Gautier wins two gold medals at Para-Cycling World Championship
Island snowbird Shelly Gautier went to Portugal for the Para-Cycling World Championship this year, winning gold medals for both the Time Trial and the Road Race.
Gautier, who also competed in the Para-Olympics four weeks later in Tokyo, said this past summer presented a challenge, due to the pandemic, in that, no fans were allowed to come. She had no one in attendance to cheer her on in the Para-Olympics other than her trainer and parents.
“They wouldn’t allow us to take public transit, so we had to drive to the Formula One Track,” Gautier said.
The trip to the track, which took two hours, Gautier said, would have taken 15 minutes had they been allowed to access public transportation.
For her first two trips to the Para-Olympics, Gautier stayed at the Athlete’s Village, which is general lodging provided to accommodate participating athletes, but this year she said she had to go to a hotel, where a conference room became a make-shift cafeteria, with plexiglass between each of the seats and a rule that dictated athletes not speak to one another.
The athletes are classified by their disabilities, to even the field for each event, explained Gautier’s trainer, Alan Greer.
“Athletes are competing against each other who may have physical or cognitive variances. There’s a classification committee that examines each athlete,” Greer said.
This classification system helps to place athletes in the correct category, otherwise there would be too many classes competing. Gautier was determined by this committee to be in the T1 class, due to cognitive difficulties. Because they combined the T1 and T2 classes, Gautier was at a disadvantage, since the T2 class is made up of those with physical but no cognitive difficulties.Greer said the system, although imperfect, generally works very well.
Although thrown into a competition with those who suffer no cognitive disabilities, Gautier said her focus stayed on the track.
“I’ve really tried to work hard on my strength and conditioning, and I think the reward was to go faster,” Gautier said.
Able to reach speeds of up to 44 miles an hour on her bike is a demonstration of Gautier’s tenacity, as she only has one functioning arm and leg, and wears a brace on the other arm and leg.
“On the bike, her right leg appears to work, but it’s just going around. The left leg is doing all the work, just as the right arm appears to be functional, because it’s in a brace, but it’s not functioning,” Greer said.
Although the pandemic conditions limited much of what Gautier is used to experiencing, she said she felt strong for all the competitions in which she took part this year.
“I just accepted what was and did the best that I could,” Gautier said.