Friday, August 31, 2012 8:04:04 PM
Cyclist Heads for Paralympics
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: April 13, 2012
AFTER months of training, the word came on Monday: Damian Lopez Alfonso, the Cuban bicycle racer who lost both arms in a childhood accident, would be going to London to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games.
It was the culmination of years of struggle for the 35-year-old racer, the subject of a June 12, 2011 Metropolitan cover story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/nyregion/cyclists-embrace-a-handless-cuban-who-wants-to-race.html?sq=damain%20alfonso&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1346457729-cKuEbZC6t9ZLI0EQgkjWEg
Mr. Alfonso’s road to the Paralympics began when he was 13 years old. An accident while retrieving a kite from a power line near his Havana home disfigured his face and destroyed both arms up to the elbow. He began riding a bike to get around, and then used it to prove himself.
Over years of riding on pocked Cuban highways, he developed an unorthodox riding style, in which he balanced the ends of his elbows on upturned handlebars. That, and his prowess on his bike gained the attention of American cyclists, but it was not acceptable to cycling’s international rule makers, who require that Paralympic riders use a conventional setup for their bikes.
A group of New York-area supporters banded together to bring him to the city for a series of reconstructive surgeries and fittings with prosthetics that would let him hold the handlebars, donating spare bedrooms and money, expertise and time. In July 2011, he entered his first official qualifying race, less than a month after being released from NYU Langone Medical Center from the last round of extensive facial work. “He was woefully underprepared,” said Tracy Lea, a former elite racer from Maryland and his chief international booster. But he had to be there to show that he was on the circuit, she said.
The first big test came in November in Guadalajara, Mexico, at a Pan-American competition. And that’s where his journey nearly ended.
“It was almost a total disaster,” Ms. Lea said.
First, Mr. Alfonso’s specially-designed bike — outfitted with state-of-the-art Shimano electric shifters to allow him greater control — was damaged before the start of the first race. Then, during the time trial race, he crashed.
A medical team thought he would not be able to keep racing, Ms. Lea said, and he had stitches in one of his elbows, making the prosthetics painful to wear. “He was back to his old position,” she said.
But after the authorities granted him an exemption, he ended up taking fourth in the road race.
He also found he was something of a celebrity in Mexico. Some fans even sought his autograph, waving copies of the latest issue of a Spanish-language People Magazine that had a two-page spread on him, Ms. Lea said.
But because he had not competed in enough races, Mr. Alfonso was unable to qualify automatically for the Paralympics and needed a wild-card spot. Last month, he made his case on the bike at the para-cycling championships in Los Angeles, overcoming a challenge on the track from an equally matched Costa Rican rider. Mr. Alfonso, now a member of the Cuban national cycling team, got a letter last week saying he had been granted a wild card.
Now he is looking to the Paralympics in August, where he will be his country’s only cyclist, spending most days at the Cuban national cycling facility — where it was difficult to immediately reach him by phone — and adapting to new, more comfortable prosthetics, Ms. Lea said.
“He’s moving up the food chain,” she said. “He’s gone from the equivalent of junior racing to now being on the world playing field.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 22, 2012
A picture credit last Sunday with an article about Damian Lopez Alfonso, the Cuban bicycle racer who lost both arms in a childhood accident and who will compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games, misspelled the surname of the photographer. Pat Benson (not Banson) took the picture of Mr. Alfonso.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 15, 2012, on page MB8 of the New York edition with the headline: Cyclist Heads for Paralympics
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/nyregion/the-cyclist-damian-lopez-alfonso-heads-for-paralympics.html?_r=1
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: April 13, 2012
AFTER months of training, the word came on Monday: Damian Lopez Alfonso, the Cuban bicycle racer who lost both arms in a childhood accident, would be going to London to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games.
It was the culmination of years of struggle for the 35-year-old racer, the subject of a June 12, 2011 Metropolitan cover story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/nyregion/cyclists-embrace-a-handless-cuban-who-wants-to-race.html?sq=damain%20alfonso&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1346457729-cKuEbZC6t9ZLI0EQgkjWEg
Mr. Alfonso’s road to the Paralympics began when he was 13 years old. An accident while retrieving a kite from a power line near his Havana home disfigured his face and destroyed both arms up to the elbow. He began riding a bike to get around, and then used it to prove himself.
Over years of riding on pocked Cuban highways, he developed an unorthodox riding style, in which he balanced the ends of his elbows on upturned handlebars. That, and his prowess on his bike gained the attention of American cyclists, but it was not acceptable to cycling’s international rule makers, who require that Paralympic riders use a conventional setup for their bikes.
A group of New York-area supporters banded together to bring him to the city for a series of reconstructive surgeries and fittings with prosthetics that would let him hold the handlebars, donating spare bedrooms and money, expertise and time. In July 2011, he entered his first official qualifying race, less than a month after being released from NYU Langone Medical Center from the last round of extensive facial work. “He was woefully underprepared,” said Tracy Lea, a former elite racer from Maryland and his chief international booster. But he had to be there to show that he was on the circuit, she said.
The first big test came in November in Guadalajara, Mexico, at a Pan-American competition. And that’s where his journey nearly ended.
“It was almost a total disaster,” Ms. Lea said.
First, Mr. Alfonso’s specially-designed bike — outfitted with state-of-the-art Shimano electric shifters to allow him greater control — was damaged before the start of the first race. Then, during the time trial race, he crashed.
A medical team thought he would not be able to keep racing, Ms. Lea said, and he had stitches in one of his elbows, making the prosthetics painful to wear. “He was back to his old position,” she said.
But after the authorities granted him an exemption, he ended up taking fourth in the road race.
He also found he was something of a celebrity in Mexico. Some fans even sought his autograph, waving copies of the latest issue of a Spanish-language People Magazine that had a two-page spread on him, Ms. Lea said.
But because he had not competed in enough races, Mr. Alfonso was unable to qualify automatically for the Paralympics and needed a wild-card spot. Last month, he made his case on the bike at the para-cycling championships in Los Angeles, overcoming a challenge on the track from an equally matched Costa Rican rider. Mr. Alfonso, now a member of the Cuban national cycling team, got a letter last week saying he had been granted a wild card.
Now he is looking to the Paralympics in August, where he will be his country’s only cyclist, spending most days at the Cuban national cycling facility — where it was difficult to immediately reach him by phone — and adapting to new, more comfortable prosthetics, Ms. Lea said.
“He’s moving up the food chain,” she said. “He’s gone from the equivalent of junior racing to now being on the world playing field.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 22, 2012
A picture credit last Sunday with an article about Damian Lopez Alfonso, the Cuban bicycle racer who lost both arms in a childhood accident and who will compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games, misspelled the surname of the photographer. Pat Benson (not Banson) took the picture of Mr. Alfonso.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 15, 2012, on page MB8 of the New York edition with the headline: Cyclist Heads for Paralympics
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/nyregion/the-cyclist-damian-lopez-alfonso-heads-for-paralympics.html?_r=1
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