Purdue University Athletic Communications
He has displayed the ability to master essentially two different sports. Competition in the Deaflympics doesn’t allow the use of any type of hearing aid where the commands to start a race come from a series of lights on the track rather than the loud bang of a starter’s pistol.
Despite overcoming these differences, it’s Hembrough’s pure talent in the sport that has helped him to compete under multiple conditions. And just as Hembrough and many other American and international athletes have proven, it has been a barrier they have overcome en route to producing top marks.
“In the past ten years the times and marks are getting more competitive and closer to Olympic marks,” Hembrough said. “It’s definitely not up there, but a lot closer than it has been in the past.”
Meanwhile, hurdling is only a small part of Hembrough’s daily life. While he pursues a career in education, in a small effort to give back to those who have made a difference in his life, he currently works as a sign language interpreter at a school in West Lafayette, Ind.
Whether it has been those helping him with his CART (Computers Assisted Realtime Translation) system while attending classes at Purdue, his parents who, upon learning of his hearing disability, worked to find places like Shawnee Park where he could gain an education and still be able to compete in track and field, or all the others that have helped along the way, Hembrough is adamant to give credit. They were the ones that made the difference.
The end result has been a hurdler that has transcended competing across two genres of the sport and become a true ambassador for track and field.
You can read the full transcript from the interview with Josh Hembrough in the member-only news section on the USATF App.
Karen Hembrough
Bill Millios
JOSH HEMBROUGH AND MANY OTHER MEMBERS OF TEAM USA WILL BE IN COMPETITION THIS SUMMER IN THE 2013 DEAFLYMPICS IN SOFIA, BULGARIA, JULY 13-22. IN AN EFFORT TO HELP FUND THEIR CAUSE, USA DEAF TRACK & FIELD HAS SET UP A SYSTEM FOR DONATIONS. IF INTERESTED IN MAKING A DONATION, THE PAGE TO DO SO CAN BE FOUND HERE.
KAREN HEMBROUGH 16
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