Elexis Gillette

Elexis Gillette
Elexis Gillette in June 2014
Full name	Elexis LaVelle Gillette
nation	United States
birthday	October 19, 1984
place of birth	Kinston , North Carolina
size	185 cm
Weight	79 kg
Career
discipline	Sprint , long jump and triple jump
status	active
Medal table
Paralympic Games silver 2004 Athens Long jump silver 2008 Beijing Long jump silver 2012 London Long jump silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro Long jump World Championships for the Disabled silver 2006 Assen Long jump silver 2011 Christchurch Triple jump bronze 2011 Christchurch 200 m gold 2013 Lyon Long jump silver 2013 Lyon Triple jump silver 2013 Lyon 4 × 100 m gold 2015 Doha Long jump gold 2017 London Long jump gold 2019 Dubai Long jump Para-Pan American Games silver 2007 Rio de Janeiro Long jump gold 2015 Toronto Long jump silver 2019 Lima Long jump
last change: November 12, 2019

Elexis LaVelle Gillette (born October 19, 1984 in Kinston , North Carolina ) is an American athlete who competes in the long jump , triple jump and sprint distances . He has a visual impairment and therefore starts in disabled sports in the classification groups T 11 and F 11, whereby the T and F stand for the English terms track ( de .: career ) and field (de .: field ). He is the current world record holder in the long jump and also holds the American record in the triple jump.

Life

Private

He is the son of Ervin Marshall and Verdina Gillette-Sims and has a younger sister with Uvonne. He was diagnosed with a cataract in his left eye when he was three years old . As a result of one of the necessary treatments, the retinal detachment occurred , so that he became blind in this eye. In 1992, when Gillette was eight, his right eye's eyesight also deteriorated rapidly. As a result, he had to undergo several operations, which only brought short-term improvements. A little later he completely lost his eyesight. His mother has also been blind from glaucoma since she was 18.

Gillette grew up in Raleigh in the state of North Carolina and graduated in 2003 at the city's Athens Drive High School his education from. He then studied sports management , business administration and Latin American studies at East Carolina University until 2007 and obtained his Master of Business Administration at the University of Phoenix in 2012 . He currently lives in Chula Vista ( California ) and works as a keynote and motivational speaker as well as a musician.

Sports career

His mother motivated him to maintain his independence despite his disability. Brian Whitmer, a recreational specialist for the blind, discovered him while taking a high school fitness test . He recommended him long jump training and enabled him to participate in a sports promotion program for visually impaired students in Michigan . Eventually, Gillette became co-captain of his school's athletics team.

He first drew attention to himself in 2002 when he won the long jump title at the national championships organized by the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA). He was also successful in the following US championships, for example in 2008 in the long and triple jump and in 2010 even with four gold medals in the long and triple jump and in the sprint over 100 and over 200 meters .

For a long time, Gillette was known among colleagues as “Mr. Silver ”, as he was never able to celebrate a major title internationally despite numerous top placements. So he reached for example, at the 2003 IBSA World Championships and Games the International Blind Sports Federation in Canadian Quebec in the long jump and fifth place in 2010 at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in third place in the 100-meter dash. This is even more significant when he took part in the Paralympic Games , where he had to be satisfied with the silver medal in the long jump three times in a row in 2004, 2008 and 2012. At the 2013 World Championships in Lyon , he finally managed to break this series and he secured victory in the long jump. He was able to defend the title in October 2015 in Doha , the capital of Qatar .

His bad luck at the Summer Paralympic Games continued in September 2016 in Rio de Janeiro when he had to settle for the silver medal in the long jump for the fourth time in a row.

Awards

• 2002: USABA Male Athlete of the Year
• 2003: Raleigh News and Observer Male Athlete of the Year
• 2004: Eagle Scout News and Observer Athlete of the Year
• 2008: Kay Yow Courage Award
• 2009: Life Encouragement Award (presented by the African-American Association of Georgia )
• 2009: Courage and Character Award (presented by the Greater Raleigh Sports Council)
• 2011: Athlete of the Month May (awarded by the United States Olympic Committee )
• 2013: Proclamation of September 25, 2013 for Lex Gillette Day in Hagerstown and Washington Counties ( Maryland )
• 2013: honorary citizen of Hagerstown ( Maryland )
• 2014: Roger McCarville Male Athlete of the Year (awarded by the Athletes with Disabilities Network)
• 2015: Athletes in Excellence Award (presented by the Foundation for Global Sports Development)

Top performances

discipline	place	Expanse	date	annotation
Long jump - F11	Mesa, Arizona	6.73 m	May 7, 2011	(As of September 2016)
Triple jump - F11	Christchurch	12.55 m	January 28, 2011	(As of September 2016)

Web links

Commons : Lex Gillette  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Gillette's profile on the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games website
• Portrait of Gillette on the homepage of the International Paralympic Committee