Lex Gillette adds some soul to track and field

Click here for audio photo gallery and to hear the vocal stylings of Lex Gillette.

Paralympian Lex Gillette makes it his mission to share his story with the public. He is completely blind, but that doesn't keep him from training and competing in track and field in the triple jump and long jump.

Nor does that keep him from a second passion of his. The two-time Paralympic silver medalist has also devoted much of his free time to making soulful R&B music when he isn't training at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center.

"I've had a little bit of success in athletics, being that I'm visually impaired so I think I'll want that similar message to say I'm doing the whole music thing, just to show people that anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want to."

Gillette, 25, was not born blind. As a child, however, he did have a visual impairment. After several surgeries, he was able to see clearly for a short period. His vision started to get fuzzy after the surgeries and doctors told the family there was nothing they could do. He would be blind.

The athlete doesn't have any formal training in music, but he can recall playing and experimenting on keyboards from a young age.

"I used to mess around on keyboards when I was small," Gillette said. "To this day, my mom tells me, 'I asked you if you wanted to take piano lessons but you told me no.' I have no recollection of this at all."

Today, Gillette uses his hobby to relax after a long day of training, to entertain but mostly to express himself.

"I guess it's just another language," he said. "It's a really good art form to get your point across to people and just display different feelings and emotions and everything."

While the musician is primarily an athlete, he hopes to eventually take on music more seriously. For now, his music attempts have been well-received within the track and field community.

One of his biggest hits has been the "Track and Field Anthem" which features names of athletes he knows and trains with. It made its debut at USA Trials in spring 2009, when Gillette and his friends passed out CDs to many athletes.

"The response was huge," said Wes Williams, Gillette's guide runner. "People really got into it."

His other well-known song, "Braille You" was written after a stroke of inspiration when Gillette was sitting at the keyboard and a friend happened to be listening.

"We were just sitting there, throwing out random thoughts and everything and just ended up coming up with that song," he said. "It was crazy. We were just having a good time."

For now, Gillette hopes to have many more fruitful years in track and field.

"I wake up every morning, go to practice, I love to do that every day," he said. "At the same time, after I'm done with that, I have to have something else to do and this is something that I love to do so I just do that as well."

For more of Gillette's work see:

"Track and Field Anthem" http://tiny.cc/9CTIi 

"Braille You" http://tiny.cc/NfqvW