ERIC WESTERVELT, HOST:
World-class runners complete a marathon in close to two hours. Wheelchair champions, on the other hand, finish the same course about 30 to 45 minutes faster, often exceeding 20 miles an hour on a flat stretch. With the New York City marathon coming up in two weeks, we wanted to talk to one of the fastest wheelchair racers in the world, American Daniel Romanchuk. Daniel, welcome to the program. It's great to have you on.
DANIEL ROMANCHUK: No, thank you for having me.
WESTERVELT: You're known for being very fast on uphills, which any bicyclist knows are a lot harder to tackle than flats and downhills. I mean, what's your secret on the hills?
ROMANCHUK: So I grew up about a half hour outside of Baltimore in Mount Airy, Maryland. And so as the name implies, I kind of grew up climbing hills. I always love a hilly course.
WESTERVELT: Daniel, you were born with spina bifida, which restricts your leg movements. How did you get into wheelchair racing? And how old were you?
ROMANCHUK: So I started wheelchair racing at 4 years old with the Bennett Blazers, a physically adaptive sports program out of Baltimore, Maryland. I actually started with the program at 2 years old. So they're a multisport program. I was swimming at 3, started wheelchair racing and wheelchair basketball at 4, sled hockey, and they offered many other sports. So I got my start there. Then I moved out to Illinois to continue, you know, pursuing racing.
WESTERVELT: Daniel, you all go so darn fast. It's hard to see sort of how you move the wheels, how you steer and sit. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
ROMANCHUK: Yeah. So as far as pushing the chair, we have some 3D-printed gloves that we glue rubber onto. And then we have our push rim that we'll also glue rubber onto as well. And so, actually, we don't grab the hand ring at all 'cause that would be slowing us down. So it's actually just friction-based, just rubber on rubber.
And then for the steering, similar to a bike, our front wheel determines the direction that we go. But unlike a bike, we don't have to constantly be steering 'cause we have basically a dampener that keeps the front wheel at a default direction. So we don't have to constantly have our hands on the steering 'cause that would make a very slow race.
WESTERVELT: Right. You'll take part in the New York Marathon, as we mentioned, November 3. You won the wheelchair division there in 2018 at just age 20. You were the youngest person to win. I mean, talk about that course. What's key to winning this time?
ROMANCHUK: It's going to be a tough race. We've got a lot of great athletes, and, you know, I'd say it's got a great start going up the Verrazano. I like it.
WESTERVELT: It's got those hills you're used to.
ROMANCHUK: Yep. So it's going to be an interesting day.
WESTERVELT: You placed second last year in New York. I mean, what's your strategy this year to bring home the No. 1?
ROMANCHUK: I think I'll probably go into it pretty much like I do every race. I will arrive in town a couple days, few days before the race. And I like to preview the course and just to get an eye on the road conditions and especially with some of those hills and maybe if there's turns at the bottom, stuff like that. I really like to get a look at the road conditions to make sure I know if there's a little bit of a rough part of the road - say, the right side - I know to avoid that patch coming down a hill.
WESTERVELT: Daniel Romanchuk, two-time gold medalist in the Paralympic Games and founder of the charity Wheels for Change. Daniel, thank you, and best of luck in New York.
ROMANCHUK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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