I went to the U.S. Paralympic Trials and it was nothing short of awesome

The time trials qualified the athletes to compete at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. It was the largest Paralympic time trials in history — hosting more than 400 athletes in a three-day competition.

The Paralympic Games became an official entity parallel to the Olympic Games in 1989, allowing athletes with a range of physical disabilities to represent their countries and compete at the highest level.

On Thursday, just day one of the time trials for swimming, seven (yes seven) American records were broken. One highlight: Swimmer Alexa Halko broke her own T34 world record in the 800 meter, coming in third place overall in the combined field.

I’m going to be honest — I had never seen any sort of Paralympic event before, let alone such an important time trial — and I didn’t know what to expect.

I went to watch the track and field trials on Friday at Johnson C. Smith University. The trials were set up by event, and each event had a number of different heats where the athletes ran in groups of five to six.

I watched the athletes run the 100 meter dash. And then the discus, javelin, and long jump.

I know it’s going to sound kind of cliche. But I found the whole event to be inspiring.

Not because it was the “Paralympics”, but because I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of sprinting 100 meters in under 13 seconds — disabled or not.

To push beyond a disability, beyond what people expect you’re capable of — that’s what I consider a role model. A real representative for our country on the global stage of the Olympics.

I also couldn’t help but be amazed at the size of their muscles. Like seriously. Their biceps are basically the size of my legs. Crazy strong. Crazy athletic.

The Summer 2016 Paralympics Games will take place on September 7-8 in Rio.

I can’t wait to root for both of our US Olympic teams in Rio. They definitely deserve it.