Father Time Never Stops, But Freddie De Los Santos’ Love For His Handcycle Keeps Him ‘Untouchable’

How serious is Freddie De Los Santos about his racing?

Very. So much so that when he didn’t make the Team USA roster for the Paralympic Games Paris 2024, after earning a bronze medal in the Tokyo 2020 Games, he briefly considered retiring from handcycling.

Note that was a really brief notion. 

“Why should l stop? I love racing,” De Los Santos said. “So I kept riding my bike, and this year, I sat down with my coach and we changed a few things I was doing last year, and my performance was pretty good.”

That showed in early May when De Los Santos won a pair of bronze medals in his MH5 classification at the road world cup opener in Ostend, Belgium.

The next stop on the tour was two weeks later in Maniago, Italy. A return to the podium in the time trial got derailed by a broken brake cable that forced De Los Santos to withdraw from the race. He came back two days later to secure yet another bronze medal in the road race.

“I pulled out of the (time trial), so I saved the energy for the road race,” he said. “I had the opportunity to work with a teammate, and I was very lucky and fortunate to get the third place. It was a sprint finish.

“That moment, when I was sprinting, I was in full combat mode, 45 seconds of pain, and I really enjoyed it.”

The word “combat” weighs heavily in his love for racing.

“When I jump on the bike, that adrenalin I get from racing is just like being in combat,” said De Los Santos, who is originally from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, but has lived in the U.S. since 1986. “I love the pain. I love to push harder. It’s something that’s hard for me to explain. I don’t feel disabled. It’s like a natural high and I feel untouchable.

“The Team USA jersey, I take that very personal. It’s like going into combat in a friendly environment.”

He’s been in some not-so-friendly environments as a member of the Army, enlisting after 9/11. He was wounded in action in Afghanistan in 2009 and lost his right leg above the knee. 

But at 55 years old, De Los Santos feels like he’s racing better than he did in his 40s. As he gets older, he’s wiser to the ways of resting and taking care of his body.

He can also read other racers’ body language during races. He can tell when and opponent is lagging and when it’s time to attack. That insight only comes with age, but keeping up with his physical strength is crucial as well.

“For me, because of my age, I have to be at the gym three to four times a week, and I do a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of resting,” he said. “Recovery is pretty much everything. During the winter, it’s hard to ride outside, so I do indoor training. Now I ride outside three to four hours a day, five days a week.”

He can do that because he lives in upstate New York, with a 750-mile bike trail near his home. He also goes to training camps twice a year. 

His coach, two-time Paralympian Tom Davis, said that right now De Los Santos is “doing a little bit of everything well.”

“He went to Europe and walked away with three medals,” Davis said. “Road racing and time trials are different disciplines. (Time trials are) short, 20 minutes, all-out effort, and the other is 90 minutes.”

But there is more to De Los Santos than meets the eye. Handcycling is the physical part of his life, but the emotional coping mechanism is his abstract art, of which he has considerable talent.

Managing everything requires the support of his wife, Jeanette, and his two children.

“I love racing, but cycling is my insurance,” he said. “I’m already disabled. If I keep doing this, I want to be in good shape. I don’t want to be sick or overweight. They understand that.

“Through my art, I’m able to communicate what I am feeling,” he added. “What I feel, I want people to see it through my art.”

Davis sees a lot De Los Santos’ art as well.

“I think they are really good, and I don’t care for art at all,” he said. “Knowing him, I can see him in his paintings.”

There is plenty of racing ahead for De Los Santos. Next up is the world championships in Ronse, Belgium, Aug. 28-31. The cool thing about traveling internationally for him is not only the racing, but the opportunity to take videos and pictures of the places he visits, which he incorporates into his art.

Of course, the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 are on the distant horizon, but right now, De Los Santos is taking it one race at a time.

“It’s another three years before L.A., people get faster, people get injured,” he said. “I’m going with how I feel. I’m focusing on the world championships and the world championships next year in the U.S.”

Gregg Voss is a journalist based in the Chicago suburbs who has been writing sports for newspapers and magazines for more than 20 years. He is a freelance contributor to  on behalf of