Kieran Modra

[altius]

Anyone who has read BTB2 will remember the story of Keiran Modra who won the Oz Under 17 Schools title in 1985 with a jump of 4.45m/14' 7"' while legally blind. In fact that was his last event competition because the next day in the Under 19 event he missed the box as he planted on his first run up. Next week Kieran - now 40 - will be competing in four tandem bicycle races in his fourth ParaOlympics - where he has won gold medals in previous games. He was born with a rare condition called optic atrophy and has only 15% vision - essentially peripheral vision - where he can't see clearly in front of him so he has to have a sighted rider in front. Look out for his results!

[rainbowgirl28]

That's very cool, thanks for the update!

[altius]

Kieran has just won the 1000 metro pursuit with a new world record at the ParaOlympics.

[altius]

Incidentally I have just learned that his training was interrupted by a bike accident last year in which he suffered a broken neck and a skull fracture - plus of course the usual lacerations!!!!!

[master]

Congratulations to Kieran! I heard a radio discussion about this paralympic sport and was fascinated with the comments by one team. They described that the sighted person in front was totally focused forward and relied on information verbally provided by the 10% sighted person on the back, who used her keen hearing to be able to tell where the competitors were and how they were approaching from behind.

They also commented on how the bikes have become better over the years to be able to handle the extra power that two people can put into the system. Apparently that has been a problem on the sharp, banked curves of the velodrome.

[altius]

I am pleased that at least one person is following the story of a very special person!