Medals, world records and a mild concussion
Three weeks off the bike after a crash-induced concussion won’t worry New Zealand’s new world track Para cycling champion Devon Biggs in his Paris Paralympic Games medals quest.
The 20-year-old Waikato rider is returning from the world championships in Rio with four medals – including his first world title.
He also broke three world records – one of them his own – as part of a New Zealand team that produced a record 11-medal haul.
Briggs could have won another gold, but for being the innocent victim in a crash during the elimination race when he was one of the last four riders on the track.
“I was shoulder to shoulder with one of the German riders then he shouldered under me, which lifted my front wheel and my bars turned,’’ he told Stuff from Rio.
“I slammed into the track and hit my head as well. I have a bit of a mild concussion, and he got disqualified for causing the crash, and I got moved up to third.
“Had I not crashed, I felt amazingly confident in myself that I could have won the sprint at the end of the race.’’
Briggs was cleared to fly home despite the head knock. He said he had “just a little bit of drowsiness and fatigue, but nothing too major”.
As a result, he will have an automatic three-week stand-down from training and racing to “rest my head, get my brain sorted and then back into the swing of things. Then we’re back into full training.’’
Briggs won the gold medal and bettered his own world record in the MC 1km time trial after earlier breaking the old world mark in the qualifying stage.
He took silver in the men’s C3 omnium to go with his bronze medals in the MC3-4 elimination exhibition event and the MC3 3km individual pursuit.
He also won the MC3 200m flying start – a non-medal event – in world-record time.
Briggs was delighted with his success in Rio and said it had opened up the opportunity to win a medal at the Paralympics in August and September
“The best of the rest of the world were in Rio racing, so to do what I did, I’m pretty stoked with where I’m at.’’
Briggs was “13 days too young’’ to ride at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. ‘‘You have to be 18 in the calendar year of a Paralympics in order to go.’’
He believes his burgeoning success is due to “maturing as an athlete as well as a human, extra training at the gym, on the road and on the track, and just refining a really good mental process going into racing. And having race maturity as well.”
A big year in 2024 has been the aim for some time. “I ended up having surgery to have a tonsillectomy and septoplasty in November last year just to get my health under control.
“We really wanted to go into this year putting our best foot forward and really smashing it on the track and on the road when the time comes in Paris.’’
Briggs, who was born with club feet, and tried swimming, sailing, hockey, “a little bit of rugby and kendo as well – martial arts – as a boy.
“Then my surgeon told me I wasn’t allowed to do impact sports any more.
That was part of the reason I got into cycling, as a non-weight-bearing, nonimpact sport.’’
Briggs began riding a few months after the velodrome first opened in Cambridge, his home town.
“I started as a recovery exercise and found that it gave me freedom and joy that I’d never experienced before. I got hooked into it, and I’ve been doing it ever since.’’
Briggs hopes the Para cycling team’s success in Rio will inspire other young people to take up the sport.
“That’s a part of the reason why I ride my bike and why I advocate for Para sports in schools and in my community. If I can get one or two kids with disabilities into any sport that they might like or enjoy that would be a huge achievement.’’