Annalise Porreca

Happy birthday to the USA’s national champion sprinter Annalise Porreca, who ran five collegiate seasons as a distance runner, crossed into para athletics, and promptly won two national titles at Hayward Field.

That is the whole story in one sentence, and it is worth unpacking. Annalise ran cross country and track for five seasons — Mercer, then a graduate year at VCU — as a middle-distance and distance athlete. Then, after acquiring ataxia and hypertonia in her upper and lower extremities from a retrocerebellar cyst, she became eligible for the Paralympic competitions and came into para athletics as a T36 sprinter. In August 2025 she walked into the USATF Para National Championships in Eugene and won the women’s T35/36 200m in 32.67, leading at every checkpoint and finishing two and a half seconds clear. The next afternoon she won the T36 100m in 15.38, into a headwind. Two races, two national titles, on the most famous track in America.

She has kept building. Last month she was back at nationals at Icahn Stadium in New York, and this summer she added the long jump, a brand new event on top of the sprints. Her coach, Alex Mason of Adaptive Performance Lab, put it better than we could: “The truth is, I’m not the expert on her body. She is.”

And it is Dr. Porreca now. She has completed her Doctor of Occupational Therapy, works as a researcher at VCU, and is applying to PhD programmes, aiming to pioneer intersectional disability justice research. In her own words: “Whether it is training wheelchair racers for the Richmond marathon or being a youth AAU basketball coach or running workouts for my local adaptive track team, I find ineffable joy in giving back.” She has also stood on a start line and translated for an opponent. Because she could, and because somebody needed her to.

Happy birthday, Annalise! Wishing you a huge year — the doctorate, the title, and every bit of what comes after it. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇺🇸

And many thanks to @jayciecalvert for allowing us to repost some of her excellent photos!