By Greg Levinsky, The Boston Globe

ROCHESTER, Mass. -- Josh Winsper grabs the javelin and takes a breath. His eyes are open, focused on the runway. Winsper glances around and takes another deep breath.

“I do my steps, do my crossovers and just get ready to chuck it,” he said.

Early on a steamy summer morning in Mesa, Ariz., at the 2019 Desert Challenge, a Paralympic meet, officials told Winsper his spikes were illegal. He rushed to buy new ones and returned just in time to make his throw. Changing his spikes, Winsper’s heart raced. When his turn came, he calmed, ultimately unleashing a personal-record 27.5-meter toss.

Winsper, who is 4 feet, 7 inches, has dwarfism because of Achondroplasia, a rare congenital bone growth disorder in which the body does not produce cartilage. Winsper’s head and torso are proportional to his age, but his arms, legs, fingers and toes are not.

“It’s obviously noticeable that I have [a disability], but everyone knows me as Josh,” Winsper said. “Nobody knows me because I have a disability, and everyone knows me because I’m Josh.”

A recent Bridgewater State University graduate, Winsper competed on the track team until his college career was cut short in March because of the pandemic. The 22-year-old Rochester native missed out on most of his senior outdoor season, but the abrupt end to his four-year college throwing career is not his finale. Winsper is training for a spot at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics in javelin and shot put.

“The Paralympics are arguably more competitive than the regular Olympics,” Winsper said. “It’s hard to take more than one person per event. They usually take one person. There’s a vacancy at javelin, at least for Americans.”

Paralympic athletes qualify for their sport based on a multi-step process. Track and field are split into two sports. Winsper is the “short stature” impairment and competes in the F41 sport class, one of two classes for field events.

Throwers can qualify at any open meet, even as an unattached competitor at college meets. There are also Paralympic meets, including Winsper’s favorite, the aforementioned Desert Challenge.

“It’s kind of complicated, but it’s very competitive,” Winsper said.

With his physical education degree and a concentration in exercise science, Winsper often trains himself. Winsper does circuit work, push-ups, crunches and abs. His workouts are an hour for three days a week as he tries to maintain his strength. He’s not doing as much cardio as he should be doing.

“Whoops,” he said.

Winsper, who grew up playing Little League baseball, joined indoor track as a freshman in high school and followed with outdoor and cross-country. Old Rochester coach and athletic director Bill Tilden remembers meeting Winsper at the fall sports meeting in 2012.

“Very nervous but open to ideas, that was the first thing that drew me to him,” Tilden said. “He fell so in love with track that he just wanted to do it all the time.”

Winsper plans to assist Tilden in the coming school year and hopes to find a job in strength and conditioning coaching.

“The dream job is to work with disabled athletes throughout the east coast, get them to the Paralympic level,” Winsper said. “It’s more of just showing them they have an opportunity.”

In his senior year at ORR, Winsper earned 2015 and 2016 US Paralympics Track and Field High School All-America honors. He also set a National Junior Disability Games record with a throw of 72 feet, 9 inches as a junior.

“I think he became successful because he wanted to learn the way everybody else did,” Tilden said. “Yeah, you make a couple changes here and there but overall he’s one of the most technically sound athletes I’ve ever had.

“Massachusetts needed someone to step out in the spotlight. Once he got more accustomed to that, he enjoyed being one of the big dogs.”

Winsper also has the school squat record, 500 pounds. The strength of his core correlates to his throwing success.

Winsper caught the eye of Alfred Blaisdell, who would become his throwing coach at Bridgewater State, at the 2016 MIAA State Championship meet.

“He captured the attention of the whole group and the athletes there,” Blaisdell said. “I think he kind of stole the show. It left an impact on me. Before he even came to Bridgewater, he made an impact on me.”

Winsper spent his first semester at Merrimack College, but transferred at the semester break to Bridgewater State. That spring, he competed in the US Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in the javelin and shot put. As a sophomore, Winsper earned a silver medal in javelin and a bronze medal in shot put at the International Wheelchair & Amputee Sports Youth Games.

“I had a blast coaching Josh,” Blaisdell said. “We didn’t treat him any differently than we did any other Bridgewater State athletes. He definitely brought something extra to our program. He’s intense, he takes it seriously. That’s how the great ones approach it.”

The 2020 Paralympic trials were scheduled for June in Minnesota. Winsper, and everyone else, will hang tight for next year.

“There’s only so much I can do, there’s only so much anyone can do with what’s going on,” Winsper said. “I’m doing my part, following social distancing guidelines and just keeping myself in shape. It’s a mentally tough time for all of us. We’ve got to battle through; we’ll all get there.”