His grandfather wasn’t in the stands. No one was.
But Nick Mayhugh knew his grandfather was there in Tokyo with him — encouraging him, cheering him on, unconditionally proud of him.
Mayhugh was giving the world a lot to be proud of during the Tokyo Paralympics.
Just a decade removed from having his life completely rocked, a few years after relearning how to run, Mayhugh was bolting down the brick-red track at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. He summoned every ounce of strength left in him to storm across the finish line in 10.95 seconds, clinching a third Olympic gold medal and a new world record.
As Mayhugh became a legend of the Paralympics, he knew his grandpa was with him, as he always had been. Mayhugh’s grandfather taught him how to play the piano and drums. He coached him on public speaking. He cheered his grandson at soccer games.
On top of his grandfatherly duties, Bill Mayhugh was a radio star. For nearly 50 years, he graced Washington, D.C. listeners with his easygoing persona and expert jazz selections on WMAL’s “All Night Show.” More than a simple host, the elder Mayhugh raised millions of dollars for causes like Leukemia research and was beloved by millions of people.
“He was the voice of D.C.,” Mayhugh, now 28, says of his grandfather. “He had such a brilliant mind and a brilliant way with words.”
But in Mayhugh’s late teenage years, he began to notice some of that brilliance beginning to fade.
“I was one of the first people to notice that something was wrong,” Mayhugh remembers. “He started to forget names, dates and times. We started having the same conversation over and over again. That wasn’t normal for him.”
As his grandfather’s memory crumbled, Mayhugh alerted his family.
“It was dismissed as normal aging,” Mayhugh says. “That was tough for me, being so young and being looked at as somebody who didn’t know much.
“It was tough to have that hard conversation with my family and say, ‘Hey, I think that it’s something more than just aging.’”
After receiving a check-up, Bill Mayhugh was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. He died on his 91st birthday: Friday, October 12, 2018. Nick was 22 years old.
“My grandfather is looking down on me, smiling and proud,” Mayhugh says.
There’s been a lot to smile about. Since his grandfather’s death, Mayhugh has become a sprinting superstar, collecting four Paralympic medals and two world records.
SEE MORE: USA’s Nick Mayhugh explodes for 100m gold in world record
And as he preps for the Paris Paralympics with an eye on more gold, Mayhugh has also launched a campaign to make sure families address early signs of Alzheimer’s. He has partnered with Eli Lilly to spread awareness about the disease. Through a public relations blitz — “More Than Normal Aging” — Mayhugh plans to promote acting as early as possible when memory issues pop up.
“I encourage them to have those hard conversations with loved ones, to seek help in the form of a doctor,” he says. “The hardest first step is to start that initial conversation. They might forget something. It might be passed off as, ‘Oops, that’s not that big of a deal.’
But everything is a big deal, especially when you age, and especially when you start to notice things repetitively.
Mayhugh’s mission stems from his life, and that makes it even more crucial to him.
“If I could go back and be more stern with my family, I definitely would,” Mayhugh says. “So, I can only use my voice to empower more families to do what I didn’t. And that will lead to more families around the globe spending more time with their loved ones than I did with mine.”
Mayhugh is days away from competing at his second Paralympics, which will be his first with family in the stands. After the COVID pandemic kept families like the Mayhughs from traveling to Tokyo, his parents, Scott and Steph, will watch him in Paris — with an assist from celebrity rapper (and U.S. water polo superfan) Flavor Flav.
“My family doesn’t travel much in the U.S., let alone internationally,” Mayhugh says. “So to have my parents there is really all I can ask for. And I know that my grandfather and my grandma are looking down on me in spirit.”
Mayhugh’s journey to Paralympic icon status began at one of the low points of his life. At 14, he was starring on the soccer field in suburban D.C., and his teenage life was going smoothly. But one day, Mayhugh experienced a grand mal seizure. He momentarily lost consciousness and suffered from violent contractions. Maygugh was rushed to the hospital, where an MRI revealed that he had cerebral palsy.
That painful diagnosis explained the constant numbing sensation along the left side of his body, which Mayhugh says he’s experienced forever, affecting movements in his left arm, hand and leg.
Cerebral palsy — that was a massive earthquake for Mayhugh, whose athletic potential had once appeared endless. His world had been “turned upside down.” His doctors told him to give up on sports.
“I was told that I was never going to play soccer again,” Mayhugh remembers.
Without replying, he stood up and walked out of the office. Quitting wasn’t in his plans.
“It’s very easy just to give up or throw the towel in and say, ‘Alright, well at least I tried,’” Mayhugh says. “But I got right back up, and I won’t ever stop until the day I leave this Earth.”
Mayhugh kept playing soccer — and he thrived. He even reached the NCAA Division I level, playing for Radford University. He joined the U.S. Para National Soccer Team and won the 2019 U.S Soccer Player of the Year with a Disability Award.
Soccer wasn’t on the Tokyo Paralympic program, however. Fortunately for Mayhugh, his blazing speed made him a candidate to switch gears and earn a spot in Tokyo. The higher-ups at Team USA asked about track.
“It was just a no-brainer,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘I can do something new. I’m the worst at something. I’m terrible at something. I’ve never done this.’”
He was “terrible,” since he’d never done it. But Mayhugh went for it.
I said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s become the best.’
He did. Mayhugh racked up three gold medals and a silver at the Tokyo Paralympics. He set a world record with a scorching time of 10.95 seconds in the men’s 100m T37. He did the same in the 200m, erupting for a 21.91-second finish. His feats in Tokyo alone make him one of the great U.S. track and field Paralympians of this era.
Now, Paris beckons.
“I’m expecting myself to win gold, break more records and whatever happens, happens,” Mayhugh says. “I just expect myself to be better than I was in Tokyo, mentally and physically.
“That’s the one goal that I have. If I achieve that, then I’ll be a happy man.”
SEE MORE: How to watch track and field at the Paris Paralympics: TV and stream info, schedule
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