Lyne Bessette wins Para-Panamerican Games Gold – 4 times!

Read the report from Guadalajara, Mexico

First morning.
I am overwhelmed by my surroundings. At the athletes village, I am a minority as all my pears have a story, a different one to mine. I was born with my sight, my two arms and hands and my 2 legs . I was never in a accident when I was 2 or 5 or 30. Never crashed a car or a moto or got hit by one…

These games where not my first as I was at the Olympics twice, Commonwealth Games twice, Pan Am games too. Mutiple World Championships, International races, Grand tours, etc. These where not my first games but they where the best. The Best in many ways.

Robbi and I won every event that we entered: Time trial, road race, pursuit and Kilo. We had no idea that this was going to happen.

Time trial: The pavement was so rough that even at 100 rpm you felt stuck to the ground. But we kept our head at it and never lost focus. We almost caught the team that started ahead of us: the USA. All week we knew they were going to be our most dangerous opponent. And they were.

Pursuit: Our best time before we got there was 3min 57 sec on a plywood outdoor track. To help us a little we made it to the Games one week before they actually started so we could train on the very beautiful indoor velodrome. What a change!!! We felt like we were floating! Robbi and I did our best time in qualification 3m 40sec and dust. We started way slower than the US but came back strong to win the first round. The final was going to be the same for us: focus on what we know and race the best WE can, and it paid off! Robbi and I had a little slower time but still on pace to grab Gold #2 of the games. New Canadian record and personal best.

The Kilo: We again had a plan. We used a bigger gear than the pursuit and really had nothing to loose. On paper the US team was stronger than us but something caught my attention in the pursuit. We started slower than them but at the Kilo point we were already even if not ahead of them. So knowing that, and that a kilo start is almost all out, I knew we had a chance.

5-4-3-2-1 Go!
It was the most painful race of the games!! And it was 1km. Ouch! The US had a way better start than us by .6 sec on the first lap but by the second lap we had made up some time. By lap 3 we were still behind and on the last lap we made up .3 sec and that was enough to win Gold#3!!

Road race: The road was so rough once again but the Mexican crowed made us forget about the pain of the effort. Robbi and I were able to hang with the men’s tandem longer than any other women’s tandem and that was enough for us to get away and power home to a 4th Gold!!

In many ways because of the people from Guadalajara, the fans, the amazing effort that you can see in each of these athletes eyes, in the joy of seeing them getting a medal, pushing themselves more than you can imagine pushing yourself, this was special.

In many ways because I was so impressed by all of them. I was part of a minority but the Para athlete made me realize that life is about smiling, having goals, finding life again, and living it 200% . Thanks to Robbi my tandem partner and all of my teammates and sponsors. You guys are an inspiration for me.