Paralympian battling to compete after road accident

Rachel Morris should be training for the Paralympics. She’s a double amputee hand cyclist who won gold in Beijing four years ago.

But last week, as she trained on the roads around her home near Farnham, Surrey, she was hit by a car. The bike is a write-off. Rachel Morris is in bad shape too and immediately after the accident she feared her dreams of another gold medal were shattered.

Today I met Rachel Morris. She told me that in the instant she was hit, her first thought was that she’d blown her chances of a medal at the London Games.

“My whole thing had just fallen apart,” she said.

She has whiplash and shoulder injuries. A lesser athlete might concede defeat.

Elite

But Rachel Morris is an elite sportswoman and she knows if she gives up now, she has no chance. So she’s trying to be positive. She’s determined she will go to the Games. She was picked in Paralympics GB’s 18-strong cycling squad only nine days before the accident, and has been overwhelmed and uplifted by the many messages of support from her team mates.

It seems particularly cruel that a freak accident could prevent her from winning in front of the home crowd at the London Games.

Rachel Morris knows adversity and pain. She had both her legs amputated after complications from a twisted ankle developed into a disease which ravaged her body. She’s trained hard for years to take herself to the highest level in her sport.

Right now, she is focussed on doing what she can to ensure she competes.

‘Against the odds’

“I’m not going to let it completely crush me. I have achieved things against the odds before, I’m not going to give up on it. I will be there as an athlete. I’d been selected nine days previously so I have a place in the squad. It’s a matter of getting my shoulder to the best I can in the time available. I will be there as an athlete. I will be there representing my country.”

Her determination is not just for herself. She recognises that an elite athlete relies on the support of those around them: “You sacrifice things and you do have to push people away at times, or it seems like that because you’re away a lot. So to have those people able to come and watch you .. is massive and that’s what I’m now going to aim for is so that those people can be there and be part of the games.”

Rachel made her competitive debut in the sport in 2006 and by the following year was on a full-time coaching programme with a custom made hand-cycle.

With her training bike now destroyed in the accident, Rachel is now having to use her racing bike for training and is hoping to receive a new bike from the USA in time for the Games. New bikes normally take 12 weeks to make, but the strenous efforts being made trying to get one turned round in double-quick time, have helped Rachel cope with her accident.

“Terribly upset” after the crash, Rachel has been working with the team psychiatrist:

“I’ve just got to work on the factors that I can control between now and the Games and focus on those so that my mind doesn’t start wandering into the bits that aren’t going to go as well and aren’t going to be right because it’s not going to be the perfect lead into the games now, it can’t be.”

Paralympic cycling - building on success
At the Athens games in 2004, Team GB's Paralympic cycling team won three gold medals. 
In Beijing the team won gold in 17 events and silver in 4.
At the Para-cycling track world championships in February 2012, the British team topped the medal table, winning 17 medals in total.
At London 2012, Darren Kenny will be looking to add to his incredible total of six Paralympic gold medals.
Track cycling will take place at the specially built Velodrome in the Olympic park.
Road races and time trials will happen at Brands Hatch.