Alumni Spotlight
Raising the Barr
After chasing the Paralympic podium for 20 years, alumnus Mark Barr captured a bronze medal for Team USA in Paris.
Written by Dylan Greene, AnnMarie Cornejo and Sarah Doyle Lacamoire
Photos courtesy of Joe Kusumoto/USOPC
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Mark Barr on the Paralympics podium with his bronze medal.
This summer, all eyes were drawn to Paris for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Among the honored athletes was former Cal Poly swimmer Mark Barr (Nutrition ’09).
In his fourth Paralympic appearance, Barr captured a bronze medal while competing for Team USA in the men’s paratriathlon PTS2 classification.
“I’ve been chasing the podium for 20 years since 2004,” he said in an interview with USA Triathlon after claiming bronze. “Three fourth places, which is the worst place you can get in a race, so to finish on the podium finally is very rewarding.”
After years of training — and heartache — Barr is excited to achieve a lifelong goal.
“Now I can check that box, as a medalist, which is a great feeling to have,” he said. “I had on my phone, a picture of the podiums that I’ve missed. It was good motivation to push through the dark days of training and keep motivation high.”
Barr previously placed fourth in the same event at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and competed in swimming events at the 2008 Beijing Games and 2004 Athens Games.
Barr was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when he was 14, and his life quickly became a whirlwind of surgeries, doctor’s appointments, chemotherapy and recovery — and in the process, his right leg had to be amputated. Swimming helped him find a path forward.
“Swimming is the one sport where you do not need a prosthesis and can just take your leg off and jump in,” Barr said. In 2003, he participated in his first Paralympic meet at the University of Minnesota.
“That made me really happy,” he told Cal Poly Magazine in 2008. “It was great to see people just like me, and I learned a great deal from watching more experienced swimmers move in and out of the pool.”
Mark Barr (right) and Mohamed Lahna (left) celebrate at the finish line of the men’s paratriathlon PTS2 classification at the Paris Paralympic Games.
Barr was a member of the Cal Poly swim team from 2004 to 2008, an experience he still holds close.
“My college experience at Cal Poly as a student-athlete was incredible,” Barr said. “I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to compete on a Division I men’s swim team as a disabled athlete. That experience was very challenging but even more rewarding.”
His experience with cancer led him on a path to becoming a nurse: He worked as an ICU nurse for more than seven years and recently earned a third degree to become a certified nurse anesthetist.
“I thought for the longest time that I would never want to set foot in the hospital again. However, as time went on, I realized that it would be a very rewarding career to pursue the chance to give back to the profession from which I had benefited so much,” he said.
Bronze medal in hand, he plans to take a break to spend time with his wife and 11-month-old son, Luke. “I hope that my performance will inspire the next generation of amputees to get into the sport of triathlon and continue to raise the bar,” he said.
