Abled is a documentary that follows the story of Blake Leeper, a Paralympian who sets forth the goal of competing against able-bodied athletes in track and field. The film is directed and produced by Einar Thorsteinsson, and it premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival this year. The committee who picked these films chose wonderfully. I was glued to the screen the entire time I was watching. The documentary does a great job of outlining his life from his childhood until the current day, showing all of his difficulties and successes in the sport.

Leeper was born in Kingsport, Tennessee without legs below his knee. Even as a child, he competed in sports with his prosthetic legs against abled athletes. All his life he has wanted to be treated the same as everyone else, but he has found this to be more challenging than he expected. His goal throughout the film is to become eligible to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. While certain meets do let him compete in the category he would prefer to run, he needs to be allowed to participate in the Olympic Trials. His biggest enemy is World Athletics, which was formerly known as the IAAF, the International Amateur Athletic Federation. They are the international governing body of track and field.

World Athletics believes that Leeper’s prosthetics give him an advantage over the able-bodied runners. They label it technological doping. Despite doing little to no research on the actual differences, they request that he prove that he has no advantage over his colleagues. When I first watched the film, I had no idea what it was about, but as soon as I did, this immediately became personal to me. Having previously studied Sport Management in college, I am aware that World Athletics has made several controversial decisions in the past. For example, intersex athlete Caster Semenya was prevented from racing unless she took testosterone suppressers to lower her hormone levels which ended up causing her injuries.

Though the federation may believe they are preserving the sanctity of the sport, what they are doing is discriminatory and unjust. Removing any chance of Leeper competing in major international meets lowers the amount of money he can make through sponsorships. The financial differences between an Olympian and a Paralympian are major. This is the focus of the documentary, though it does an excellent job balancing the racing and personal aspects of his life.

Abled does an awesome job of balancing interviews and real-life footage of Leeper, his family, and his coaches. Not only is he ridiculously talented and certainly able to compete against able-bodied athletes, but he is also one the nicest and most positive people I have watched on TV. If you watch the film, you can’t come away not loving Blake Leeper. His charm and his earnest personality shine through the entire time. If you have the opportunity to check out Abled at some point, it is a wonderful time in the theater or at home. Coming in under 90 minutes, it is the perfect length to watch in one sitting.