For Zion Clark, he’s got the world in his palm — or, palms.
Born without legs, the renowned athlete relies on his hands due to a rare spinal disorder called caudal regressive syndrome, caused by abnormal development of the spine at birth.
“In my hands is everything,” Clark, who lives by the mantra “no excuses,” told The Post. “No excuses is more than just a phrase or a tattoo. It has a deeper meaning.”
For the 25-year-old athlete, abiding by those sacred two words has paid off: He’s a world record holder, recipient of an Emmy and a social media phenom with over 1 million adoring Instagram fans following his inspiring journey, which he will speak about during the Strong New York Fitness and Wellness Festival at Chelsea Piers on Saturday.
In 2021, the Los Angeles-based athlete was crowned the “fastest man on two hands” by the Guinness Book of World Records, which he has plans to trump.
He’s reached speeds of 30 miles per hour on only his hands but say he’s only picked up speed — and strength — in the last year. He claims he’s “physically faster” and wants to “rebreak” his record.
“I don’t want to just keep that one record. You gotta love what you do, right? I absolutely love fighting, I like to wrestle, I like to move fast,” he gushed. “I love to feel the wind blowing by my ears and I’m moving at 18, 20 miles an hour going down the track.”
But he’s more than just a fast pair of hands. In fact, he wrestles, skateboards and also moonlights as a musician, frequently showing off his impressive drumming skills on Instagram.
“I got introduced to drums [when] I found this drummer slap and I was in church,” he said. “I still remember like it was yesterday. I was like 4 years old. And I just kind of fell in love with music at that very moment.”
Four guitars, three drum sets, three keyboards, two trumpets, a saxophone, a tuba and a clarinet later, you could say Clark is a musical chameleon, although being active will always take first place in his heart.
At 3-foot-2 and 110 pounds, he has dreams beyond a few Guinness records — he’s an Olympic hopeful. If he were to compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the feat would make him the first American to qualify for both the Olympics and the Paralympics in two separate sports: wrestling and wheelchair racing.
He trains regularly in the hopes of achieving his long list of personal goals — which now includes mixed martial arts with the main card fight slated for the Gladiator League‘s Dec. 17 match — and the rippling muscles are just an added bonus.
In fact, he’d be the first to say he doesn’t work out for the aesthetics. Clark isn’t interested in looking good; he wants to win — and it’s working.
“The byproduct [of Clark’s achievements] is showing people what you’re capable of through your mind,” Craig Levinson, Clark’s trainer, manager, roommate and pal, told The Post, adding that “limitations” can be turned into “superpowers” if you put your mind to it.
“It’s embodying that new mentality of defying all odds… not being limited to what society tells you you can and can’t be. You could essentially be what you want to be without being defined or put into a box.”
Life for Clark is really anything but limiting, despite facing unthinkable odds. He said he’s only met one person who shares his rare condition and noted it varies from person to person.
“It’s so rare. You never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I have a big portion of my spine missing. And I don’t have legs.”
Given up as an infant in Ohio, he spent much of his adolescence in foster care, where he was “mentally abused, physically bullied and underfed” until he was 17, when his now-mother Kimberly Hawkins adopted him.
“I experienced a lot of trauma, a lot of physical, emotional, mental, psychological… and spiritual damage,” Clark said of his experience in the system, bouncing from home to home. “God blessed me to come out on the other end as successful as I am now, but my mom took me in when nobody else was going to take me in.”
If he hadn’t been taken in by Hawkins, he would’ve been homeless, left “on the side of the road” with “a plastic bag and a few clothes.”
But Hawkins’ big heart, and home, allowed Clark to “dial in” on athletics, which was his saving grace. After becoming a state champion multiple times in track and field, he began to wrestle seriously. The Netflix documentary short, “Zion,” showed his journey during his high school wrestling career at Massillon Washington High School in Ohio and won a Sports Emmy in 2018.
Eventually, he scored a scholarship to Kansas City University and earned the title of All-American — twice.
“As someone or kids who grew up with certain limitations of what society looks [like] or [is] stigmatized, you can actually turn into a superpower, learn to own yourself,” Levinson said. That empowering message can resonate with others just like Clark, he added.
But being an inspiration was never in the cards. Clark swears it was never even a “goal.” Instead he’s just living his life and the byproduct is just a pleasant coincidence.
“Here’s the crazy thing: [Inspiring others] never started out as a goal. It’s not that I go out, walk out of the house every morning, like, ‘Oh, I’m going to inspire this person,'” he said. “I’m being an inspiration by strictly just doing what I want to do and how I want to live… The most powerful inspiration is when you don’t have to go speak it.”
Levinson, who helps train the athlete and make adaptions to “maximize the potential of his body,” said that Clark’s personal story has a “ripple effect” that inspired others to be themselves and beat the odds.
“It’s having a compounding effect on humanity, where if you can change one person’s mindset into something from negative to positive, now that light, their light… carries on to the next person, the same way the Olympic banner is passed on to people,” he said. “If you can shift somebody’s mindset to be positive, now they’re going to positively impact the next person in their life.”
Ironically, the athlete — who is also an author with a forthcoming memoir — claims he’s never had a role model himself, aside from perhaps one of his coaches Gil Donahue.
“I was just trying to survive. It was my inspiration was to survive,” he admitted, saying coming out the other side “still alive” and “still kicking” is the only motivation he needed.
“I’m blessed to have the people that I’ve been able to bring on and support my family since they brought me in. You know, it takes a village to have success,” said Clark, who was a guest on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2019. “I started out by myself but I’m not finishing it alone.”
However, the bachelor is single for the time being, admitting dating isn’t for him right now. Eventually, he admitted, he does want kids — and to open his family to a child who, just like him, grew up without one.
“One of my goals is to have a family at some point. Having a family doesn’t mean having a biological kid, which I do want to have a biological kid, but I do plan to adopt, too,” he said. “I can’t support the system without being an active member in it. Every kid deserves to have a forever home.”
While that goal is far off for the 25-year-old, he’s got plenty of lofty ambitions for now. He’s training for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, just signed a deal to fight MMA and is determined to rebreak his own record. “I want to set the bars, like, extremely high,” he said.
On top of that, his next big goal is sky diving, to push the limits of just how high he can jump.
“I’ve jumped off bridges. I’ve dropped off of cliffs. I’m kind of getting to the limit of how high I can jump,” he said.
“I want to jump out of a plane.”
