The world of athletics in 2025 is a grueling calendar of top-tier competitions, from the World Athletics Championships to the showcase of human spirit at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi. In a muggy and humid Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, American Paralympian Beatriz Hatz has been navigating a journey of intense pressure and high expectations. While her past podium finishes and competitions are part of her evolving story, her presence at the World Para Athletics Championships 2025 marks another chapter in an athletic career dedicated to mastering both the physical and psychological demands of elite sprinting.

Remember the reason she started this journey? When she was younger, she tried her hand at softball, basketball, football, snowboarding, and skiing, only getting into athletics after a friend challenged her. “It started as a joke, and then I made varsity toward the end of the year, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m actually decent at this,’“ she explained back then when asked about her career choice. As a Colorado native now training in San Diego, Hatz embodies the resilience required to compete at the highest level, a resilience that was put to the ultimate test not just by her competitors but by her own mind during a pivotal race.

During an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports following the T63 100m at the World Championships, Hatz provided a candid and insightful dissection of her performance, pinpointing the mental battle as the central factor in her fifth place finish. “I think my start was great. I just I kept up with the people I wanted to keep up with for a good like 40, 50 [meters],“ she recounted. However, the turning point was psychological. “And then unfortunately, I started to get too tense, and my technique, I just kind of lost it all, and so I didn’t place.”

For Hatz, the race was lost in the space between a strong start and a faltering finish, a gap filled with mounting tension that unraveled her preparation. Confronting this challenge head-on, Hatz revealed her approach to building mental resilience, a regimen as disciplined as her physical training.

Hatz explained, “The mental aspect of the sport is difficult to train, but you can do it. I work with a sports psychologist, and so she’s always telling me, like, different things, like, you know, if I’m not on the track, then I need to visualize, and visualizing can help you. Like, you need to sit there and think about, ‘Okay, I want to get out. I want to make sure that my arms are moving at the tempo that I want to,‘ and see yourself do that and see yourself win. You know, that’s the only way. It’s, almost like manifesting.”

This mental rehearsal is critical for athletes, aiming to create neural pathways that make the perfect race feel familiar and achievable, even under the stress of competition. However, for an amputee athlete like Hatz, this focus is particularly crucial, as it ties directly into the unique physical challenges she manages. And beyond the mental game, Hatz faced significant and distinct physical hurdles exacerbated by the environmental conditions in New Delhi.

Beatriz Hatz explains the hidden technicalities of racing with prosthetics

The heat and humidity of India’s capital presented more than just a comfort issue; it was a direct threat to Beatriz Hatz’s equipment’s stability and her safety on the track. “The weather is definitely a challenge, especially as an amputee,” Hatz stated during the same interview with EssentiallySports. She provided a glimpse into a rarely discussed aspect of para-sport, explaining, “As an amputee, a lot of the times, our blades, like, they’ll start to sweat. And once they start to sweat, because it is a suction system, if you start to sweat, it’s going to slide off, and so it can get really hard.”

This necessitates a specific pre-race ritual, especially with the weather in Delhi reaching up to 80% in humidity: “That’s why you see a lot of times we sit there and dry our legs right before the race. It does take us a little bit longer than the other athletes, but it’s just to make sure that we’re safe.” Despite the disappointment in her performance, Hatz’s perspective remains forward-looking and optimistic, fueled by the prospect of a future home-soil competition. Her focus quickly shifted from the race she lost to the home Paralympics she is eager to compete in.

“I hope it’s a big turnout, especially because it is on home soil,” Hatz shared, her excitement palpable. “I currently live in San Diego, two hours away from LA. So I’m very excited and I look forward to it. I hope we put on the best games.”

The World Para Athletics Championships, therefore, serves not as an endpoint, but as a learning experience in Beatriz Hatz’s journey. It highlights the intricate balance of mental fortitude, physical adaptation, and unwavering hope that defines a Paralympian, setting the scene for her return to the world’s biggest stage in Los Angeles.