Oak Park's Jaydin Blackwell overcomes cerebral palsy, family tragedy to run all over the world

You need a pick-me-up?

A feel-good story full of optimism and inspiration?

Let me introduce you to Jaydin Blackwell, a 19-year-old from Oak Park who has qualified to run at the World Para Athletics Championships, which begin Saturday in Paris.

“I am at a loss for words,” Blackwell said. “This was a thing I've been trying to get to for a long time. It’s a good opportunity for me to show people what I can do.”

What can he do?

Run like the wind, teaching everyone some valuable lessons, while overcoming every challenge put in his way.

Blackwell was born with cerebral palsy, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture.

“He was born at 26 weeks — 1 pound, 9 ounces, because I had pre-eclampsia, so they needed to do an emergency C-section,” his mother, Rochelle Davis, said. “He spent three months in the hospital.”

Cerebral palsy symptoms can vary wildly. Symptoms can range from floppy to rigid limbs, and Blackwell has a type that left his leg muscles rock hard.

“He has never walked flat-footed; he's always worked on his toes,” Davis said. “His legs are so hard and muscular. His calves are like a sculpture.”

When Blackwell was 7 years old, doctors presented different options to relax those muscles to make life easier.

“They offered him Botox injections to relax the muscles and also surgery,” Davis said.

But she refused.

Those rock-hard, fast-twitch muscles were his superpower.

“Running is the one thing that he loves and he's good at it,” Davis said. “What if I agree to this surgery, and it completely takes that away? Then, he'll be left with nothing. He struggles with so many things. But running is the one thing that just comes so naturally and makes him happy.”

So, he kept running.

“He ran AAU for seven years, always at a high level,” Davis said. “He's never run in anything with adaptive sports or para sports. The kids he was running with are now at USC, at Houston, at Texas, at Georgia. He was running with the best of them.”

Those legs took him all the way from Oak Park, where he was an all-state runner, to college. He joined the track team at Purdue Northwest, a Division II school that competes in the GLIAC.

And then, tragedy struck.

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Heartbreaking loss

Nearly one year ago, Blackwell’s grandmother, Patrese Sayas, was killed.

Sayas, a DMC nurse, was his everything.

“They were buddies, joined at the hip,” Davis said.

Davis is still not entirely sure exactly what happened to her mother.

In early July last year, Sayas seemed to disappear.

“She wasn’t answering her phone,” Davis said. “Her car's gone. She's a no-show at work for three days. And I’m like, ‘She has to be in there.’

“So I broke into her house, and I found her,” Davis said. “That was on the news, too.”

Davis found her mother on July 7, 2022, in her house in Southfield.

At first, police believed Sayas died of natural causes. But an autopsy found bullet fragments in her head, according to media reports.

The day after Sayas was found, her husband Gregg McIntosh, was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Detroit parking garage.

Police believe it was a murder-suicide, according to reports.

“We don't know what happened but what we can piece together is on Saturday night a neighbor heard a gunshot,” Davis said. “And it was like around the Fourth of July so they just thought it was fireworks. But we don't know why he did it. He set her up in the bed like she was sleeping, putting her CPAP machine mask on. And just left there. And then he stuck around for a few days and then stole her car and drove down to her job at Receiving, parked in the parking structure and killed himself.”

Sayas was 63.

Davis said she was “scared” to tell her son about his grandmother.

“They were so close,” Davis said. “She would be at everything. She never missed and she would come in her work clothes a lot of time. If you saw Jaydin, you saw my mom. That was a big loss for us.”

Eventually, Davis pulled Jaydin out of college.

“I think that was too much for him,” Davis said. “College is a struggle in itself, leaving for that length of time and then having to deal with that. It was just too much so I had to pull him out.”

Recently, she said, he began counseling to deal with his grandmother’s death.

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Beating the best

Next challenge: beating one of the best.

In 2020, Davis was watching the Tokyo Paralympic Summer Games when she saw Nicholas Mayhugh, an American, win the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.95 seconds.

“I was sitting on my couch and I saw Mayhugh run,” Davis said. “I'm like, Jaydin can beat him. I know he’s got it in him, so I put it in motion.”

Jaydin started training, knowing he had to beat Mayhugh to reach the next level.

“This is all that Jaydin has talked about,” Davis said. “This is his plan. You have to go here. You have to beat this man. You have to beat him.”

Mayhugh, 27, is an acclaimed paralympic runner, who has won three gold medals, a silver medal and is the three-time world record holder and 400-meter American record holder.

In May, Jaydin and Mayhugh faced each other at the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in Chula Vista, California.

Jaydin beat him twice, winning the 100 (10.96 seconds) and 400 (50.23), qualifying for the Paralympics World Championships in both events. He could also be selected to compete in a relay.

“It's gonna be a good experience,” Blackwell said. “First time going out the country and just visiting someplace new.”

In the long term, Blackwell is positioned for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris and the 2028 Summer Paralympics in Los Angeles.

“I just want to be the best athlete that I could possibly be,” he said.

Blackwell wants to become an inspiration. Wants to show anybody with problems — whether they are visible or not — that anything can be overcome.

“Whatever you got going on with your body or whatever is happening with you, you can do great things,” he said. “You got to be able to push yourself hard enough to get to those goals.”

What a fantastic message.

What an inspiration.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jaydin Blackwell won't let cerebral palsy, family tragedy slow him down