Paralyzed teen track star Tre Lawson gets back on his feet in inspiring video
During his lifetime, Tre Lawson has taken many trips around the track — but his latest one might be the most important yet.
Lawson was a rising track star recruited by top schools like Auburn and Clemson when he was injured in a 2017 car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
But on Sunday, the 19-year-old student at Fort Valley State University in Georgia got out of his wheelchair and walked around the track — his first lap on foot since that fateful day.
He tweeted a short video of him moving with the help of a walker — with the accompanying message: “I’ve dreamed of the day when I would be finally strong enough to go around a track.”
It’s making the feel-good rounds on Twitter and has 3.5 million views, nearly 98,000 likes and more than 13,000 retweets.
“This was my first time putting my feet on the track again,” Lawson tells The Post. “It was such a relief. I was just trying to show people that it’s time I get back to the track. I didn’t really think [the video] would get as big as it did.“
It’s a burst of good news for Lawson, whose last two years have been an exercise in grit. Lawson was returning home from a track meet with friends when their car went off the road and down a 30-foot ravine. His spinal cord was nearly severed, and he was left paralyzed from the waist down.
“I was in the hospital for about four weeks, and I don’t remember anything. I had only flashes of seeing people. When I woke up, I was in a bad place mentally. I couldn’t move my legs, and I was having suicidal thoughts.”
Lawson was moved to Shepherd Center in Atlanta where he started to gain a fresh perspective.
“On the third day I was there, I was going around and you see some people can’t move their arms. You just realized you are blessed with another chance.”
After several months of intense therapy, he was able to stand and take steps with the help of a walker. Now a freshman in college, Lawson is studying early childhood development and special education and still uses a wheelchair to get around. He started a charity called Rolling Hope, which sells T-shirts to benefit the Shepherd Center and spinal cord injury research.
He says his family and hurdling coach Mike Binson have provided the wind at his back. And the memory of his late brother, Nekaron Lawson, who died a year before his accident, is always pushing him to work harder.
“I always think about my older brother. I have his picture at my bedside, and he gives me energy.”
He’ll need to keep his energy up because he’s not resting on Sunday’s accomplishment.
“I actually want to do one lap a week. Then, when I get stronger, I want to build to two. And finally kick the walker to the side.”
He hopes his video garners the attention of Ryan Shazier, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker who sustained a spinal cord injury during a hit in a 2017 game. Shazier, 26, shocked and delighted fans when he slowly walked across the stage at last year’s NFL draft.
Lawson has received many congratulatory messages calling him an inspiration, which he calls a “great feeling.”
But there was one message that cut to the heart of the matter. It was from his mother, Daphne Lawson.
“My mom said, ‘It’s about time you are walking on the track again,” he said adding, “She is always telling it like it is.”