning motivation. ‘I didn’t agree with rule changes which affected the design of the blades,’ he says. And for every elite athlete, the question of longevity
eventually arises − even at 24 years of age. ‘The life-cycle of an athlete is really short. I didn’t want to get to 30 and have to make the decision that I’ve made now. It made sense to think of transitioning out earlier and creating a whole new set of opportunities to move forward with.’ Malone was New Zealand’s flag bearer for the 2016 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony. Last year, he was appointed as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his service to athletics and was awarded Disabled Sportsperson of the Year at the 54th Halberg Awards. After such exceptional accolades, his departure from athletics wasn’t altogether premature. ‘I don’t view myself as disabled when I can do everything,’ he says. ‘Shaping how society thinks about people with disabilities is really important because my experiences have often been uninspiring as a child.’ Growing up in Nelson, Malone was bullied at school. He grew self-conscious about his body, wearing trousers for seven years to hide his prosthetics. He ‘learned
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