Jacob Schrom | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile

Team USA powerlifting Jacob Schrom shares the story of how an accident in college changed his life.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JAKE SCHROM: My name is Jake Schrom. My sport is Paralympic powerlifting. I live in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. That's where I train.

And I work as a landscape designer full time and then train on the side. I got started in the sport back in 2010. I'd been a student at Penn State and got in a vehicle accident at work and lost my legs-- you know, became disabled.

And through therapy at Penn State-- they had a program that helped sponsor Paralympic student athletes to try different sports. And I'd always enjoyed weightlifting before my accident. So I kind of gravitated to that post-accident, and I've been training ever since.

Our sport is a sport where it takes a long time to develop the strength needed to qualify for the games. Each year, I've just sort of been increasing my ranking. Narrowly missed the Rio games in 2016, and things are looking very well for the Tokyo games. Really hoping that things go well and can vie for the podium at Tokyo.

[CRASHING]