Senior Sydney Barta, the first Paralympic athlete to compete for Stanford’s track and field team, officially signed a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) partnership with Swiss running brand On on Oct. 17. She joins Stanford teammates — senior Juliette Whittaker and juniors Amy Bunnage, Lex Young and Leo Young — as fellow On NIL athletes.
Despite other options, signing with On felt like the right choice at the right time, Barta said, citing the brand’s “grassroots” and family feel.
Barta, a T64 classification athlete, has been running since she was eight. At age 17, she represented Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games in the 100-meter and 200-meter and is now a six-time Parapan American Games medalist. Barta recently joined Stanford’s track and field team as a junior.
Upon joining the team, Barta suffered a complete foot fracture that sidelined her from the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. The injury forced her to reflect on her running career and the platform she could use to advocate for para athletes. She had fielded brand offers before, but the timing never felt right.
In early October, just over a year after her fracture, Barta competed at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India. Her time of 27.51 in the 200-meter T64 earned her a bronze medal. She also finished eighth in the 100-meter T64 with a time of 13.83.
“It was a representation of everything I’d overcome,” Barta said, reflecting on her Worlds performance. “All the doubt, and all of the pain and suffering that it took to not only get back to being able to walk, but then going through the training process again. And then coping with the loss of not going to Paris and then to come back and still have so much love for the sport.”
Barta, the American-record holder in the 200-meter T64, has competed twice for Stanford track and field in the 200-meter. She ran 27.75 in her debut race at the Payton Jordan Invitational in April 2025 to officially become the first Paralympian to compete for the program. She later competed in the Big Meet against Cal that May. Barta said she is proud to have set the precedent for future para athletes to come to Stanford’s track and field program.
“I came to this school because I love the academics, and I love the people,” she said. “Everyone I feel like went above and beyond, to not even just be okay [with me joining] but to celebrate what I brought to the team.”
The NIL deal with On gives Barta an even bigger platform to amplify the advocacy work she’s already doing off the track. Barta serves on the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Collegiate Advisory Council and the Team USA Athlete Commission, roles she describes as opportunities to open doors for the next athlete who looks like her. She also speaks publicly about disability awareness and inclusion.
“I love Para sports so much, and I’m such a proponent of inclusion in that way,” Barta said. “I love sports so much for everyone, and I think it’s something that should be accessible to everybody.”
As a bioengineering major, Barta’s academic work also mirrors what she thinks about daily as a sprinter and amputee. She previously conducted research with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance on rehabilitation and return to sports and is currently working with Stanford’s Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab. Barta is also president of Stanford’s Engineering Honors Society, Tau Beta Pi.
“You really can’t be a good sprinter unless you understand the biomechanics,” Barta said. “To be able to talk about it on the track in everyday colloquial terms, and then to be able to go into the lab and learn about it from a scientific, mathematical, physics perspective, is really full circle and fulfilling.”
The new NIL partnership, the recent bronze in New Delhi and her roles in the sport’s governance all point in the same direction: Barta is continuing to build her career on and off the track. Looking ahead, the 2028 Summer Paralympics will be held in Los Angeles, and Barta made her intentions on participating clear.
“I’m not done yet. I’m gonna go to LA,” she said.