Marco MantovaniAmanda Rummery placed fifth at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in the women’s 400-meter dash. She is now back home in an off-season before beginning training for the 2025 World Championships.
Rummery is in her third and final year of her Bachelor of Education after-degree. She ran for the Pandas Track and Field team in 2022-23 and 2023-24. She qualified for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in July and has now returned to continue and complete her degree.
“As professional athletes, we spend years and years preparing for this one peak moment, the biggest athletic moment of our lives and for me, in less than a minute, it was all over. I’m actually quite thankful to have school, and it’s keeping me busy, and having a routine is really helping,” Rummery said.
Dates for the 2025 World Championships haven’t been announced but will “likely be in fall 2025,” making this the ideal time for Rummery to take a break from track and field.
“I don’t have running to fall back on right now. I’m [in the] off-season for a few weeks, so I have to keep myself busy in other ways,” Rummery said.
“It was a really exciting race to be a part of,” Rummery says
Rummery was ranked second going into the race and finished fifth. The four runners that finished ahead of her all ran personal bests.
“My competition performed incredibly well. They ran super fast. It was a really exciting race to be a part of. In track, that’s just something that’s outside of our control. We can’t control how fast our competitors run.”
Rummery didn’t have expectations of medaling, she just wanted to run a race that she was proud of. Rummery ran one hundredth off of her personal best. She ran 58.02. Her personal best is 57.99, making the 2024 Paralympics her second fastest race.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the results, but that gives me more to chase going forward. I can see now where my competitors are at and where I stack up against them. And I definitely want more. I go into every international competition with minimal expectations. When [you’re at] that starting line, [you] have to run a fast race. What you’ve done previously doesn’t matter,” Rummery said.
The race was held at Stade de France in Paris on the purple track. The Canadian Paralympic team for athletics won nine medals total.
“Being on that purple track, it was such a fast track, which is really important for track and field athletes because it helps put out a good performance. And you could see that, people were running personal bests, left, right, and center,” Rummery said.
“I raced my final on a Saturday night and there were [around] 80,000 people in the stands. So I don’t know if I’ll ever get to experience that again. I sure hope so. It was amazing to run in front of such an energetic crowd,” Rummery added.
“I had such a positive experience,” Rummery says
Rummery’s experience at the Paralympics as a whole was “amazing.” This included staying in the Paralympic village and the team dynamic between all the paralympic athletes.
“The Paralympics as a whole was amazing. I had such a positive experience,” Rummery said. “The team dynamic for [the] Canadian track and field athletes, and the other athletes that we met in the village were really great and positive. I’m so thankful for my supportive teammates.”
Carla Nicholls is the high performance director for Athletics Canada. According to Rummery, Nichols did a great job connecting the team.
“[Nichols] has done such a great job creating a high performance atmosphere, but also just really bringing us all together multiple times throughout the year, so that we really get comfortable around each other and get close,” Rummery said.
Rummery also emphasized how each para-athlete has a unique story to tell, making the Paralympics so special.
“Every single person has a story, and I just love that. Whether it be the Canadian athletes or the fellow competitors I was racing against. Every single person has overcome some sort of adversity to get to that starting line, and I think that that’s a big part of what makes the Paralympics so special.”
Rummery is now preparing for her next cycle of training before the 2025 World Championships. She then will work towards the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Paralympics.
“I have my eyes set on LA 2028. I’ll be 31 years old. I’ll be older, but I want to run faster. I want to improve my time, and I have big goals for myself — I really don’t think that I’ve peaked yet. I think I can improve in a lot of ways.”
