Meet the Philippine American who is completely blind
but has become the world’s number one ranked para judo athlete
while simultaneously being a full time software analyst for Comcast.
This is the 25 year old self proclaimed nerd
Leanna Mutia. She grew up visually impaired
but began to completely lose her sight in high school.
She also began judo in high school
and as that coincided with her vision loss,
judo was the one thing that gave her a sense of normalcy
during hard times. Years later,
she’s headed to her second Paralympics
and has established herself as a medal contender
after medaling in back to back world championships.
My shortest match ever was two seconds
and I’d like to continue to just sharpen my strategy just a little bit
because I’d like to win a match in one second,
not two seconds. Two is kind of an ugly number.
Just kidding. No it doesn’t really like two seconds.
Actually pretty good. Her day to day looks like
waking up at 6 to exercise and scout opponents,
working her tech job from 9 to 6 p. M.
And training for judo for hours at night.
And what’s incredible
is that she uses her tech skills to prepare for matches.
When scouting, Leanna puts together a spreadsheet
with all the information on her opponent
and uses tendencies to project how a match will play out.
Leanna immigrated from the Philippines to the USA at a young age
and still holds a Lot of her culture.
Close to her. I’m Filipino American.
It’s such a massive part of, like,
my heritage and who I am as a person and my family
and even the way I live now.
Like, it’s influenced so many parts of my life
that I just hope that I can give back to the Filipino community.
And I just want them to give them a reason to be proud.