Hamilton Making Sense | Perth Product Poised for World Para Championships

Standing at 196cm and sporting size 13 spikes, Jackson Hamilton is built like Tarzan. The Perth product is missing sense but making sense ahead of his international debut at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships, revealing how he arrived under the lights of the world stage from a place of darkness.

Although a debutant, Hamilton speaks with the poise of a seasoned veteran. The 20-year-old offers a perspective reflective of the years he has invested in coming to terms with degenerative eye condition since birth, describing a life defined by adaption and ability.

“The human brain is always going to adapt to whatever situation it is in. Whatever happens to anyone, it is always going to be a shock at the start, but after a few years you just learn to adapt,” Hamilton says.

Totally blind in his left eye and legally blind in his right, the thrower uses accessibility equipment including magnifying glasses, enlarged font and talk to text features to complete his Exercise and Sport Science degree. He is most free amongst nature where he can see “a few metres” and navigates by identifying shapes and shadows, also enjoying the senses of smell and taste when it comes to cooking:

“You wouldn’t think that bushwalking would be something that a blind person would do, but it’s the exact same as someone with perfect vision. I get the same satisfaction and endorphins running through my body. I can still smell, feel, hear - it’s not hard to experience what I am doing,” Hamilton says.

“Fishing is also great! My friends and I go at night time, so it’s not like they can see either. I’ll cast out and then it’s all about feeling when the fish bites, so I don’t need my eyes to enjoy those moments.”

Suffering his first of two detached retinas playing basketball as a 13-year-old, Hamilton recounts the excruciating recovery process after surgery to insert a buckle in his eye, fluctuating in emotions but never resolve.

“I was in my pitch-black room for 4-6 weeks because any sort of light would completely trigger it. I was just listening to music because I couldn’t look at a screen or do anything that used my eyes. At the time it was very disorientating, I had head spins all the time and felt like throwing up,” Hamilton says.

Continuing his athletic career against his both able bodied and Para rivals, Hamilton started to forge a relationship between his mind and body that would allow him to communicate without his vision, emerging as a world-class Javelin F13 talent while still winning medals in the able bodied ranks.

A second detached retina on the morning of his competition at the 2019 Arafura Games had Hamilton in a panic, but the then teenager decided to throw regardless with no flights home available.

“I woke up on the day of competition and turned the light on, and as soon as I looked around I saw this huge sheet of redness and instantly knew my retina had detached again,” Hamilton says.

“I actually threw a personal best, but it was really tough competition emotionally knowing what I was about to go through when I got home to Perth.”

It is that very ability to trust his intrinsic feeling over visual perception that has allowed Hamilton to flourish under the guidance of Coach Morgan Ward, earning his international debut at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships beginning in four days in Paris, France:

“I can never see where the throw has landed, but there are two ways that I can tell if its good. Because I am blind I have got pretty good intrinsic body awareness and feeling, and I also try to hear how long it is in the air for – with both of those things I can tell 99.9% of the time how far it has gone,” Hamilton says.

“This World Championships for me is all about the experience, this is my first team and I’m only 20-years-old. I’m hoping it’s the first of many because I will throw until I can’t anymore. I want to soak it all in and learn as much as I can to fuel my training and come back for the Paralympics next year and many years to come.”

Learning Braille in primary school and crediting sport for giving him purpose, fulfilment and satisfaction, Hamilton is out to build on his 61.74m personal best when he takes to the field of Stade Charléty on July 15.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 5/7/2023