Austin Smeenk plans to bring “more fire” to 100m T34 race final on Monday

PARIS — Austin Smeenk finished first in Sunday’s Men’s 100m T34 preliminary race, putting the star in a great spot heading into the final race on Monday.

The three-time Paralympian has been lighting up the track this year, setting a world record time in the 400m T34 event at the Grand Prix in Paris this past June. He also earned a silver medal in the 100m distance at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships.

At Paris 2024 he is off to a hot start but refuses to let the excitement of winning his preliminary heat take his eyes off the larger goal of earning a medal.

“Everything in life is an opportunity to learn,” Smeenk said after Sunday’s race. “So I’ll take the way of the win from the heat this morning and learn from it for tomorrow. We have some work to do still, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow to improve on what we did today.”

In Monday’s race, Smeenk will be looking to improve upon his 100m finish from Tokyo 2020 where he placed seventh. With the way he executed his plan in Sunday’s heat race, however, he feels like he is in a good spot.

“The plan for the day was get out here and do a little bit of racing, get the first race jitters out the way and off the table,” he said.

“Tomorrow I’m just going to refocus and get ready to do it again with a little more fire.”

Smeenk hasn’t let the environment of a Paralympic Games get to him either. Even when competing in a stadium with tens of thousands of cheering fans, he remains unphased.

“The crowds have been pretty impressive this week. But to be honest, I didn’t know they were there. I was doing my own thing. There’s a little bit of noise, a little bit of people here, but it doesn’t change the outcome of how I race down the track,” he said.