Like many New York City Marathon runners this year, Nicole Ver Kuilen has a goal. She wants to beat her best time and finish the race in under four hours.
It’s not inconceivable: At a marathon this year in Eugene, Ore., she finished just 1 minute 59 seconds over the goal. And in New York, she will have the help of a longtime friend, the Paralympian Dani Aravich, who will be her support runner — an accommodation for athletes with vision or lower limb disabilities.
Unlike a vast majority of racers, Ms. Ver Kuilen will be running the marathon on a prosthesis. And for the first time in the New York City Marathon’s history, athletes with disabilities in any of five World Para Athletics categories — low vision and blind, intellectual and developmental disability, coordination difficulties, lower limb disability and upper limb disability — will be racing for podium placements.
While no prize money will be offered in the Para categories, New York Road Runners will award first, second and third place in each category for men and women.
Following other major marathons such as Boston and Chicago, the Road Runners decided to introduce these Para Athletic categories.
“We’ve continued to evolve our offerings over the years, and this pilot represents another important step forward in that evolution,” Erica Edwards-O’Neal, the chief diversity officer for New York Road Runners, said in an email. “We want to go beyond providing access to participation and create more meaningful opportunities for athletes with disabilities to compete against others with similar disabilities, be recognized for their achievements and see themselves represented in one of the world’s most iconic races.”
Wheelchair racers have had competitive divisions since 2000, with prize money added for the category the following year.
Ms. Aravich, a three-time Summer and Winter Paralympian, said she welcomed the inclusion of the Para Athletic categories in this year’s marathon. “I think race organizers or sponsors maybe didn’t see a need to invest in it because they weren’t seeing a lot of people at the start line,” she said. But, she added, a huge part of the reason was because athletes with disabilities did not feel welcome.
“A lot of times I’ll show up at races just competing against myself,” said Ms. Ver Kuilen, who regularly competes in trail races and is the 2019 U.S. Paratriathlon champion. She will be running her seventh marathon despite a painful skin condition that has kept her out of her prosthesis. But a chance to compete against peers, and to do so beside her friend, was too good to pass up, she said.
Ms. Aravich will carry different prostheses for Ms. Ver Kuilen to swap out as the race changes in elevation and generally act as a buffer against the crowds.
As Para athletes gear up for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games, the inclusion of categories in major marathons can be seen as part of the push to expand access.
Both Ms. Ver Kuilen and Ms. Aravich, who is the campaign lead for the disability rights nonprofit So Every BODY Can Move, work as advocates for athletes with disabilities, recently appearing together in a short documentary that highlights how many insurance companies do not provide coverage for sporting prostheses. Ms. Aravich consults for sporting events to become more inclusive, advising organizers on simple measures such drop-down menus on entry forms for athletes to state their disabilities and accessible toilets.
Ms. Edwards-O’Neal said New York Road Runners organizers hoped to make Para athlete podiums the norm across the various races they oversaw, growing participation and educating runners on the available offerings.
“This pilot is an important step toward an even more accessible and inclusive future for our sport,” she said.
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