Dartanyon crockett biography of donald

This story originally aired on Sept. 10, 2016. This web feature has been updated accordingly.

Dartanyon Crockett's early life was bleak.

His mother died when he was 8 years old.

Dartanyon was Lincoln's best and strongest talent.

Dartanyon was Lincoln's best and strongest talent.

In this excerpt from her upcoming book, Carry On, Fenn recounts Dartanyon's improbable quest to medal at the Paralympic Games.

He won a bronze medal at the London Paralympics and is the IBSA Judo World Champion.

"Carry On" is the inspirational story of Lisa Fenn, Dartanyon Crockett, and Leroy Sutton, as they navigated through personal challenges and.

Dartanyon won a bronze medal at the London Games in the sport of blind judo, and he arrives in Brazil ranked second in the world in his weight class.

His father was an addict. By the time Dartanyon was a sophomore in high school, he was sleeping on friends' couches. Plus, Dartanyon is legally blind.

"Being a black kid in the inner city with physical limitations, or what people call a disability, you're already written off," Dartanyon says.

"No one expects much from you. You're basically useless. And I wasn't in a position where I could fix that."

Dartanyon Crockett couldn't change his circumstances, so he did the only thing he could — he tried to hide them. Dartanyon's severely nearsighted, but he has just enough sight to get by.

The unexpected social media reaction to ESPN's “Carry On” follow-up piece on the American judoka drew awareness to the Paralympic Movement.

So he pretended he could see. He joined his high school wrestling team and didn't even tell the coaches.

"They had no idea," Dartanyon says. "I was looking at somethi