Noelle Lambert, the 27-year-old Paralympian that lost her left leg in a 2016 moped crash on Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs, is officially headed to Paris.
Lambert previously ran the 100-meter dash in Tokyo three years ago, but out-did herself at the Paralympic Trials in Florida last weekend by qualifying for both the 100-meter dash and long jump in early September.
The Manchester, New Hampshire native first added jumping to her repertoire over the winter, and quickly broke the American record for female T63 competitors (amputation above one knee) in March — her 5.06-meter leap on Friday night tied her own record.
“We pretty much knew she would qualify. She was jumping at a world-record level,” her agent Kim Zayotti said. “She’s incredible.”
Lambert has recorded unofficial bounds reaching 5.24 meters during training, which is just nine centimeters short of the world record set by reigning Paralympic gold medalist Vanessa Low (Australia) earlier this year.
Lambert has focused mostly on long jumping in recent months, yet her 100-meter dash times are also improving rapidly.
In Tokyo, Lambert’s sixth-place finish of 15.97 seconds was an American record, and on Saturday morning she clocked in at 15.02 — just fifteen hundredths of a second behind trials champion and current American record holder Lindi Marcusen of Spokane, Washington.
If the medal-winning times and distances from Tokyo were to be repeated this September, Lambert is on track to win silver in the long jump and top-five in the 100-meter dash.