At first glance, Johan Biput seems like your typical 23-year-old UWI student-athlete, disciplined, determined, and deeply dedicated to his craft. But behind the confident smile and well-earned accolades lies a story of an unrelenting will to rise.
Born and raised in Diego Martin, Johan is the youngest of three brothers and a proud alumnus of Fatima College. From early childhood, he lived and breathed sports — taekwondo, football, swimming, cricket, tennis, you name it.
“Sporting was meant for me, it is my ID card,” he says. Yet at just six years’ old, his seemingly boundless athletic journey was derailed by an invisible adversary: juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Instead of running free on fields or sparring in a dojang, Johan spent six months quarantined at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, a child alone behind glass walls.
“It was such a weird process,” he remembers. “I felt like an animal in a zoo where food was passed through a slot, conversations through the same. I didn’t even know what quarantine meant until then.”
After a year of mystery and pain, his diagnosis came. What followed were more years of surgeries, pain flares, and tough conversations with peers who couldn’t understand why he limped or missed school. At just 15, he had both hips replaced.
"Giving up taekwondo was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do," he says.Yet from those ashes, a new fire was lit.
His second act in sports began with CrossFit while at Fatima. After starting his academic journey at UWI Mona in Jamaica, Johan felt lost without a proper athletic outlet. A transfer to UWI St Augustine gave him the fresh start he needed. He tried out for the track and swimming teams as an adaptive athlete carving his own lane.
“One night, I got a call. It was Jehue Gordon,” he recounts, beaming. “He called to inform me of when tryouts would be, which is when I told him I was an adaptive athlete. But he still invited me to try out.”
Johan made the team and eventually became its captain, a para-athlete leading an able-bodied squad.
“It felt like a dream,” he says. “To be accepted, respected, and trusted, that’s not something I take for granted.”
In April 2024, he proudly represented Trinidad and Tobago at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Mexico. The trip was as much about competition as it was about validation, receiving his official classification as a para-athlete.
“They didn’t even know where to place me,” Johan laughs. “I was the first juvenile rheumatoid arthritis patient ever classified, and I chose to compete in the lower body category for T44 [athletes with a single below-knee amputation or who walk with moderately reduced function in one or both legs].”
But the road to international competition wasn’t easy.
“Had I been classified sooner, I might’ve made it to the Paralympics,” he says.
Time, he insists, was the hardest part of the journey. Still, his presence in Mexico was historic, and "history" is a word that means more to Johan than meets the eye:
"Before every race I would write ‘history’ on my forearm, as that is my mission: to make history. Sweat would often cause it to fade, so I had it tattooed to make it a permanent reminder.”
Johan explains that “Many people confuse para athletics with Special Olympics. They’re completely different. My mission now is to educate, raise awareness, and inspire.”
That mission is bearing fruit. In 2024, Johan was named UWI St Augustine’s Sportsman of the Year, an achievement he describes as surreal.
“I posted it on Instagram, and it became my most liked post ever. Fifteen-year-old me would never believe this.”
For Coach Jehue Gordon, himself a gold-medal winning national track athlete, the admiration is mutual.
“Johan is a true testimony,” he says. “From not knowing what he was really getting into to now leading and inspiring others, he takes on the most, despite having the most difficulties. He’s proof that leadership is about heart, not circumstance.”
Johan spends nearly every day on campus, training, studying, and fulfilling his duties as captain. When asked if he needs anything more from UWI, he chuckles, “The only thing missing is a bed.”
Looking ahead, Johan hopes to continue competing, while also championing para athletics through education and advocacy. He credits his doctors Dr Peter Poon King and Dr Derick Lusang, along with his physical therapists, coaches, and teammates for shaping his journey.
But perhaps most of all, Johan credits sport itself.
It is, after all, his ID card.
For more information on sport at The UWI, visit https://uwi.edu/sport/content/home.
