David Weir has won almost everything in his 22-year career: eight London Marathons, six world championships, six Paralympic gold medals, but never a Commonwealth Games marathon. He has one Commonwealth medal, a gold in the 1500m in Glasgow in 2014, and was determined to win a second until the end. He’s 43 and knew this might be his last chance to do it.
Seventy minutes into the race, it was clear that he would. Weir had a 90-second lead over the field, with six miles or so to go. And then the left tire on his wheelchair went flat.
“Oh no,” he said as he slowed down and pulled off to the side of the road. Soon after teammate Johnboy Smith passed him. Smith, 32, called out to ask Weir what had happened and swore loudly when he found out. “I didn’t want to win by default,” Smith said.
He fancied he could catch Weir and was annoyed that he had been robbed of the chance to compete. Behind him, Weir finished seventh, 24 minutes behind Smith. He got a hell of a standing ovation when he finished. “Where I come from,” he said, “you don’t quit.”
Weir wasn’t sure how it happened, he hadn’t hit anything and the tires were new. He was left cursing. He never carries spares, fearing it will become a curse. “But the last couple of weeks I just had this feeling that something like this was going to happen. I even told my wife I could take a spare with me, I brought the CO2 canisters and everything, and all week I was asking myself, “Should I take it?”
At the starting line, Weir said, he was still looking in his bag, debating whether or not to take the gear with him. He decided not to. “I should have gone with my gut.”
He was confident he had enough of a lead to make the switch and get back into the race. “Even if John had caught me, I could have finished in a sprint.” He was completely disheartened.
England’s Johnboy Smith after winning gold in the men’s T53/54 marathon. Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Weir has been open about how badly he has suffered from depression in the past, particularly after the Rio Paralympics in 2016. He had a bad time at the Tokyo Games last year and was clearly very invested in the idea of winning here. “I feel despair,” he said, “and I’ve never felt despair in a race before.”
In its own way, Smith’s win was a reminder of all that Weir has accomplished in his career. Smith, a journeyman, was paralyzed at 16 when he was shot in the back by a farmer who he mistakenly believed was poaching from him. The farmer was convicted of grievous bodily harm.
Smith began competing in weightlifting, then switched to throwing events after being inspired by the London Paralympics in 2012. He then decided to switch back to wheelchair racing. He wasn’t sure how to start so typed “where does David Weir train?” into Google and went from there.
He ends up at the Weir Archer Academy, which Weir runs with his trainer Jenny Archer. Weir took one look at Smith and told him he needed to lose four stone and that he should come back in six months if he was serious. Smith did, and they’ve been training and competing together ever since.
“I’ve had a lot of support, don’t get me wrong,” Smith said, “But I’m a working-class nobody. I don’t have a gym membership, I train in a single garage at the back of my garden with a leaky roof and a set of rusty dumbbells. But I have a gold medal around my neck. The impossible is nothing. believe in this. Aim high, dream big, it can be achieved. I am proof.
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Behind Smith, Sean Frame of Scotland won the silver medal and Simon Lawson of England won the bronze. England’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women’s silver, behind Australia’s Maddison de Rosario.
The crowds were out for all of them, which felt like a testament to the effect Weir’s performances at London 2012 had on para-sports in this country.
“Don’t write David Weir off,” Smith said. “He’s not an old man, he’s a supreme athlete. If Her Majesty the Queen is watching or listening, knight him. He deserves to be Sir David Weir.
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