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Michael Whittaker

@michael_john_whittaker

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- Para athlete
- PhD student, English Literature, University of Auckland
- Consultant, @allisforall

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@michael_john_whittaker on track in New Delhi 🇮🇳

📸 @mtsportsphoto
#athleticsnz #trackandfield #paraathletics taken in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Delhi) by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago

It would have been honour enough to receive a University of Auckland Blues Award (Sport). A great surprise, then, on a lovely spring evening earlier this month, to hear my name read out as one of six Major Award winners: Para-athlete Sportsperson of the Year.

Many here know the outlines of my unlikely, late-blooming, blindness-inflected love story with athletics. Its next chapters owe a great deal to @uoasportandrec’s High Performance programme, and it’s to that team this award is dedicated.

It all very nearly never happened. (Shoutout, first, to @batch.grams for getting me on the programme.) @dangardner14 can attest that when I first walked out of the HIWA complex I was shaking, swearing, and convinced that hell for low-vision people had been successfully designed – and that I’d never be back.

Morning by morning, however, my trainers helped me map the whole, huge place out in my head. Now I’m there for several hours a day, three mornings a week, and it’s one of my favourite places on the planet. Another unexpected inversion in a life littered with plot twists.

Like many runners, I’d always avoided the gym – for accessibility reasons, but also out of inertia and not knowing where to start. It’s humbling not to know even the most basic lifts, and confronting to find, then painstakingly fix, your weaknesses. But that discomfort, I’ve come to learn, is a major green flag – it’s where growth happens: I’m now a stronger, more robust, more complete athlete than I’ve ever been.

None of this could/would have happened without my S&C coach, @_jwperformanceltd . I trust him completely: if Joe says do it, I do it. Kudos is due, too, to @jordan.t0wnsend . These guys are world-class, and I want to prove it. Through World Champs and on to LA ’28, the job is to turn relentless, professional training into results – on the track, on the velodrome, and (for the first time soon) on the triathlon course.

My huge congratulations, also, to my fellow Blues Award recipients across all categories, and to the other Major Award winners.

Onwards!

#UoABluesAwards #HIWA #ParaAthletics #ParaTriathlon #LA28 taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @michael_john_whittaker

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4 days ago

MOGACǍR, pre-TT, yesterday.

World Para Road Champs benchmark (unofficially) clocked.

Thanks, as ever, to:
- @dangardner14
- @rehub.nz
- @_jwperformanceltd
- @jordan.t0wnsend
- @uoasportandrec
- @vaughan_craddock
- @sportslabnz
- @cyclingnewzealand taken in Cambridge, New Zealand by @michael_john_whittaker

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2 months ago

Auckland City Tri/Under Bird’s Wing 5000m TT, yesterday.

Event, superb.
Support, unrivalled.
PB, secured.

Long live this initiative by @underbirdswing . Affordable ($5), approachable, low-key, local, non-leery.

Looking forward to the next one already.

I’m too damn precious, often, about stepping outside of my comfort zone. Signing up for something—just about anything, really—is half the battle won. Everyone, everywhere, always, stares down the barrel of something at the starting line. And that’s good company to keep.

Thank you:
- @_liambird
- @claudiaastewart
- @_jwperformanceltd
- @vaughan_craddock
- @nickcodyre
- @dangardner14
- @iloveugly
- @adidasaotearoa

With special thanks to:
- @griffin_logan . Whether on two wheels or on two feet, it’s always special to be out there with you. What a friend you are.
- @jordan.t0wnsend . Credit where credit’s due - both for the vid and for busting your voicebox to bring the boy home. taken in Lovelock Track Mt Roskill by @michael_john_whittaker

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3 months ago

4000m. 4:25.36. 54.34km/hr.

A new National Record. Big time.

Something worth shaving your legs for.

I couldn’t have done it without:
- @dangardner14
- @rehub.nz
- @_jwperformanceltd
- @uoasportandrec
- @vaughan_craddock
- @sportslabnz
- @nickcodyre
- @tyler.burbage
- @griffin_logan
- @_danielmackey_
- @cyclingnewzealand taken in Grassroots Trust Velodrome by @michael_john_whittaker

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3 months ago

@adidasaotearoa got me mixing up my EVO SL’s.

#blindbutblessed

@_jwperformanceltd by @michael_john_whittaker

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9 months ago

2026: Earn your stripes - /// - @adidasaotearoa taken in Caledonian Ground by @michael_john_whittaker

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9 months ago

Getting Trolleyed with Holly Robinson

This is the sixth and—for this “season” at least—final of this unfolding series of highly amateurish, one-take-only introductions to the 2025 NZ Para World Championships team. Filmed whilst getting whisked through Singapore Airport to make a tight connection back to Aotearoa, we here meet @hollyrobinson94 , a F46 thrower. Holly won a silver medal in the shot put on Oct 2, the sixth day of competition.

We talk crossing codes, striking silver, and Holly’s astounding career arc, as well as athletics as empowerment, self-expression, and a means to make the most of oneself each and every day. We also give a signing-off shout-out to our team-mates still doing us proud as the competition comes to a climax. (Never fear, everyone, I’ll be sure to catch up with the remaining team members — @dani.aitchison , @_sarah.jamesss , and @paddy.walsh_ — down the road.)

You can continue to watch all the action—live, free, and in replay—here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8dYPkV6nw

#worldparaathletics
#paraathletics
#athleticsnz
#trackandfield taken in Singapore Changi Airport by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago

🏃 Top eight for @michael_john_whittaker 🥵

12 and a half laps in the Indian heat and finishing close to a PB, a quality world para debut!

📸 @mtsportsphoto taken in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Delhi) by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago

You can watch the race—live, free, and in replay—here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8dYPkV6nw

#worldparaathletics
#paraathletics
#athleticsnz
#trackandfield by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago

Getting Ready with William Steady

In the fifth of this unfolding series of highly amateurish, one-take-only introductions to the 2025 NZ Para World Championships team, filmed in different locations around our accomodations in New Delhi, we meet @william_stedman, a T36 sprinter and long jumper. We get Steady ready for his medal ceremony for his 400m race, which he won bronze in on the third day of competition.

We talk Will’s illustrious career (no laughing matter), his hardware haul at these Champs (so far), the cost (in vomit) of a good pain-cave cook-out, leaps of faith, and why this interview represents a new low in his media involvement.

You can watch all the action—live, free, and in replay—here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8dYPkV6nw

#worldparaathletics
#paraathletics
#athleticsnz
#trackandfield taken in New Delhi by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago

Papadams with Lisa Adams

In the fourth of this unfolding series of highly amateurish, one-take-only introductions to the 2025 NZ Para World Championships team, filmed in different locations around our accomodations in New Delhi, we meet Lisa Adams, who competes in the F37 shot put. We sit down with Lisa following the medal ceremony for day three of the competition, where Lisa was honoured for her gold medal-winning performance last night.

We talk heavy-hitting bling-bling, the power of understatement, podium emotions, and saving this blind bat from his bad habit of buffet lucky-dipping.

You can watch all the action—live, free, and in replay—here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8dYPkV6nw

#worldparaathletics
#paraathletics
#athleticsnz
#trackandfield taken in New Delhi by @michael_john_whittaker

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a year ago