By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

This was a different kind of victory lap for Jenna Fesemyer.

She had just finished 15th in the world in the 1,500 meters at the Paris Paralympic Games and her heart was filled with emotions.

She took one more lap to process everything.

She was not overwhelmed, but Fesemyer sensed that she was living inside a special moment.

It was powerful and she found herself immersed with love and memories.

When she finished her lap, she reached down to touch the pristine purple track of Stade de France.

Feeling it underneath her fingers, she felt something true in her heart: It’s OK if that was the end.

In that split-second, Fesemyer felt confident and a beautiful calm enveloped her.

Retirement was not goodbye.

It was a thank you.

Thank you to her parents and family.

Thank you to her support system, coaches and trainers.

Thank you to everyone who had ever believed in her.

Thank you to the sport and the platform it has given her.

So many thoughts, but so hard to find the words.

“I am still trying to figure out the words to express what it means to leave the sport that has given me everything, and I think the way to do that is to give back to the sport. To me, that is the best thank you I can give.”

THE START OF SOMETHING SPECIAL

Fesemyer, now 28, was born a triplet, with brother Jonathan and sister Jessica.

Jenna was born without a left leg and hip socket because of a rare congenital disease called proximal femoral focal deficiency.

By the time she was 1 year old, she was fit for a prosthetic leg.

It introduced physical challenges for her and her parents, David and Cindy, but there were many mental challenges, as well.

“My mom and dad instilled a problem-solving mindset in me,” Fesemyer said. “They recognized that I might not be able to move a certain way, but that was OK, it was for me, and for us, to figure out how we can adapt things to work for me.

“It was very clear to me when I was young that I was not going to sit down, pout or complain that things were different for me or for me to feel sorry for myself because I was different. It was a journey of knowledge and understanding that I do look different, that I do move differently, but what does it look like to celebrate those things instead of feeling different about them.”

There was always plenty to celebrate, too.

Beginning in youth and into high school, there were not many sports that Fesemyer didn’t try.

Basketball, volleyball, softball, track, amongst others.

By high school, Fesemyer had settled into golf as her primary sport — until her parents forced her to consider track during her sophomore year.

Fesemyer fought the idea at first, but her parents were adamant for her to at least try.

ONE ARGUMENT JENNA IS THANKFUL SHE LOST

The Ohio High School Athletic Association introduced wheelchair racing as a high-school sport in 2013.

Jenna Fesemyer (left) stands with her mother Cindy inside Southeast High School.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

Fesemyer was a sophomore at Southeast High School and was already on the track team as a discus thrower. The idea of becoming a seated racer was something she had zero interest in.

Her parents felt otherwise.

Her mother, Cindy, who was a longtime track and field and cross country coach at Southeast, and is currently the girls golf coach, had a simple message for her daughter:

“Just give it one practice,” Cindy said. “Learn and discover what it is before you make your decision. See it as a new opportunity.”

Jenna admits that she did not hear the message the same way and was skeptical.

“To be honest, it was a fight for us in our home. I did not want to do it. I mean, I really did not want to do it. I just wanted to keep throwing discus,” Jenna said. “My parents were trying to push me out of my comfort zone, and they challenged me to be curious about the opportunity. Good thing they won that fight.”

A bad thing for the rest of Ohio.

Over the next three seasons, Fesemyer dominated the sport, winning 12 state championships in a clean sweep of all of the offered seated events (200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters and shot put).

The success presented another chance to get outside of her comfort zone when she accepted her athletic scholarship to compete at the University of Illinois.

“I was a little nervous, but it was the excited kind of nervous,” Jenna said.

“As a mom, my nervous was the real kind of nervous,” Cindy joked.

“Just like always, though, my parents were so supportive and encouraged me,” Jenna said. “They let me spread my wings and told me that this was my opportunity and that I needed to go.”

COLLEGE AND THE WORLD

Fesemyer traveled to Champaign, Ill., and success followed her throughout her career with the Illini.

Jenna Fesemyer holds up a collection of her medals, including some of her OHSAA state championship honors.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

Her trademark competitiveness continued to push her to new heights, peaking with fourth-place finishes in four events (100, 200, 400 and 800 meters) at the 2017 U.S. Paralympic National Championships.

It showed that her abilities were larger than just Ohio and it motivated her to train for the Tokyo Paralympic Games that were set for 2020, but delayed until 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She had competed at a state and national level, but qualifying for Tokyo was her introduction to the world’s stage.

“Making Tokyo was my dream,” Fesemyer said. “That was me shooting for the stars and capturing a dream I didn’t know I would ever be able to capture.”

In Tokyo, Fesemyer was seventh in the 5,000 meters, 11th in the marathon and 12th in the 1,500 meters.

Training for Paris, still another three years out, began right away.

So is the life of an Olympic athlete.

Even still, Paris almost never happened to Fesemyer.

A number of obstacles unexpectedly began to pop up.

Fesemyer got very sick in 2023 and was diagnosed with over-training syndrome. 

She admits it was a “big health scare” that took her nearly eight months to recover from.

An eternity for an Olympic-level athlete.

Fesemyer also had an injury to overcome, and she changed how she sat in her racing chair, which changed her bio-mechanics.

All of it made Fesemyer realize, maybe for the first time in her career, that she may not get to be the one to choose when it was time to say goodbye.

QUALIFYING FOR HER SPECIAL FINALE

Being in a situation to even attempt to qualify was an accomplishment for Fesemeyer, considering the circumstances she had worked through.

Though, those who know Fesemyer also know that two of her most endearing qualities are her endless positivity and positively stubborn competitiveness.

She was always going to get to where she wanted to be.

But she had one more obstacle to overcome.

While attempting to qualify for the 5,000 meters, Fesemyer got disoriented by the track and crashed. She was not injured, but she did lose her chance to qualify for that event, which left the 1,500 meters as her last chance to qualify for Paris.

“I did not have one of my best races in the 1,500, so I wasn’t sure if my time was going to make the cut,” Fesemyer said. “I truly didn’t know if I was going to make the team. I was crunching the numbers, and I knew that I would be on the cusp. I told my mom that if I texted her a red heart, that I had made it. When I saw I made the team, I was truly shocked and overjoyed, so I sent her that text. She sent me back a croissant emoji.”

Fesemyer’s battle to get to Paris offers a glimpse to the perspective of gratefulness she took with her from Paris Township to Paris, France.

“Being there was my gold medal. It was the celebration of my hard work.”

Not just from her previous three years of training and hardships, but Fesemyer’s emotions were suddenly hitting on multiple layers.

Thankfully, just as has always been the case, her parents were sitting in the stands of Stade de France to share in the moment.

“For that final race, to know my mom was there, was so important to me. We went through this entire experience together. From not knowing a single thing about wheelchair racing or adaptive sports to me racing in the Paralympics.

“It had always been such a journey of knowledge, and I had my mom with me for everything. To be able to see her in the stadium, with me competing in a Paralympic final, was a dream come true. It was a celebration for her as my mom and my coach. For her to see one of her athletes make all of those milestones,” said Fesemyer, who plans to stay connected to the sport through coaching, clinics and being an advocate and mentor. “It was a celebration for me, for my loving relationship and friendship I have with my mom. That journey we have been on together to make it to that point. I am just so lucky.”

Lucky enough to be on a victory lap for the rest of her life.