‘My Goal Is to Prove Them Wrong’: This One-Armed High Schooler Is Smashing Records on the Track
High school senior Gabriel Lewis has rewritten his school’s record books—and he’s done it without the arm swing that powers most runners’ kicks.
Born without his left arm, Lewis was drawn to running in middle school “because it’s just so much harder than any other sport, and it’s on you if you want it,” he says. After years of injuries from compensating for the extra weight on his right side, Lewis had a breakthrough his junior year with the help of dedicated strength training.
Since then, he’s broken school records in the 1600 meters (4:26.37), 3200 meters (9:54.63), and 5,000 meters (16:12) for Mount Dora High School in Florida. He recently placed 10th in the 1600 meters at the Florida state championships.
The first record to fall came as a bit of a surprise to Lewis’s coach, Cody Adkinson. “I had him entered in an early morning two-mile race, and the goal was to get close to the record, but not to break it yet, because he hadn’t been that close yet,” says Adkinson. “He went out crazy and almost PR’d in the mile in his first mile. He kept fighting and fighting, and he did it.”
But for Lewis, it was a long time coming. “When I came into high school, I saw the records on the board, and I was like, I’m gonna get those by my senior year,” he says. “The day of, I just knew I was doing it. I invited my whole family and told them the record was going down.” (Thankfully, Adkinson happened to have a “GOAT” chain in his pocket, his traditional gift for school record breakers.)
That preternatural self-belief has translated both into record-breaking performances and an aggressive racing style that his team compares to that of Steve Prefontaine. Lewis and Adkinson even wore “Stop Pre” shirts while Lewis warmed up at the recent regional championships, which he won.
“He goes out ridiculously fast, regardless of what anybody else’s race strategy is,” Adkinson says. “He’s setting the tone from the very beginning, whether he should be or not. It’s ended up being one of his gifts.”
Naturally, that approach has made Lewis a crowd favorite. “Anytime you watch him race, it’s a show,” says Adkinson. “He’ll hear you cheering for him and he’ll respond and fight for you.”
Lewis had to work hard to develop the strength that allows him to take big risks. “Arm swing is such a huge deal in running, and he doesn’t really have that ability,” says Adkinson. “He has to have all that strength coming from just his legs.” Spending more time in the weight room focusing on single-leg work allowed Lewis to train harder without getting injured. And figuring out how to help Lewis—who, coincidentally, is not the first athlete with one arm that Adkinson has coached—benefited the rest of the team, Adkinson says, who have also found themselves getting stronger in the weight room.
That’s not the only way that Lewis, who served as captain of both his cross-country and track teams his senior year, elevated his teammates’ training and performances. “A couple years ago, the team’s mindset was more like a run club,” says Adkinson. “Gabe helped drive the work ethic, and now instead of hoping to get to the state championship as a team, they expect to. That’s the Gabe Lewis effect—he’s able to not only push himself but get his teammates to come with him.”
Case in point: When Lewis broke the school’s more-than-10-year-old 5,000-meter record, a teammate behind him broke it, too. “He helps them believe that they can be great, too,” says Adkinson.
Lewis says his leadership style is part leading by example and part relationship building. “I try to have a relationship with each one of my teammates,” he says. “I like to make sure they’re doing okay. If you have a solid relationship with your teammates, I think you’re going to excel so much further.”
Clearly, the “Gabe Lewis effect” is strong: Lewis says that when he joined the team, most athletes’ 5,000-meter times were over 20 minutes. “Now, you have to be running an 18:30 to be considered varsity,” he says. “It’s pretty cool seeing how far the team has come.”
Lewis feeds off his team, too. His freshman year, he started what would become a prerace ritual when he jokingly asked someone to help tie his spikes. (For the record, “I know how to tie my shoes,” he says.) Now, it’s tradition for Lewis to ask someone he respects to lace him up before races. “Once you get asked, you feel really special that you get to tie his shoes,” says Adkinson.
Overall, Lewis says the running community has been very supportive of him. “But you can still see the surprise on people’s faces when you’re crossing the line that fast, or winning a race,” he says. “At states, I got some weird looks from some of the runners because they thought I was supposed to be in a different race, but then I went out there and competed.”
This fall, Lewis will begin his collegiate running career at Seminole State College. (He plans to use the summer to bump up his mileage from around 35 miles per week to around 60.) He’s also exploring the possibility of pursuing the Paralympic Games.
Whatever he decides to do, it’d be foolish to bet against him.
“Ever since I was little, I never let anybody tell me what I can and can’t do,” he says. “If someone says, ‘you can’t do that,’ my goal is to prove them wrong. I want to show people that there’s nothing stopping anybody, and anybody can do anything, so don’t count anybody out.”
Best Running Gear Deals Right Now
Lauren Wingenroth is a freelance writer covering fitness, running, sports, the performing arts, and more. A former editor of Dance Magazine, her work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Outside, SELF, PS, ESPN, Well+ Good, Playbill, American Theater, and other outlets. She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, a marathoner, and a North Carolinian.
