Delaney Nolin competed in two sprint events at the 2023 Para Pan American Games, winning a silver medal and a bronze while representing the U.S. team. A 2013 Greely High grad, she now lives and trains at the at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s resident team program in southern California. Joe Kusumoto/USOPC
Delaney Nolin has never liked sitting idle. Nor has she let herself be limited by her cerebral palsy.
“My friends make fun of me constantly for choosing the hardest options out there,” said Nolin, 29, a 2013 graduate of Greely High in Cumberland. “I’ve always enjoyed the challenge, sought out things that are difficult.”
Nolin’s latest challenge took her to her first international paralympic competition, the Para Pan American Games held in Santiago, Chile, in November. Wearing Team USA colors for the first time, Nolin took the silver medal as sprinter in the T35 class 200 meters and then added a bronze medal in the 100 meters.
“This was my first big international competition with Team USA so that in itself was an honor,” said Nolin, who first began competing in para track events in 2017 while running for Occidental College, an NCAA Division III school in Los Angeles.
In paralympic sports there are numerous classifications that group athletes with similar disabilities. T35 is the category for track (T) athletes who have neurological disorders, including cerebral palsy, that impact balance, coordination and muscle power in all four limbs.
Nolin said her disability is not overtly obvious to other people in everyday activities.
“You may or may not be able to notice it just watching me walk, unless you’re looking for it, but for me personally the things that are most noticeable are just general muscle pain and tightness,” said Nolin, adding that balance, coordination and flexibility are other areas where she is limited.
Delaney Nolin stands on the awards podium after winning a silver medal in the 200 meters at the Para Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in November. Joe Kusumoto/USOPC
Her success in Santiago has Nolin looking forward to 2024 and her sport’s biggest events.
In March, Nolin and other para track and field athletes will go to Walnut, California, for the world championship trials. The 2024 Para Athletics World Championship will be held in Kobe, Japan, May 17-25.
Then comes the U.S. Paralympics Trials, July 18-21, at a yet-to-be determined site. The 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris are Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
“The 2024 Paralympic Games, that’s the big goal to make the team for that,” Nolin said. “I think I have a good shot. I’m sort of right on the cusp.”
Another Mainer, Clara Brown of Falmouth, competed in cycling at the most recent Paralympics held in 2021 in Japan.
STATE CHAMP AT GREELY
Since January 2022, Nolin has been living and training at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s resident team program at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in southern California, where she trains five or six days a week.
“It’s been amazing just to be surrounded by other para athletes because my other training groups have only been with able-bodied athletes,” Nolin said. “It’s great to be around athletes and support staff who understand how different disabilities can affect training.”
She does not receive direct funding from the USOPC, though her travel expenses to Chile were covered. Nolin funds her sport through working a variety of odd jobs and a few grants.
Delaney Nolin refuses to be held back by cerebral palsy. “I’m not going to listen to anyone’s ideas of what the limitations for myself should be,” she said. “If you feel like you’ve been given a few more hurdles than other people, I’ve had to show I could not only clear the hurdles, I would clear even more.” Joe Kusumoto/USOPC
Leading up to the Para Pan American Games, Nolin was finishing her master’s degree in marine and environmental biology from the University of Southern California. With her studies completed, Nolin said she’ll look to get a job coaching so over the next six months she can focus even more on her training.
It’s a busy life but Nolin said she was even busier while growing up in Cumberland, where she moved when she was 6 along with her parents, Mark and Maura Nolin, sister Mikela, and younger brother Brady, who is on the baseball team at Alleghany College.
Nolin was on two state champion volleyball teams and ran track at Greely, where she also participated in drama, band and chorus and had time to be in both the Latin and Spanish honor societies.
Volleyball was her priority sport but she was limited by cerebral palsy. The quick reaction, lateral movements, and well-timed jumps needed to excel were difficult for Nolin.
“Coordination was not my strongest suit. I was not the star volleyball player but I loved playing and I was pretty good at serving,” Nolin said.
Former Greely volleyball coach Kelvin Hasch remembers vividly Nolin’s final high school match. The Rangers were playing Biddeford in the state final in Bangor. Greely was trying to close out the match in the fourth game when six straight Rangers missed their serves.
“As a coach, I was fit to be tied and I walked behind the bench and said to the ones on the bench, ‘Can anyone go into the game and put a serve over the net?’ ” Hasch said. “And here’s Delaney. She raises her hand and says, ‘I can do it Coach.’ ”
Nolin entered the game and made 11 consecutive serves. Greely went on to win the state championship.
“It was an amazing feeling, especially to have that be the end of my volleyball career, and to feel like I had helped my team,” Nolin said.
‘SHE NEVER COMPLAINED’
Nolin continued to find competitive outlets while in college. She attended the University of Vermont for a year and was on a swim team.
After transferring to Occidental College, she trained and competed as a member of the women’s varsity track team.
“I made no accommodations for her,” said Tyler Yamaguchi, an assistant coach at Occidental who worked with Nolin for three years. “I had never coached anyone with cerebral palsy. My method was to coach her like everyone else. She never complained. Not once.”
Yamaguchi said Nolin’s disability becomes more apparent the faster she tries to move. Cerebral palsy limits how high Nolin can lift her knees, which in turn limits how much force she can transfer to the ground – a key element for speed.
Nolin’s physical limits didn’t restrict her effort or perseverance. She relished the opportunity to compete in the 400 and 800 meters, two events where the object is to run at nearly top speed for the race’s duration.
“Before she discovered she could compete in para events, she would come in last every single time but she just kept doing it,” Yamaguchi said. “She took it upon herself to research the para division and she educated me in a big, big way.”
At the Para Pan American Games, Nolin competed against four other runners in both of her events. Nolin posted a time of 35.98 seconds in the 200 meters, an event won by American Brianna Salinaro in a Para Pan record time of 34.67. Three days later in the 100 meters, Salinaro won again in 15.90 with Nolin finishing in 17.32.
“I’m definitely really proud of my 200 performance,” Nolin said. “I was dealing with injuries and illness and had not competed since the U.S. Championships in May. I gave everything I had. I fought for every millisecond.”
Yamaguchi said he thinks Nolin’s goals of making the 2024 U.S teams are “pretty realistic. It’s certainly not going to be easy but the past few years she’s been on the precipice, been almost there.”
Nolin said the experience in Chile should help her in the coming months.
“I learned a lot (at the Para Pan Games), even just what an international competition entails,” Nolin said. “The 24-hour travel, the time change, and still being able to perform. A lot of lessons learned there. Now I just have to gear up for the World trials in March, then hopefully Worlds in May, and then (the U.S. Paralympic) trials in July.”
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