Gold medallist sprinter Liam Malone has sights set on new record

  • 22/09/2016
(Photosport)
(Photosport)

New Zealand's Paralympians arrived home from Rio on Thursday morning with a haul of 21 medals - including 3 from 'blade-runner' Liam Malone.

The gold medallist already has his sights on the next goal: breaking New Zealand's able-bodied 400m sprint record (46.1 secs) at Nationals.

"I ran 46.2 in Rio so I was very close to breaking that. And I think the narrative of that would be awesome given that I sucked at running as a kid and absolutely hated it."

Malone told Paul Henry he has a few goals in mind after Rio. He'd like to see developments in his sport of blade-running, which will have positive impacts overall on technology for people with disabilities.

"Oscar Pistorius - he went and competed at the summer Olympics, as an outcome of that, all this regulation came in onto the blades in terms of height and this and that.

"I think the best thing to do would be to have no regulation and try to bring about the advent of a human being like myself - I don't think it will be me - that can run as fast as an able-bodied person, if not faster.

"That'd be better as a whole for society in terms of technology for amputees."

He says the gold medals come after three long years of hard work, and he hopes it means there'll be more opportunities for him.

He's really appreciated the support and attention from Kiwis, but said rumours about his popularity with women isn't true.

"I'm not the cool guy in my group, I'm the goofy guy at parties - when girls talk to me I direct them to the cool guys.

"I think my haircut's ridiculous, I think I look goofy as hell but I'll take these compliments as they come."

Malone says he'd like to get a decent manager, "and try and work with visionary companies that are looking to make an impact in the world".

"I'm really passionate about business, innovation and technology, so finding companies that share those same values is really important.

"I also really want to get into the entertainment industry, to get into acting, into stand-up. I feel that people with disabilities are underrepresented and misrepresented. To me that says there's an opportunity there."

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