Jess Gallagher.

Summer & Winter Paralympic Medallist

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My Road To Rio

  • August 25, 2016

From cycling novice to Rio selection…

n August 2014, I made a life changing decision. In part it was a forced choice if I was to achieve my long term goal of becoming the first Australian athlete to medal at a Summer and Winter Paralympics or Olympics. After the Sochi Winter Paralympics where I achieved my second Paralympic winter medal, my focus turned to Rio. Unfortunately, my main event from my career in track and field, long jump had been removed from the Rio program. If I wanted to win a summer Paralympic medal I needed to look elsewhere, to analyse and assess where my best chances were to give me that opportunity at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

Life as a vision impaired athlete provides many unique challenges, none more greater than the need for a pilot/ guide to help you achieve your goals. It is an incredibly unique, niche role that very few athletes can fulfil due to the large and specific responsibilities they undertake in that position. Therefore, a large focus of my decision was in trying to ascertain which sport had the best system to provide me with this. The other major distinction was finding a sport I could fall in love with. In order to train hard enough and dedicate all of my time and energy to a pursuit, I needed to love it and fully immerse myself in it to negate how little I knew about any new sport I chose. If you are not truly in love with it, the dedication, sacrifices and commitment required to win a Paralympic medal is made almost impossible.
As is the case for dual summer and winter athletes, time is never on your side and it certainly wasn’t on this occasion, I had two years to find a new sport, put all the processes in place so that I could go from a novice to one of the best in the world to allow me to aspire to be a medal contender.
In August 2014, I tried tandem track cycling for the first time. Straight away I knew this would be the sport for me. The speed diving up and down the velodrome boards gave me the same adrenalin rush I experience when I’m flying down a mountain on my skis. The first decision seemed pretty straightforward but there were many challenges that lay ahead from transitioning my body into a brand new sport with new skills and demands on me, to having a custom track tandem bike built to finding a tandem pilot. Like they say, if it was easy everyone would do it.

(My first time on a tandem!)
In 2015, I spent eight months training by myself on an ergo bike developing my skills as we searched for the right person to pilot my bike. It was an incredibly frustrating period knowing that every day I didn’t have a pilot also meant I didn’t have the ability to train on a velodrome due to my vision whilst getting another day closer to the competitions I needed to race in. That eight months I spent hours upon hours on the bike at my gym. It was critical to remain the trust and faith that in time we would find the right person.
I don’t know any other sport where a professional athlete would spend so much of their time away from the event because you don’t have the ability to do it by yourself. A common thread for every vision impaired athlete that shortens your professional career because you’re so reliant on finding a pilot or guide. Independence is a huge social issue for people who are blind or have low vision and these elements are certainly not immune to participation in sport, whether social or elite.
In July 2015, I met Maddie, a young, up and coming track cyclist and she trialled the tandem. Finally, it seemed the long wait was over. In August, she relocated to Melbourne from the Gold Coast fully committing to the role but with time against us and the need to hit certain times along the way to ensure we could get to Rio we had a lot to do.
In December 2015, we debuted at the National Championships. It was pretty simple- make the time here and you automatically qualify for the World Championships. Don’t hit the time and you can’t progress- the steps to the Rio dream over before they would have the chance to really begin. We won the 1km time trial but most importantly rode an automatic qualifying time for selection to the World Championships.
(Jess and Maddie)
In March 2016, we debuted for Australia becoming World Champions in the Tandem Match Sprint breaking the flying 200m World Record in the process and winning bronze in the 1km Time Trial, the Paralympic event. This result secured our place on the Australian Paralympic Cycling team.
As I sit here, August 2016, just two short years from my first ride on a tandem, I am in Italy for the Para-Cycling team’s staging camp before we head to Rio. It’s nice to reflect on how much Maddie and I have achieved in such a short period of time. In the past five months since World’s we have been able to really ramp up our preparations after the whirlwind of six months trying to gain our Rio birth. There have been a significant amount of people who have helped me over these past two years to get me where I am today. My support team mean everything to me, with so many gaps in my knowledge of this new sport, I rely on them to fill those holes to make me the athlete I aspire to be. They have been with me every step of the way, from the struggles to the triumphs and I’m excited to share that long term goal which is now so imminent.
This will be my fifth Paralympic campaign in eight years, my third Paralympic sport and I could not be more excited for this Rio campaign. Every Paralympics has told a completely different story, extreme highs, extreme lows that have made me the athlete and person I am today. I can not wait to see what the Rio Paralympics has in store for me.
(The moment we became World Champions)
Originally published http://www.vision2020australia.org.au/blog/2016-08-24/my-road-to-rio
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Chucking laps with my mates the swans & ducks. Som Chucking laps with my mates the swans & ducks. Sometimes they scare me because they move out of the way too slowly but almost every time I pass one I giggle to myself & think of Billy Maddison's famous line 'stop looking at me swannnn' 🦢🦆🦢🦆 
PS. Melbourne you're so damn pretty 👌
In my 10th year as @visionaustralia ambassador whe In my 10th year as @visionaustralia ambassador whether watching from home or sitting in the crowd at the Sidney Myer music bowl Vision Australias Carol's By Candlelight is by far my favourite event of the year. It's our biggest fund-raiser to help support VA's children services. The bonus of watching from home- you can sing as loudly as you want! 🎶 Merry Christmas  everyone & enjoy the show! This pic is a  throwback to 2018 Carols backstage with Alfie & William. 🎄🎁❤
If you wish to contribute you can donate at www.givetocarols.com
Yeah, that was fun. 👌🚣‍♀️ Yeah, that was fun. 👌🚣‍♀️
When you see someone with (a visible) disability w When you see someone with (a visible) disability what do you think? Do you see the ability in disability? 
(Rembmer there are lots of disabilities that are invidible too)
Love this campaign from the Australian Government (DSS) & delighted to be a part of it. See if you can spot me! 🎿
Happy International Day of People with a Disability. #IDPWD #disablesterostypes
I’m really proud to have been re-elected to the I’m really proud to have been re-elected to the @vision2020aus Board for my third term. Thank you to our member organisations who continue to trust in me and my passion for the eye health and vision care sector. I truly value the opportunity I have to help shape our sector for the benefit to those of us who live it. A special mention and thanks must go to our outgoing Chair, the Hon Amanda Vanstone AO. It’s been a privilege working with and learning from her these past 6 years. She has the most wonderful stories that I’m really going to miss listening to! We are very fortunate to be welcoming our newly elected Chair, the Hon Christopher Pyne (@pynechristopher) to Vision 2020 alongside Directors Associate Professor Heather Mack, Jane Schuller and Shaun Tatipata. I’m very excited to have these incredible people join the Board. We’ve achieved a significant amount in the organisations 20 years but there is plenty left to do! 

Instead of posting a boring Board photo 😂 here’s some images from when I travelled to Vietnam in 2012 to see firsthand the impact of the work of Vision 2020 Australia and its members. It was a life changing trip. These are the moments I got to witness a young girl, with avoidable low vision see clearly for the first time as she was given a pair of glasses that her single Father could not afford. They cost AUD$10. I’ll never forget the moment she put the glasses on, stepped outside to look at a tree and realise that she could see it. I was bawling my eyes out watching it and then I turned around and saw her Father’s face and his smile. His little girl could see. 😭💕 That smile will never leave my heart. The gratitude. The love. Everyone in the room's life changed that day. Everyone has the right to sight. ❤
📸 The legend that is @deansaffron
@13cabs have been a long time sponsor of mine & I @13cabs have been a long time sponsor of mine & I wanted to share this little graph I saw because even as a frequent customer of taxis I was completely unaware of the differences between providers when it comes to food delivery. I was super impressed to learn that they don't charge 30% commission to restaurants & cafes like others do meaning that money stays in the pockets of local business. Brilliant! ❤ #13things
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Gallagher.

Summer & Winter Paralympic Medallist

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