Next stop, Paris: Jessica Heims, Erin Kerkhoff set for Paralympics return

NORTH LIBERTY — When Mike Jay needs a mental pick-me-up, he doesn’t need to go deep into his mental Rolodex.

“Some days I get up and everything hurts and woe-is-me,” said Jay, track and field public address announcer and founder of Track Guy Foundation. “Then I think of these two kids here with me. With the load they’ve been dealt, they deal with it every day.

“They’re amazing. They’re heroes to me.”

Two days before their flight to Paris for the 2024 Paralympic Games, Jessica Heims and Erin Kerkhoff were honored with a sendoff Monday night at Field Day Brewing Company.

“I feel all the love here, and I’m going to take it with me to Paris,” Kerkhoff, a 23-year-old Solon native, said to the crowd of 300.

This is the third Paralympics for Swisher-native Heims, 25, who competed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2021.

Kerkhoff also competed in Tokyo, so this will be her first Paralympics without COVID-19 restrictions.

Speaking of restrictions, both of these athletes have built their lives in conquering them.

Heims was diagnosed with Amniotic Band Syndrome, a random congenital birth defect in which the fetus becomes entangled in fibrous amniotic bands in the womb, restricting blood flow and affecting the baby's development.

The result was the amputation of her lower right leg.

Still, she competed in track at Cedar Rapids Prairie (from which she graduated in 2017), then at the University of Northern Iowa.

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She owns the world record in the women’s F-54 discus category (lower led amputee) at 133 feet, 10 inches.

Despite legal blindness — the result of optic-nerve degeneration in both eyes — Kerkhoff was an 11-time state track medalist at Solon, including a gold in the 1,600-meter relay as a senior in 2019.

Kerkhoff, whose career best in the 400 meters in 56.72 seconds, will compete in the T-13 category (vision loss/no guide) in both the 100 (prelims and final both are Sept. 3) and the 400 (prelims are Sept. 5; final is Sept. 7).

Heims’ discus competition is Sept. 1.

Both were members of the UNI track and field team.

“The Panthers are going to Paris, and that’s exciting,” UNI athletics director Megan Franklin said. “These women ... I’m so thrilled for them to have this opportunity.”

Heims, whose fans Monday donned shirts that said, ‘Jess Do It’ in a spin to the Nike motto, is married and serves as an assistant track coach at Southeast Polk. She said one adjustment these days is the length of the season.

“It’s way longer. The peak season isn’t just April to June anymore,” she said, adding that she is looking forward to “trading stories and hearing about the lives” of the women around the world with whom she will be competing.

Both athletes were asked about what off-the-track moment they are most anxiously awaiting.

Said Kerkhoff, despite her visual impairment (she is 20/300 in her right eye, 20/400 in her left): “I’m determined to see the Eiffel Tower at night.”

As for Heims?

“I want to eat as many pastries as possible.”

Meanwhile, Cedar Rapids native A.J. Fitzpatrick, 19, is the youngest member of the Team USA wheelchair basketball team, which will participate in Paris.

Fitzpatrick was diagnosed with arthrogryposis at birth, meaning he was born with joint contractures. He earned Intercollegiate Division all-rookie team honors as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com