Sprinter Kym Crosby Aims For A Third Games In Paris — This Time As A Cyclist Too

Very few athletes can say they’ve competed in two different sports at the Paralympics.

Even fewer can say they’ve competed in two different sports at the same Paralympics.

Two-time Paralympic track and field athlete Kym Crosby is hoping to become one of them in Paris. Crosby, 30, is now training in Para-cycling in addition to track and field, but rather focus on just one or the other for 2024, she wants to compete in both.

And not just compete.

“My goal is to get back on the podium in track and field and do better than a bronze,” said Crosby, who has three Paralympic bronze medals as a sprinter. “But I want to be different. I want to be able to medal not only in track and field, but also cycling. I don’t want my goal to be to make it to the Games in both sports. I want to medal in both sports. My goal is to always show the kids, the young, aspiring athletes who have visual impairments, that they can do anything they put their mind to.”

Crosby, from Yuba City, California, is a recent convert to cycling. Back in December, she went to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to try the sport, do some testing and undergo some evaluation as to whether or not it would be a good fit with no expectations and no pressure.

“What did I have to lose?” she said of accepting the invitation. “(I figured) just go try it, and if it doesn’t work out, I still have track. I went out there keeping an open mind, it was just something fun to do.”

In visually impaired cycling, the sighted guide rides in front on a tandem bicycle and pedals, steers and gives commands such as when to sit up and down in the saddle and when to add power depending on where they’re at on the track and how the race is going. The visually impaired athlete rides in the back and pedals. A lot.

“I’m the engine,” Crosby said. “I’m just giving it everything I’ve got.”

Her first day on the bike with guide MK Wintz, Crosby said, they did a couple laps around the parking lot before Wintz suggested they take to the road.

“It was so fun to go fast like that,” said Crosby, who was born with albinism that leaves her without pigment in her skin, hair or eyes. “I mean, I’m visually impaired so I’m not ever going to be on a bike like that (by myself).”

The next day they did 21 miles in the mountains, then progressed to the velodrome where they started practicing starts and stops. By day six, her last day, they did a time trial for the event Crosby would be focusing on, the 1K.

Before long she was sitting down with coaches figuring out how her training for cycling would mesh with her training for track and field.

“The great thing about it, and the reason why I decided to go through with it, is because the training is very similar, especially in the weight room,” Crosby said. “I run the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter, and the 400 is definitely similar to the 1K on the bike, so the training pretty much goes hand in hand.”

The thing that made Crosby fall in love with track and field was the same thing that made her fall in love with cycling.

“I just feel like I’m me, and it’s all about what I can do,” said Crosby, who has two Paralympic bronze medals in the 100-meter and one bronze in the 400. “I’m in control of me and my future and I really love that. And going fast is just such a freeing moment. The feeling is just indescribable.”

There is some precedent for what Crosby is trying to accomplish. In 2016, both Grace Norman and Allysa Seely won gold in their respective classes when triathlon debuted at the Paralympics and then competed in track and field. Others, including Blake Haxton (rowing and canoe in Tokyo) and Rudy Garcia-Tolson (swimming and track and field in London) have also competed in more than one sport in the same Games.

Crosby hopes to not only be the next, but also inspire others.

“I’ve heard too many kids with visual impairments or who are blind saying they had no idea they could even do any sports, and that breaks my heart,” she said. “I want to lead by example, that not only can I do track and field, but I can go out and do track and field and cycling because I put my mind to it and worked as hard as I could and did everything in my power to make both these sports happen for me.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.