The Fastest Man
in the World
Tony Volpentest is a four-time Paralympic gold medalist, born without hands or feet. In Barcelona in 1999, he won three world titles in four days. He set the 100m world record of 11.36 seconds in Atlanta in 1996. Today he’s a keynote speaker, author, and the subject of a feature film in development.
The Long
Version
Tony Volpentest was born in 1972 without hands or feet.
In 1977, at age four, he appeared with Shari Lewis on KIRO 7’s Variety Club telethon in Seattle.
At fifteen, he joined his high school track team because nobody got cut. He finished last in every race that first season. He kept running because it helped him make friends.
He began his junior track season with carbon-graphite Flex-Feet. They allowed him to train harder. By his senior year, he was finishing second and third in high school races. Making friends had brought him to the track. Now he wanted to win.
In 1989, he won the 100 and 200 meters at the World Championships for Disabled Youth in Miami. The following year, at seventeen, he won the 100, 200 and 400 meters in St. Etienne, France — five junior world titles before he finished high school.
At the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona, he won gold in the 100 and 200 meters and silver in the 4×100 relay. He set {{ wr1992Phrase }}. In the 200, he lowered the record twice in one day: 23.97 in the semifinal and 23.07 in the final.
Photograph by William R. Volpentest.
In 1996, he carried the Olympic torch in Seattle. At the Paralympic Games in Atlanta, he ran the 100 meters in 11.36 seconds, winning gold and setting a world record. He also won gold in the 200.
On June 1, 1996, he had run the fastest 200 meters of his career: 22.67 seconds, into a headwind of 1.56 meters per second. The meet was not sanctioned for record purposes, so the time could not be recognized as a world record.
At the 1999 ISOD World Championships in Barcelona, he won three world titles in four days: the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 4×100 relay. His time of 22.85 in the 200 set a world record. He won the 100 in 11.39, ahead of Marlon Shirley at 11.41.
At the Sydney Paralympics in 2000, Tony finished fourth in the 100 meters and tore his hamstring in the 200-meter semifinal. They were his last Games. He planned a return for Athens, but a car crash in December 2002 ended that possibility.
Across his career, Tony won 22 gold medals, 4 silver and 1 bronze, and set {{ wrTotalPhrase }}. He also competed in road and exhibition events in the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan.
After racing, he worked in financial services and audio/video sales while raising his son, Alex. He later married Kami. Since December 2007, he has worked full time at an investment firm.
In 2011, he began helping prepare Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls through the Team USA Ambassador Program. He also wrote his memoir, Fastest Man in the World, with a foreword by Ross Perot.
His honors include the International Olympic Committee President’s Disabled Athlete Award, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award for the Physically Challenged, USOC Athlete of the Year and induction into the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame. He has been nominated twice for the Olympic Hall of Fame.
His story has appeared on ESPN, CNN and 48 Hours, and in Sports Illustrated and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
Tony is an author and speaker, and the subject of a feature film in development based on his memoir.
The medals are where most people start.
There’s more to his story.
Year
by Year
His life on and off the track.
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Gold at 100m and 200m, {{ wr1992Phrase }}, and silver in the 4×100m relay.
The One-to-One Challenge at SkyDome — the card built around Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson — opens with a Paralympic 100 m against Australia’s Neil Fuller. About a meter behind at 20 meters, Tony passes Fuller at 70 and wins in 11.69.
ISOD World Championships — three world titles in four days, at 100m, 200m and the 4×100 relay, and a world record in the 200m.
His third and final Games.
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Awards
& Honors
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Career Total
What Tony
Does Now
Tony works full time at an investment firm. He’s also the author of Fastest Man in the World, a speaker, and the subject of a feature film in development.
Covered by ESPN · CNN · 48 Hours · Sports Illustrated · Ripley’s Believe It or Not · How’d They Do That · Maury
In His Own Words
I didn’t talk much about racing for a long time after I stopped.
The conversations about the film got me talking again. I found I had more to say than I thought.
The medals are easy to list. It takes longer to talk about raising a son, building a career, starting again with Kami. Those years belong in the story, too.
— Tony