Myles Porter
A former football player at the University of Toledo and high school wrestler, judo was not a sport in which Myles Porter thought he would be competing. He discovered judo through a class at UT when he needed more credits for the semester. Porter says that his advisor gave him three options: karate, something like basket weaving or judo.
As a former wrestler, Porter knew enough about judo to give it a try. However, little did he know how well he would excel in the sport, quickly becoming one of the top judo players in the world.
Porter began competing in tournaments and qualified for his first IBSA Judo World Championships Team in 2006. That same year he competed in his first major international competition and took fifth in his division.
Later that year, he became just the third legally blind judo athlete ever to earn a national ranking among sighted athletes when he placed second at the Dallas Invitational, a USA Judo Senior E-Level Point Tournament.
Porter outdid himself once again when taking third place among sighted athletes at the 2009 Rendez-Vous Canada, a USA Judo B-level Point Tournament. He is only the second vision-impaired athlete to place at a B-level event. This win moved Porter into the #3 ranking in the U.S. among sighted athletes in the 100kg division.
He made his Paralympic Games debut in Beijing in 2008 and finished in fifth place.
Porter is currently a full-time athlete, living and training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. He is working to qualify for both the 2012 Paralympic and Olympic Games in London.
Major Achievements:
- 2011: Gold medal: Parapan American Games, Guadalajara, Mexico
- 2010: Gold medal – Lithia Open
- 2010: Gold medal – German Open
- 2010: Bronze medal – IBSA World Championships
- 2009: Gold medal – USA Judo Visually Impaired National Championships
- 2009: Gold medal – IBSA Pan American Games
- 2009: Gold medal – Visually Impaired U.S. Open
- 2008: Fifth place – Paralympic Games, Beijing, China
- 2006: Fifth place – IBSA World Championships, Brommit, France
