No easy ride, but Allan’s a Paralympian

Cyclist Gordon Allan, who’ll compete for Australia at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, has had anything but an easy ride to take his place on the velodrome.

The 26-year-old New South Wales Institute of Sport scholarship athlete, who was born with cerebral palsy, admitted he allowed ‘embarrassment’ to hold him back from riding a bike until he turned 13.

“I guess like . . .  before that . . . I used to worry that you might not have the balance to [ride],” he said. “Earlier on, I just thought that riding a bike was not going to be achievable. When I was a kid, I just couldn’t get off the training wheels, and I didn’t have the balance.

“I didn’t ride a bike for a few years, so, when I did, I was old enough and I’d developed that sort of skill that maybe I didn’t have when I was that little bit younger.”

However, Allan became hooked on the thrill and freedom he felt while riding a bike after a mate showed him the shiny, brand-new bicycle he’d received as a gift from his parents. After pointing out its numerous features, the mate dared Allan to ride down the steep grassy hill in the park situated behind his family home.

“And [my friend’s] like, ‘I dare you to ride the bike down the hill,” Allan recalled with a grin. “And I was like ‘yeah!’ so I jumped on the bike . . . I don’t know why . . . but I did straight up, right? And then I was like, ‘that’s cool, that’s awesome.’ Within a couple of weeks, I had a bike, my parents helped me out . . . got me a bike . . . and from there it started.”

While Allan has won Para cycling world championships medals, he can’t help but to shake his head in disbelief while telling the story of his first-ever race as an overly enthusiastic 13-year-old.

Indeed, he has painful memories of using a borrowed bike for a road race. Allan finished the race footsore and exhausted because he almost walked as much of the Canberra course as he pedalled along it.

“My first Para crew lent me a bike to start off with . . .  just an old club bike,” Allan, recalled. “It was an old road bike, and I couldn’t shift gears because it wasn’t electronic shifting, so I didn’t have it set up for any adaptation.

“I stuck it in one gear and just did the time trial as best I could. I remember getting off halfway and I had to walk up the hill and then get back on the bike again. But, at that stage I would’ve been young. I just enjoyed riding.”

As Allan prepares for his second Olympic campaign, he said his childhood was full of all number of sporting commitments as his parents encouraged him to have a go at everything he wanted to try.

Gordon Allan with Para world swimming champion, Tim Hodge

“I had a great childhood,” he said. “I had a great family, a great upbringing as an only child. My parents, they let me get into sport. They let me do trials, and all sorts of sports. Their big thing was they didn’t want anything to hold me back.

“So, if I wanted to try swimming, I tried swimming. Want to try athletics? I tried athletics. I remember like when I was young, maybe, eight, nine, or 10 doing swimming, athletics, soccer, and karate all in one week.

“It was a great childhood, and I think it’s definitely helped me be where I am today.”

Allan had no idea about the Paralympics until he watched the 2012 Beijing Paralympics on television. The idea of becoming a Paralympian became his goal.

“I didn’t know you could go to that level in Para sport,” he said. “Seeing people on TV with disabilities and racing, at a high level, it was like, ‘that’s awesome. At that stage I wanted to be Paralympian in athletics or in swimming. But I think at that age I was just excited to compete.”

Allan said if anyone was to take anything from his story it was the importance of having a go, and not allowing for aspects of life to be a reason for not having a go.

“If anyone could take anything from my life story, I think it’s just the ability to try new things and to just keep pushing. Whether or not something seems achievable or not, just have a crack at it, give it a try and you never know where it’ll take you.”

NSWIS