From Champion Swimmer to Cyclist -- Jody Cundy

 

Story posted March 10

By Larry Hickmott

Since the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004, a lot has changed within Team GB (Cycling) as athletes from other sports have been brought in to go for medals in Beijing and the Games there. This fast tracking of medal prospects has been very successful during the period between Olympics with medals at World Championship level for both our able bodied and disabled athletes.

 

One of those success stories has been Jody Cundy (above) who migrated across to cycling from swimming. At a recent training camp in Newport, I asked the rider who races with a  state of the art false leg does he feel part of the team now. Jody replied “definitely. I have come to feel part of the cycling team now even though I still have my friends in the swimming team. After a few years in the sport, I now feel at home on a bike on the track.”

 

Seeing him wearing the rainbow stripes as he trained, I asked does he feel he made the right decision changing to cycling from swimming? Again, the answer was a resounding ‘definitely’.

The EIS were on hand if Jody needed help during training at Newport recently.

 

“At the time” he goes on to explain “I was a bit dubious about the choices I was about to make. I was good enough to make the Team Sprint team but nothing was proven individually and I was four of five seconds off the Worlds best at the time. But then it took only a short time between my debut and the Worlds to improve and reduce my time and get a World Record. I  haven’t looked back since then.”

 

The big goal though for all our Paralympic athletes is the Games in Beijing which are now less than six months way. How does he feel about his chances there? “I am really positive about Beijing and looking forward to be racing in events during March and May because everything is ahead of the schedule that I was on last year where I had I moved on from the year before that. With that in mind, I’m looking forward to the prospect of going even faster than I have already on the track in Beijing.”

 

Talking about the events he is planning on doing, Jody explains “I am targeting the Kilo where I am the World Champion and World Record holder. Then, depending on selections etc, the Team Sprint as well for which we are the reigning world champions and world record holders in”.

Team Sprint training with Rik Waddon at Newport recently.

 

He admits that considering its Olympic year, he is surprised how quiet it is on the competition front preceding the Games. He’ll have a demonstration event at the UCI Track World Championships in March, the Paralympic World Cup in May which will be the biggest of the hitouts before Beijing and also a Grand Prix in Newport. “Three kilos and then Beijing so not a lot of time or events to experiment in” he adds.

 

Asked does he feel he needs lots of racing before something as big as Beijing? “I do” he replies. “I have been brought up on competition, especially when I was younger and swimming. I’d be racing pretty much every weekend or every other weekend which gave me time to experiment and try different things.”.

 

It isn’t just about his physical training to go faster, or improvements to the bike which the team are working on,  Jody has also been working on getting a hi-tech ‘leg’ to replace the NHS one he started out with when he made the move to riding a bike.

Jody with his NHS leg was still to good for the rest of the world in 2006.

 

“This year especially I have been working on getting a better one made. I started out with my original NHS leg that was coming off when I was doing sprints so I then had a prototype which went straight down into a cleat at the bottom and that worked really and was successful.”

 

“Now this one here (the one he was using at Newport) is the modified version of that. I broke it in testing but you can really feel the difference between this one and the last one. Like when you accelerate, there is  less weight to get moving, probably half the weight of the old one, and that was an improvement on the one before.”

 

Finally, will his time in previous Paralympic Games help him in six months time? “Yes, of course. The Paralympics is a different ballgame and hopefully I can take the experience of being to three already with me to Beijing. Although I have been to the Paralympics in different sports, at the end of the day, competition is competition at Olympic level and you learn to deal with your event and put everything else in the background.”

Jody training hard at Newport recently.

 

Good luck to Jody in the build up to Beijing.

 

RELATED LINKS

February 2008 -- Paralympic Training Camp