Brannigan earns sixth career world championships medal at Para Athletics in Paris

Northport High School graduate Mikey Brannigan has earned another medal in the 1500-meter race, this time at the 2023 Para Athletics World Championships in Paris. Brannigan, who is on the autism spectrum, won a gold medal in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and competed in the 2021 Olympic/Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The medal is just one of many esteemed accomplishments for the now 26-year-old. In August 2016, at the Sir Walter Miler meet in Raleigh, North Carolina, Brannigan became the first person with a T20 Paralympic classification, which refers to intellectual disability, to break the four-minute mark in a 1500m.

Brannigan was diagnosed with autism as a toddler; he began running with Long Island’s Rolling Thunder Special Needs Program when he was just eight years old. In February 2015, the year he graduated from Northport High School, Brannigan was named the Sports Illustrated High School Athlete of the Month in the USA.

At this year’s Para Athletics Worlds, Brannigan took silver with a time of 3:53.50, a season best, in the 1500m. The win qualifies him to compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games, also in Paris next summer.

The world champion medal was the sixth in Brannigan’s career, and helped Team USA earn the third place ranking in overall medal count with 10 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze medals. More than 100 nations competed in the Worlds.

The two-time high school All-American, and one of the nation’s top prep runners during his time at Northport High School, also earned medals (three gold, two silver) at the World Para Athletics Championships: 800m and 1500m gold and 5000m silver in 2017, and 1500m gold and 5000m silver in 2015. In 2017, Mikey was named Team USA’s Male Paralympic Athlete of the Year.

Quoted by the US Paralympics Track and Field organization, Brannigan said after medaling in Paris last month: “I’m feeling very happy with the race and very excited. I got out well and ran my own race. It’s been a good experience here.”

“We are as always proud of Mikey’s accomplishments on and off the track,” Brannigan’s mom Edie Smith Brannigan told the Journal. “He is training hard to bring another Paralympic gold medal back to the USA, New York and especially to his hometown Northport/East Northport.” Mikey will be home to watch the Great Cow Harbor 10K in September, Edie shared, after which he’ll head to the US Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs for the month of October, and then to Chile for the Para Pan American Games in November.

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