Kamloops native Greg Stewart celebrating his first throw, a Paralympic record of 16.75 metres, on Tuesday night during the F46 shot put final (Image Credit: Canadian Paralympic Committee)

By Chad Klassen

PARALYMPIC CHAMPION

Paralympic gold still sinking in for Kamloops’ Stewart

Sep 2, 2021 | 1:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — “I’m a Paralympic champion. Never in my life have I had that as my goal, and now I am.”

The reality of winning gold at the Paralympic Games is slowly starting to set in for Greg Stewart, two days after his F46 shot put win in Tokyo.

Reaching him in the early morning hours on Thursday, Stewart still doesn’t know how to feel about it. He was living out a dream by just being there.

“Being able to go out there and be like, “Hey I’m here.’ For me to go around and be like, “Wow this is the Paralympics. I’m legit here,'” remembers Stewart when he walked out for the shot put final. “I’m walking into the stadium and the stadium is huge. It fits 68,000 people. There wasn’t that many people, obviously — there wasn’t anybody — but to walk in there I’m like, ‘I’ve made it. I’m here. This is where I wanted to be for 20 years and I’ve never made it. I made it on my own to get here.”

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He couldn’t get there in seated volleyball and so switched to shot put. He took full advantage of his first Paralympic experience, executing to perfection.

He broke a Paralympic record to take the lead after the first throw and never looked back.

“Everything connected. I knew I could trust the fact that I throw well in competitions,” Stewart told CFJC Today over Zoom. “For many years now, 2-3 years, Dylan’s always like on the first throw really punch it. That’s the one you really need to get because then you can kind of get in the heads of all the other guys. Every time I’ve done it, I was never successful. I would always either forget something or drop it, but this time I just focused on keeping it tight.”

When it landed at the 16.75 metre mark, Stewart didn’t even know how far he had thrown.

“Once I let go and followed through, I wanted to hear it hit the ground and I walked out of the circle,” he said. “Then, I saw in the distance. I was like, ‘What?! That’s a .75? No, that’s not real.’ Then I looked at [Paralympic throws coach] Kim [Cousins] shes like, ‘That’s real!’ I’m like that’s real! That’s far!”

Stewart says while he still had a few doubts, he was prepared for the moment and felt it was his time. Since winning the Paralympic gold, he has felt the love from Kamloops and all other.

“I was reading all those emails throughout. There was almost 400 emails. Just to have that, with people sharing stories, [was great]. I had a doctor reach out to me. He delivered me in Victoria. Stuff like that. That’s the stuff I think about.”