NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Stephen F. Austin's, Jarvis Anderson is no stranger to winning gold medals and breaking records, having won many awards during his track career.
But Anderson has a special element to his story, he is deaf in both ears. He doesn't view this as a disability, but more so as a gift from God. Anderson's main event is the 400 hurdles, where he has excelled in the past setting a deaf high school world record in the 300 and 110 Hurdles.
Anderson is a rising sophomore who runs track and plays football for the Lumberjacks, where he just recently got third at the WAC conference championship lowering his personal best to 50.10.
While the other athletes have average racing jitters, Anderson has to focus on hearing the gun go off for his race as well as race day anxieties. The officials accommodate to Jarvis by using a louder gun so he can "hear" the sound waves.
"When I ran 50.10, I was so proud of myself and a lot of people were shocked because they didn't think a deaf person could do that," Anderson said. "deaf people can do everything and God gave me this ability."
In his collegiate career Anderson competes against hearing athletes, and wanted to try out for the 2024 Olympic Games. However, the 400 Hurdle Olympic Trials standard is 49.75 meaning even if he tried out it would be very difficult to make it out the rounds, but still possible.
Anderson decided to compete at the World Deaf Championships where he feels most comfortable and is a great chance for him to be around other athletes like him.
"I want to go where the deaf culture is since I am deaf," said Anderson. "I do want to try out for the 'hearing' Olympics eventually." Anderson competed at the Deaflympics two years ago in Brazil where he placed third setting another deaf world record in the 400 Hurdles.
Jarvis has multiple records and championships such as the Texas 4A 300 Hurdle record, the 110 and triple jump state championship, but he wasn't recruited as heavily as he should've been because of his deafness.
"I worked so hard for so many years but when it got to where I was going to college the coaches thought 'I don't know how to communicate with him, It seems like it would be too much of a struggle," Anderson said.
Anderson expressed his frustration for that but always remained positive and worked hard throughout the process. He also says he wants to inspire the deaf community to go for anything they set their mind to, regardless of the adversity they may face.
"I really want to inspire the deaf people to just show their talents and don't worry about the disability and show the world to connect and support each other," Anderson said.