“This is amazing. I don’t think it has really set in yet!”
It wasn’t a great day, until it was the best day for Leanne Taylor as she became the first Canadian woman ever to win a medal in Paralympic triathlon on a glorious Monday morning in the heart of Paris. Leanne is also the first Triathlon Manitoba athlete to win an Olympic or Paralympic medal.
“It was a really tough day for me. I wasn’t feeling well coming into the race. I think I maybe had my first Games kind of nerves. This is a lot more to take on than you realize. You think you are mentally prepared and then you get here and are like ‘oh my goodness, this is big!’
“I was really nervous about how hard I was going to be able to push. You train for years for this, so you want to be able to give everything on the day.”
The two big pre-race favourites were Australia’s Lauren Parker and Kendall Gretsch from the USA – having raced each other to a thrilling finish at the previous Games in Tokyo, where Gretsch took the gold by one second over Parker. The twist is that Parker, like Leanne, races in the PTWC1 division, while Gretsch starts 3:38 later in the PTWC2 division (for wheelchair athletes with slightly less impairment) and they all race for the same medal.
This means that Leanne and the other PTWC1 athletes spend their whole race trying to stay ahead, while Gretsch and any other PTWC2 spend their race chasing. And like any other triathlon, each athlete has different strengths across the three disciplines, but all would be challenged by the 750m in the strong current of the Seine River.
Parker pushed out to an early lead in the swim, with Leanne exiting the water with a trio of women in fourth spot, around 90s down. The swim portion ended on the same pontoon used for the start, where Leanne was greeted by her husband and handler Scott Dyck, who assists with her transitions from swim to handcycle to racing chair throughout the race. On the Paris course, Scott also got to do his best bobsled audition, as handlers were allowed to assist wheelchair athletes going up the ramp to transition.
The 20-kilometre bike route featured many iconic Paris landmarks including Pont Alexander III bridge, Champs Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, the Assemblee National and Eiffel Tower, but also featured many cobbled roads, adding further challenge to the demanding course. While Parker continued to build her lead over the rest of the PTWC1 field, USA’s Gretsch used her speedy transition (one of the big differences between PTWC1 and PTWC2) and the day’s fastest bike split to close down her 3:38 stagger.
With Parker and Gretsch blasting off the front, Leanne locked in for a three-way battle for the final spot on the podium with two of her friendly rivals – Brazil’s Jessica Ferreira and Spain’s Eva Maria Moral Pedrero.
As Leanne reached the second transition, Scott quickly helped load her from the hand cycle onto the racing chair, outsplitting both Ferreira and Pedrero in T2, before darting out for the strongest of her three disciplines – the five-kilometre run – now in fourth spot.
She quickly vaulted into a podium spot when Brazil’s Ferreira crashed early in the first of three laps on the out-and-back run course, but Pedrero was still right behind.
“When I was on the run, my coach (Carolyn Murray) had told me I was in third. I saw which athletes were behind me and what the gap was, so I realized all I had to do was hold on,” added Taylor. “Coming into the finish chute, I was just looking for my husband to let him know that we had done it.”
Australia’s Parker broke the finishing tape with a time of 1:06:23. Gretsch claimed the silver medal at 1:07:46.
It has been quite a ride for Leanne who was left paralyzed from the waist down following a mountain bike accident just six years ago. A triathlon journey that started out as a joke with friends and family while she lay in a hospital bed to help make her feel better and provide hope, turned into a dream that was realized with grit, determination and effort.
She made steady progression throughout her development pathway, narrowly missing qualification for the Tokyo Paralympics. Digging deep over the last three years, she finally entered the podium potential discussions for Paris in June after winning her first World Triathlon Para Series gold medal in Swansea, Wales.
“This whole journey started out as a wild dream. It really wasn’t until earlier this year that we then dared to dream a medal was possible.”
Leanne Taylor realized that dream in front of a group of 29 of her top supporters from the prairies – draped in Canadian flags and dressed in red and white clothing – who made the trip to the French Capital to cheer her on to Paralympic glory.
“I had so many friends and family that are here to support me. It meant so much to me to have a performance that got them to cheer even louder than they already were,” said an emotional Taylor.
“This medal means a tonne to me. There is a massive group of people (here and at home) who supported me to get to this point. Just to have something to now show them, that this is why we did it, and it was worth it. Having that tangible item to say this is the work we put in, is huge. I’m so excited to go home and thank the people whose medal this really is.”
Complete Women’s Paralympic Wheelchair Results
CBC’s Video recap from (the somewhat limited coverage of) Leanne’s race to Bronze
CBC Gem Full Replay of ParaTriathlon (the PTWC athletes go first)
A few highlights from Leanne’s feed:
