Jessica Gallagher’s switch from skiing to cycling reaps bronze medal

March 24, 2016

Jessica Gallagher’s switch from skiing to cycling reaps bronze medal

The Daily Telegraph

Amanda Lulahm, March 20 2016

SHE won an historic medal for Australia in alpine skiing, is a world medallist in track and field and now at her first ever world track cycling championships Jessica Gallagher has ridden off with a medal.

Arguably Australia’s most versatile athlete, Gallagher has emerged as a major medal hope at the Paralympics in August less than a year after jumping into competitive cycling.

Gallagher, who is legally blind, is bidding to make the Paralympics in her third different sport after she swapped a career in athletics for alpine skiing and became Australia’s first woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics at the 2010 Vancouver Games – after just 150 days on the snow.

Now the 30-year-old Victoria sport star who was the first Paralympian to represent at both a Summer and Winter Paralympics, is trying her hand at cycling, with immediate effect.

On Sunday in her world championship debut, Gallagher and pilot Madison Janssen rode off with a bronze medal in the tandem 1km time trial — after teaming for the first time last August.

“We have come a long way in such a short period of time,” said Gallagher, who began to lose her sight to the rare condition, cone dystrophy, as a teenage netballer and who played alongside the likes of Diamonds players Julie Corletto, Renae Hallinan and Caitlin Thwaites as a youngster.

“We know we have so much more improvement ahead of us so it’s exciting knowing we are already up there with the world’s best.

“For me personally I trained up until July 2015 on my own not knowing if I would find a pilot to help me accomplish my dream of representing Australia as a cyclist. So to find Maddie and have her commit as much as she has I’m incredibly grateful for.

‘Every day we are getting stronger and I can’t wait to see how fast we can become as a team.”

Gallagher and Janssen, who have yet to be selected for the Rio Paralympics, will now turn their attention to winning a medal in the tandem sprint.