LONDON CALLING

SHE HAS WON GOLD MEDALS IN THE PARALYMPICS AND PARA-CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AND SHE HOLDS TWO WORLD RECORDS, BUT PAULA TESORIERO RECKONS SHE CAN GO FASTER STILL. SHE TALKS WITH JIM ROBINSON.

“I think there’s more in me. I think I can go faster. While I can go faster, I feel I owe it to myself to keep going,” says Paula Tesoriero, in a matter-of-fact way.

Admittedly, she’s already 34, but elite disabled athletes are, as a whole, older than elite able-bodied athletes. “In Paralympic sport I’m just a baby,” Tesoriero laughs. Add to that, despite her impressive swag of international medals, she has still only been riding seriously for five years. “Its still new,” she says. So, she’s fresh, motivated and dead keen to see just how far she can go.

“I think to not go through to London [2012 Olympics] would feel it’s finishing too soon, she affirms. Again in a matte-of-fact way.

Since the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, it’s been all full-speed for the Wellingtonian. At Beijing, she won gold in the 500m time trial in world record time, bronze in the 3000m pursuit and bronze in the road time trial. In early 2009, at the New Zealand Track Cycling Championships in Invercargill, she set a new world record in a specially organised 200m Flying Start (14.911 seconds); then reset the record (14.720 seconds) during a world cup event in Manchester, UK in May.

Come September, she was in Italy, underlining her versatility by winning a rainbow jersey in the UCI Para-cycling World Championships road race, plus garnering a bronze in the road time trial. Then in November, she returned to Manchester and won gold in her “pinnacle event of the year,” the 500m at the Para-cycling Track World Championships.

That last ride also saw her trim her Beijing world record, clocking 43.142 seconds, ahead of Australia’s Jayme Paris and USA’s Barbara Buchan.

This year was the first time that the track and road championships were not combined. “It’s been a new experience, going over to Italy, then coming back home, then going back over to Manchester a few weeks later. It’s been a great experience but the negative is all that travel. Also, it’s difficult to peak fo two big events so close together,” Tesoriero admitted shortly before leaving for the UK.

Manchester was “a bit of a break from usual,” in that she didn’t contest the pursuit – just her specialty event, the 500m. “The pursuit and 500m are on consecutive days. I’d rather come back with the [world champion’s] jersey. After the [Beijing] Paralympics, that’s the unfinished business. don’t want to jeopardise that,” she said before leaving. “If you want gold in the sprint you don’t go and ride a pursuit the night before.”

The 500m had no preliminary rounds. There was one shot at the win. As she laughed: “I’m flying all that way for a 43 second race” One shot – and that was all it took.

As for Italy, the golden glow of the road champs at Bogogno near Milan went beyond medals. “It was kind of special racing on Italian soil. I’m half Italian. My father’s family is from Stromboli, an island near Sicily,” she explained. “After the race, they announced my Italian connection to the crowd. There was a massive eruption of applause.”

At both championships, she was New Zealand’s only rider, though she was accompanied by William Rastrick, her personal coach and Brendon Cameron, the High Performance coach for Paralympics New Zealand. Cameron (Sarah Ulmer’s partner and coach to her Olympic triumphs) is helping the organisation create a performance pathway for the Paralympic Cycling Team, aiming for London.

The intention is that, come the 2010 World Championships, Tesoriero won’t be the only Kiwi contesting medals. As an amputee cyclist, Tesoriero rides in the LC3 category. She has a prosthesis on her lower left leg. Her lower right leg has no ankle motion. That raises a whole new set of challenges (and opportunities) over and above those faced by most elite cyclists.

“We’ve done heaps since Beijing,” she explained. There’s been positioning and setup work with Canterbury University, leading to a new USA-built track bike. “I’m quite small. I could never really get low enough, I could never tuck into the bars. It was alright but it was never perfect,” she revealed. However, with a custom frame, made to fit, the new bike “feels geat”.

She’s spent a lot of time with Geoff Goddard from the New Zealand Artificia Limb Board in Wellington, “trying to perfect my cycling leg.” She’s also been working with a robotics student from Victoria University.

“One of the things with a prosthesis is you want to clip into the pedal really firml, but that means it’s hard to clip out of. You need to compromise. So the robotics student is working with me on a system to clip in firml, but have a button release,” Tesoriero explained.

There has been continuing development on her prosthetic, making it lighter, more efficient,and significantlymore aerodynamic. Her husband Chris Bishop has “become quite the pro” in overseeing the prosthesis side of things. “Chris works with Geoff [Goddard]. He’s like a mini centre of excellence in how artificial legs should b positioned on a bike,” she laughed.

New Zealand doesn’t lead the way in prosthetic development for cycling, but she says momentum is building. “[In the past] there have been pockets of excellence. Now there’s a more collaborative approach between the limb centres and universities.”

“I could have gone overseas for expertise [with a cycling prosthesis], but I’d rather stay here. It sounds a bit of a cliché but I’m genuinely keen to help grow the talent and technology in New Zealand. I’m happy to be a bit of a guinea pig,” she said.

Naturally, there’s been a lot of time on the bike (plenty of time on the Erg during the shocking 2009 Wellington winter) and in the gym – over 20 hours a week all up. Mixed in, there’s been a power of public speaking. She’s addressed many schools and community groups, as well as corporates, since the Paralympics. Asked whether her Beijing success changed people’s awareness of what she does, she answers categorically: “most definitely”

SUBSCRIBE TO SEE THE REST OF THE ARTICLE!

STORY BY + JIM ROBINSON
PHOTOS COURTESY + HANNAH JOHNSTON