Introducing our July cover star, ScoutBassett! The athlete opens up to writer hannahpasternak about preparing for the Tokyo Paralympics, finding self-acceptance through running, and pushing against stigma against women with disabilities.
Scout Bassett logs into our Zoom meeting from a cookie-cutter hotel room somewhere in Texas. Her hair is slicked back in a low bun as neat as the bed behind her, and she’s wearing a few dainty gold necklaces and a Nike quarter-zip. She’s in San Antonio for a track meet—the first she’s competed in since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Prior to this her last competition was in November 2019 at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.
Bassett spent much of her younger years in a government-run orphanage in China, where she’d been abandoned when she was 12 months old. She’s never found out how she got there or who dropped her off, but when she arrived, she was missing her lower right leg and was covered in burns and scars from a chemical fire.
“When I put on this running leg, suddenly the thing that really held me back was no longer holding me back,” Bassett tells me. “It just changed my whole thinking and how I felt about myself. It was from that moment that I really felt like I had some hope of the future.” Photographed by Josefina Santos. Wardrobe Styling by Kat Typaldos. Hair and Makeup by Mallorie Mason. On Scout: Jumpsuit by Jacquemus. Gloves by Marine Serre. Earrings by Panconesi. Rings by Another Feather and Ale Bremer. Shoes by Nike.
That evaluation involved switching back to a blade she’d run with before. She’s had a lot of success training with it since. And then there’s the socket—the typically plastic piece that holds the residual limb in place—which Bassett also upgraded during this time off. Bassett also keeps a journal where she steadily catalogs how her body feels. Throughout the pandemic, Bassett has documented each workout, including her times, effort level, and how she’s feeling more broadly. She notes how she adjusted her prosthetic that day; whether it was more comfortable or not. She rates her pain on a scale of 1 to 10, closes her notebook, and does it all again the next day.
“It was a great reminder for me that we all have a choice,” she says. “And that no matter what’s happened to you, even if it wasn’t your fault, you have a choice of what you’re going to do with that and whether or not you want to stay parked there or you want to become whole and to heal.” Bassett got started on “a lot of therapy,” she says, and is now in a much better place.
As a counter to perceptions of disability, Bassett tries to use her interactions with the public as opportunities to educate. It can sometimes be an uncomfortable process. Bassett also hopes to use her platform to increase Asian representation. “You don’t see a lot of Paralympic athletes that get a lot of opportunities, and certainly Asians are extremely underrepresented in media, entertainment, and sports,” she says. She says she’s had a difficult time coping with thein anti-Asian hate crimes. “The more recent violence has just been heartbreaking and devastating,” she says.
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