GARRISON REDD HAS ALWAYS EMBRACED CHALLENGE AS HE AIMS TO MEDAL AT PARAPAN AMERICAN GAMES

Even after Garrison Redd’s accident, he still had the ambitious goal of going to college. When he was 17 in 2006, Redd was hit by a stray bullet on a typical summer night outside of his home in Brooklyn, injuring the T12 section of his spinal cord, rendering him unable to walk. 

After 11 months at NYU for rehabilitation, Redd still managed to graduate on time at James Madison High School. The transition to a different style of life could have deterred him or steered his life in another direction, but he was determined to find a way to go to college. 

He and his family had visited Hofstra, a school nearby Redd which would make it easy for the commute since both of his parents worked and Redd couldn’t drive himself to class. Hofstra, however, wasn’t handicap accessible. 

“What I told Garrison was— ‘I can’t get you out of this one. You’re going to have to do this,’” his mother, Laura, said when thinking about how he would have to get to college.

To resolve the issue, Redd got driving lessons with hand controls so he would be able to drive back-and-forth to college himself. The experience was new, but Redd embraced the challenge, and in his first lesson had almost no issues learning the new driving method. Redd then attended Kingsborough Community College and graduated from York College in 2012.

For Redd, just like his first day learning to drive a car a different way, he has always embraced challenges, which has helped him become a competing force as a Para Powerlifter for Team USA. Now, the Brooklyn native looks to medal in the Men’s Up to 65kg at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, which will help position him to qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Growing up, Redd didn’t like baseball. For a competitor like him, the game was too slow for him. Still, Laura didn’t let him quit until the season was finished. For her, that was the golden rule, as Redd was never going to quit halfway through. 

This competitive spirit became a part of Redd. Even with the board games he played with his parents, he refused to lose. He also was a fast learner. In high school before his injury, Redd was a standout football player and had Division-I interest. The lessons he learned in football translated to how he approached weightlifting. While the competition season was important for each, it was really the offseason that made a substantial difference in results.  

“The offseason is when you make those gains, not the day of the competition,” Redd said. 

After trying out Wheelchair Football and Racing after his injury, Redd eventually discovered powerlifting where he was a natural — lifting almost double his weight with little-to-no technique or training experience. 

This garnered interest from Team USA Para Powerlifting, and when Team USA first reached out, Redd ignored the email thinking it was spam, as opportunities like this weren’t too typical for where he came from.

However, once he found out the interest was real, he attended a Level 1 Training Camp held by Team USA and his future performance manager Mary Hodge, who held the camp close by to his home at Gaglione Strength, which he would make into his training grounds. 

Hodge said that one thing that separated Redd from other athletes was that even though he was newer, he was coachable, which helped with his technique.

“From the beginning, he was willing to take any advice you gave and try to implement it,” Hodge said. “He sought after me and Coach John (Gagglione) and was always in the gym.” 

Even when Garrison couldn’t find a time to meet in person with Hodge, he would still set a time to get on a Zoom to get feedback on his technique. The focus and attention to detail paid off, as Redd initially started lifting 113 kilograms and struggled to get clean lifts. At the World Championships in Dubai, he successfully lifted 127kg.

In that time frame, he has also traveled across the United States, England, Mexico, Georgia and all over the world as he chases new heights in his powerlifting career. All of which he or his parents had never imagined before he got into powerlifting. 

Redd’s prowess in the para lifting world isn’t the only thing he’s earned notoriety for. In fact, he has a list of accolades that show how he’s embraced the challenge to do just more than be an athlete and to use his platform to inspire people.

In January of 2021, Redd got a children’s book published called Bobby’s Adventure at a New School which features a 4th grade student with a wheelchair as he navigates his first day in a public school. He also founded a non-profit, The Garrison Redd Project Inc., aimed to spread disability awareness. He is also a model, motivational speaker and Instagram influencer with more than 70,000 followers. 

Right before Redd lifts the bar off the rack, he thinks about beating gravity, and winning that battle between him and the natural pull of the Earth. Not only is he just lifting the weight, Redd is lifting up the world with each lift and all of the people he can inspire.

“It’s not so much the physical aspect,” Redd said. “But the hope that I’m giving to other people when I’m able to rack that bar and have a successful lift.”

With his mother in the stands for the first time at a competition, Redd will look to further push himself to new heights as he will start the opening round with a 130kg lift, a personal record.