The New Zealand Paralympic Team claimed their first medal of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games courtesy of Paralympian #225 Anna Taylor who secured silver in the Women’s C4 3000m Individual Pursuit final.
In the final, Taylor was lapped by Australia’s gold medallist Emily Petricola, but the 33-year-old Para cyclist from Cambridge was rewarded thanks to a brilliant ride in qualification after she sliced more than six seconds from her national record, recording 3:42.137.
Taylor made a scintillating start in the gold medal race blasting out to a sizeable early lead and held a narrow advantage at 1000m. However, Petricola the defending champion who had set a world record of 3:35.856 in the qualification, took control in the second kilometre. Pouring on a relentless pace the Australian caught Taylor around 2500m to signal the end of the race but the Kiwi would not be denied a stunning silver medal.
Taupō-raised Taylor was formerly a non-disabled rower who earned a scholarship in that sport to attend Oregon State University. While in the US she overcome thyroid cancer before later undergoing emergency decompression disc surgery and obtained an Acute Cauda Equina Syndrome – which has caused a weakness in the left leg and minor weakness in the right.
Facing her health challenges since Tokyo 2020 the 33-year-old Cambridge-based athlete said: “To even come back for a second Paralympic Games (is amazing) but then to podium, I am overjoyed. It is unreal, like living a dream.
“The gameplan was to give everything I have to get in the gold medal race, and it was a huge PB. I am glad it worked out that way.
“I am just grateful that all the work I have put in has paid off because that is not always the case. I am glad everything held together. My family being here means everything to me. They’ve supported me regardless, been my champion through some tough and dark times.
“It is very hard to pick yourself back up after you get knocked down many times, although sometimes that is what is life is all about. Just being part of the New Zealand Paralympic Team, I am part of something bigger than any hardware I have got today.”