A Pennsylvania teenager is pushing past extraordinary challenges after losing both legs and most of his arms to a severe illness when he was just 3 years old.
Chase Mayweather, 16, has been making his mark on the track and hopes to become a standout runner — and one of the rare quadruple-amputee athletes to compete at the Paralympic Games.
“I want to win a gold medal,” the Ambler, Pennsylvania, high school student told ABC 6.
Mayweather, who races using running blades, said he has also taken part in baseball, soccer and football. But since the medical emergency that led doctors to amputate his limbs as a young child, track has become the sport that feels like his true path.
“This year has been my most successful year because I’ve finally placed in one of our dual meets. I just ran at districts, and now I’m running at states. It feels amazing to accomplish this much,” he told the local ABC affiliate.
Now a high school sophomore, Mayweather is setting his sights on one of the biggest stages in adaptive sports: the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
Only a small number of athletes with disabilities affecting both their arms and legs have reached the Paralympics. Mayweather hopes to follow in the footsteps of competitors such as Ellie Challis, the British swimmer who represented her country in 2024, and Brazil’s Gabriel Araujo, who competed in 2002.
Mayweather was 3 when he went into septic shock while at an amusement park. Doctors determined that amputating his arms and legs was the only way to save his life.
“If you keep going and never stop trying, you will always chase that dream and will eventually get it,” he told the local station. “You just gotta run your race. I gotta run mine.”
