Although she lives and trains in both Bloomington, Ind. and especially in Florida, and travels the globe now competing in two sports – paratriathlon and paracycling – she had returned home to her family’s small farm outside of Jamestown and particularly to Cedarville University, her alma mater, to sharpen her focus for the task at hand.
She worked regularly during the day with Mark Weinstein at Cedarville and with her family in the evenings as her timing got better and her performance became flawless.
Wednesday morning she stepped onto the stage at the Cedarville University chapel, which was filled to the brim with 3,400 students and faculty with an overflow crowd gathered in two nearby viewing rooms, as well.
But instead of her familiar TEAM USA jersey and that special J-shaped carbon fiber running foot she wears on her left leg to compete, she wore a stylish white suit, red top and towered close to 6-feet high on her spiked high heels.
Instead of the three disciplines – cycling, swimming, running – she excels in as one of the world’s top paratriathletes, she spoke to the crowd about the three truths she’s learned in her faith and how they apply to her daily life and especially her professional sports career.
That’s what all the preparation had been about the past month.
The 27-year-old Norman has been named Cedarville University’s Young Alumna of the Year and that’s why she spoke on campus Wednesday and, among other involvements in Spirit Week on the Christian college’s campus, she will be featured in Saturday’s homecoming parade.
On October 8 she leaves for Australia, and will compete a week later.
Over the past eight months, among other things, she has:
- Filmed a commercial in February for the sportswear company Hoka in Tenerife, Spain. Impressed by her story, skill and personality, the company has since become her sponsor.
- Two months later she competed in the U.S. Cycling nationals in Huntsville, Ala.
- In May she competed in World Cup paracycling events in Belgium and Italy.
- A month after that she did a triathlon on a military base in Taranto, Italy where more than 100 soldiers sought her out for a selfie photo. Instead, everyone finally agreed to make one group photo that shows Grace, dressed in blue, surrounded by a sea of people in fatigues.
- In July she competed in back-to-back paratriathlon races in Magog and Montreal, Canada.
- Last month she won a silver and a bronze medal at the paracycling world championships in Ronse, Belgium.
- Now comes Australia where she last raced six years ago.
It was against that international backdrop that she returned to Cedarville for the Young Alumna of the Year honor.
“It’s always great to have Grace back on campus,” Cedarville president, Dr. Thomas White, said before Norman, a 2020 grad in nursing, took the stage Wednesday. “She’s an amazing representative of the university.
“She’s overcome amazing difficulties to succeed. She’s only a few years older than the students in the room here today. It wasn’t long ago she was sitting exactly where they are. She can help them overcome the difficulties in their lives to pursue Christ.”
If anyone doubted how Norman would do on a spotlighted stage with a microphone, they only needed to know the motto she’s embraced her entire life after being born missing her left foot and right big toe (and nearly losing her right leg) to a congenital amniotic band disorder.
“From an early age I definitely hated hearing the words, ‘You can’t!’” she told the students.
‘It brought me to tears’
Norman delivered a compelling talk – just under 28 minutes in length and supported with stunning race photos and a video – that kept the crowd spellbound.
From the stage, she was just as moved.
Sitting in the front row, not far from Weinstein, the Cedarville director of public relations who helped her polish her presentation, was her dad Tim, an engineering professor at the school; her mom Robin, a former track athlete at Purdue; and her older sister Bethany, a Cedarville grad who also ran cross country and track and now is working on her master’s degree at the school to become a nurse practitioner.
“We’re extremely close,” Grace said of Bethany. “I grew up wanting to be just like her. I got to share one season with her in high school and one season here at college. So to have her here today was incredible.”
After Norman finished her talk – as dozens of students lined up to talk to her and tell her how her words of faith had struck a chord – she admitted:
“Coming here is like coming home. I grew so much here. It wasn’t that long ago, I was a student here, but it’s also kind of surreal. To be recognized like this now is an incredible honor.”
As for Robin, who has accompanied her daughter on many of her career milestones around the globe – including four Paralympic medals, two of them triathlon golds (Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Paris in 2024); as well as the 10 world championship medals, six of them gold – she said this scene was especially moving:
“It brought me to tears.”
‘This is what I want to do’
Robin tells stories how Grace – who is in between Bethany and youngest daughter Danielle (also a Cedarville grad who now lives in Beavercreek but had to work Wednesday at her financial firm near WPAFB) – was the rambunctious one who often made her way out of her crib and hobbled around full bore in life.
Grace told the crowd how she was especially competitive and channeled that into sports, even before she had any special prosthetic or training that evened her chances against able-bodied kids.
There are legendary stories of her shedding her prosthetic and winning the Metro Buckeye League 500 meter freestyle swimming title against a field of boys in high school.
When she finally got a special Cheetah Flex foot that allowed her to have equal push off both legs she began to stand out.
She became the first disabled girl in Ohio high school history to make the podium at the state track meet when, as a Xenia Christian junior, she finished eighth in the 1,600 meter run.
Her real focus became the world of paralympic sports, which she first discovered when her parents took her to see the track and field trials in Indianapolis for the 2012 London Paralympics. That’s when she said she decided: “This is what I want to do.”
And that’s what she’s done ever since.
A month before she entered Cedarville as an 18-year-old freshman, she stunned everyone at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. It was the first international competition of her life.
Just a year earlier her highlight was winning the goat showmanship championship at the Greene County Fair.
In Rio, she was the youngest athlete among the 267 in the U.S. contingent. She was also one of only two American athletes competing in two sports at the Games.
A heavy underdog coming into the paratriathlon, she won gold in stirring come-from-behind fashion and then took a bronze medal in the 400 meter run.
She told the students how she finally arrived on campus a month late for her freshman classes and not only caught up in the classroom but began competing for Coach Jeff Bolander’s cross country and track teams at the school.
Today Bolander, who she continually praised Wednesday, remains one of her coaches. Greg Muller of South Bend is her primary coach.
Not on scholarship her first two years at Cedarville, she held her own against able-bodied athletes in the Yellow Jackets NCAA Division II competitions.
Away from campus she became an athlete that many people recognize as having a special gift.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir invited her to sing with them and President Barack Obama hosted her at the White House.
Like White said, she has been an incredible ambassador for Cedarville University.
With its largest enrollment ever – 7,265 students counting undergrad, grad students, high school students taking advance CU courses – Cedarville has been getting high praise lately.
The Wall Street Journal recently recognized it as one of the top three evangelical universities in the nation.
And thanks to Norman, the school gets continual international recognition.
She has won races on five continents. Consider the World Championships where she has medaled: Rotterdam (Netherlands); Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates;) Pontevedra and Torremolinos (Spain); Gold Coast (Australia); Lausanne (Switzerland) and Chicago.
The Cedarville students listened intently to her message about how she turned her career and life over to Christ, especially when injury and disappointment nearly derailed everything and had her thinking about quitting.
White was right when he said that her example could help them overcome life’s obstacles and strengthen their faith.
As she spoke it was clear Norman wanted the students to grasp the same message she long has.
No matter what:
“You can.”
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